I always tell people that real education for me occurred only when I was in my second year in the University. Now that was the place where I intensified my study in the History Department - where I was, by God’s will, “found” and properly guided by my American Professor, the bald-head man who specializes in the history of religions in China and Japan.
I know what’s on your mind… what a late-bloomer right?
Actually no. At the very least I thought that I was indeed lucky to have found the real value of education. I know many out there who have not, despite the impressive grades and awards they have acquired. I remember that despite performing very well for my Cambridge examination, resulting in me being awarded a scholarship upon entering the University, a part of me felt that the kind of education that I have had prior to that was superficial and inconsequential. It was education never a doubt but it was one gained as a result of a lot of thinking solely with the use of the brain. But the result is an automaton-like human being – unfeeling, lacking in identity and character, concerned only on the end-effect, mundane, uninspiring and sadly, worthless.
Under the supervision of my professor, writing an essay is not about the need to score an A-grade. I became more in tune with my inner self, more reflective and more involved in the subject content. My writings took a change as I saw the need to be somewhat like the “voice” of the oppressed, of the subaltern, the people at the ground. History changed – from that of stories and perspectives of the well-known and the people of power (and usually men) to stories and perspectives of the ordinary folks, the powerless and often than not, women. Writing for women is undeniably an emotional subject for me, especially based on my own experience having to fight for my own education despite the family convention imposed on me that the place of a woman is that at home and in the kitchen. And I remembered vividly that essays after essays, words just spewed out uncontrollably on the paper – but not so much the result of brain processes but mainly because I was feeling too much and I committed all emotions to the subject content. It was then that I realized that in thinking with the heart, I began developing an opinion, my own voice and most importantly, a passion that I would commit myself into. All these consequently led me to a research in a village community in Malacca as published online at my professor’s website http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/histdd/notes/malaysia.html . The paper has also been mentioned in a book recently published in 2009 by Paul Katz (a passionate academia whom I respected although I’ve never seen him before) entitled “Divine Justice: Religion and the Development of Chinese Legal Culture”.
I enjoyed and relished the true meaning of education. It was free flow and has meanings. However as an educator, I can’t help but contrast what I’ve experienced to what I see much today. Look around you and you’ll see students studying too much. They mumbled eccentrically to themselves at the train station, on the bus, even while crossing the road trying so hard to memorize the information in their textbooks hoping that all these will help in answering the questions for the exams. I swear if they could all burn their books/ notes into ashes and stir them into a glass of water and drink them all up (just like how one would to a Chinese paper amulet) just so as to help retain information, I am pretty sure all these students would do exactly that without thinking twice. Stupid and eccentric as it would sound, I would even think that the parents and the schools would probably help them in doing something as eccentric as I had mentioned earlier. Education turned meaningless. Students merely studied…oops memorized would be a better word… to get the perfect grade so as to get into a supposedly perfect school, which would consequently result in them getting a supposedly perfect job which pays them a perfectly hefty sum. It becomes a selfish endeavor, stripped off any positive principles. So today, if you end up at a workplace and suddenly you are confronted with office politics, I would say that’s not surprising given the kind of superficial education that most have been exposed to. The end result of today’s rigid education – I say breeding another generation of political animals who scheme and well, thinking only with the brains, completely detached of the Heart.
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