If I could run away to the Ashram and just meditate...

Being an educator (and especially one who specialises in the field of the arts and the humanities), the topic of education, culturedness and graciousness have always been central to my thoughts and reflections on the world that revolves around me. 

My country prides itself to be a very modern and advanced nation. The citizens pride themselves to be highly educated, ingenius beings with the capacity to score "A" grades in almost all subjects, especially Mathematics and the Sciences. 

And yet we need frequent reminders that we shall not litter. Actually we need frequent threats to remind us not to litter. Here, if one is caught littering, one shall be fined and the old Confucian punishment of shaming the individual publicly through the act of Corrective Work Order (i.e. sweeping the floor in the crowded downtown) will be imposed...

 

And yet we need frequent reminders in public transports to give up seats to those who really need them (i.e. the pregnant women, the elderly, the handicapped...etc)...

 

And yet we need frequent reminders to be ceourteous and graceful to fellow human beings through campaigns such as "Kindness Begins with Me" or "Pass it Forward Movement"... Actually if my memory is right, sometime last year, there was even a campaign to get citizens to SMILE more as there was a special world conference held here and we needed badly to give a "good" impression to these foreign visitors...

And yet we need frequent reminders to stop violence on the public bus by not using aggression on bus captains... 

And we call ourselves "educated" and "civilised"? Surely something is not right in our education system. Too much centered on paper-chase and accumulation of mundane awards perhaps? A superficial education that we are focusing on here? 

You see there is something wrong with our education, our mental views of things around us, and our values. We are not treating people right. We treat people only with money and power with utmost respect. We view the caucassions as superior while we discriminate our Asian neighbours ... well, unless they are rich and they speak with some American or British accent. Otherwise the Indonesians and the Filipinos are known only as "maids" and the Thai and Bangladeshi men here are known as only "construction workers". The Chinese from China are known to be "uncivilised" with them speaking so loudly in public places while the Indians from India are known for their "distinct smell". The Malays from Malaysia are known to be lazy (lepak)  drug-addicts, or if not they, together with some Indonesian men, are conveniently labelled as terrorists! 

I, as an educator, have failed terribly. Although I tried so hard to nurture some "human" values in my students, it has little consequence as the societal culture here is too overwhelming. Day after day, I start questioning on my role as an educator and whether I should continue to be one. A lot of time, I find bliss in travelling to the so-called "Third-World Countries", where the people are said to be poor and with no or little education but interestingly, they seem to be more "human" with more interesting characters when compared to my fellow citizens. Things are simpler. People are less arrogant. Stress level is lower and who cares about Gross Domestic Product when in another country, they measure national development through Gross National Happiness?  

So what prompted this long post? Of course the fact that my long weekend has been dampened by students who are spoilt and in my view "non-intelligent" and of course, an ugly, rude and unreasonable parent. If only I could run away from all these to an Ashram in India and do some yoga and meditation to clear this angst and negative vibe from me. Unfortunately I can't. So I shall just drink some caffeine, chill and read an entertaining book by Lucy Edge (a travel writer) called "Yoga School Droupout" while school reopens tomorrow. Adieu readers.