浪费时间

时光就像一条奔腾的河流，我不能再浪费时间了

All schools are good schools, but that doesn't mean all schools are equally good.

All Schools are good schools.

It is important to ensure that all schools are good schools. I quote:

• A good school cares for its students, studying and knowing the needs, interests and strengths of her students and motivates them to learn and grow.
• A good school ensures all students acquire strong fundamentals of literacy and numeracy and develops them holistically, in character, knowledge and critical competencies.
• A good school creates a positive school experience for each student, making him a confident and lifelong learner.
• A good school has caring and competent teachers who are steadfast in their mission to impact lives.
• A good school has the support of parents and the community, working together to bring out the best in our children, and
• A good school cares for and provides opportunities to all students, regardless of family circumstances.

This is a good list of what good schools should be. But as I have noticed, the recent debates on education regarding this "All schools are good schools" notion has been targeted at the presence of "elite schools". And I feel that that is not the point of mission/goal by the ministry. I think many people have missed the point. The Ministry clearly aren't saying "All schools are equally good". 

To say that all schools are good is to say that all schools fulfil a certain criteria for being a good school, such achieving those points mentioned. That is to say, all schools in singapore should provide a good education of a certain standard. That in itself is probably the goal of education ministry. Every country wants all their schools to consistently provide education of high quality, and of course we expect that quality to improve over time. So how can this be achieved? We probably need to provide more resources and assistance to schools which are not performing as well. More importantly, we need to identify the reasons why they are not doing as well, (teachers, students, administration) and address them appropriately with the resources we have. For instance, (just as a preliminary idea), we could encourage senior teachers who have had broad teaching experience to teach in these under-performing schools. Or, gather such a group and let them visit these schools on a regular basis to offer advice. Therefore, the ministry's goal of having all schools become good schools should be an attempt to help the not-so-good schools raise their standard.

This is where the misunderstanding arises. To raise all schools to a certain standard does not mean that all schools will become equally good. As long as each school is above that standard of a "good school", they each school will be free to excel in its own ways. Therefore, some schools will be better, but all schools are still good schools. Who says that for all to be good, they must be equally good? 

I can give you an analogy. All teachers are qualified. This statement implies that all teachers are good enough to teach. But does that mean that they are equally good? Of course not! All students are good. Does that mean they will do equally well in exams? So does this become a debate on elite schools? Well, because people are dissatisfied.

"They" (people who have brought in "elite schools" into the discussion and criticised them) claim that these elite schools breed elitism and whatnot, which is bad. But hey, essentially, elite schools exist because they perform well in the criteria that we have for "a good education". Though some may argue otherwise, this is to a large extent very true. Elite schools tend to have more resources, and thus their students can explore academics to a greater depth and also have more opportunities to excel in their CCAs.  

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(I shall continue with this some other time)

我，I，Ich

我总觉的我是个很奇怪的人，总是在乎一些虚幻的东西。

我从来不喜欢给自己拍照。我更喜欢拍一些自然的景色.

Ich mag nicht mein Gesicht.

But I will film my class everyday, to record those moments which I fear I will forget, but dearly miss.

Why did I use the "But"?

Here are some questions that I have always wondered about: (从小，想不起是什么时候开始思考这些问题，但是应该是很早很早）

1. 人死后去哪儿？
2. 人生的意义是？
3.我是谁？
4.上帝存在吗？

第一个问题的答案倒无所谓，如果我知道就说明我死后意识还在。希望如此吧。
第二个问题的答案，随着年龄的增长，有过很多不同的想法。但是我如今感到很迷茫。
第三个问题-我并不了解自己。不了解自己的人能了解别人吗？
第四个问题-God is not a single entity. It is all existence and meaning. I am part of it, just like how I am part of Nature. I am an intelligent part of Nature that is trying out to find the meaning of Nature itself. 我终于明白我为什么用存在命名此博客。因为我想了解我的存在，和包含我的存在的存在。

我对自己承诺，长大后不会低估孩子的独立思考能力。

About Jobs and other stuff

Today I heard a discussion that students should be inspired to have curiousity about subjects and teachers should cultivate interest in them. I also heard that students should be exposed to the possible job placements at an early to let them decide on "who they want to be".

Here is my opinion:

Firstly, I think the purpose of education is to broaden and deepen perspectives. What I mean is that interests and curiousity are more innate than we think, and therefore it seems like a weird idea to me that schools are meant to cultivate interests. I think, schools are meant to show us the broad spectrum of possibilities we have for learning, and a "holistic education" is one where students have opportunity to deepen their exploration in subjects they like, but ensuring that they do not neglect subjects commonly viewed as "necessary". This means that any student, should know a bit of science, math, languages and the humanities. I think many students are unaware that engaging in many disciplines of academics is perhaps the only way they will broaden their modes of thinking.

I am also concerned about how there is this perception that we should correlate jobs to the fields we want to study. "Study" should be for learning, and learning is an exploration of curiousity. The areas of knowledge we have are to be expanded, and learning is the process of acquiring information we know and creating new ventures. Jobs are important, but if practical value was always placed as the top priority for learning, then really, how are we going to make great progress.

I want to become a technopreneur because I am passionate in science, and I love the idea of being able to invent innovative gadgets that will benefit the lives of others. My passion in science is something innate, my curiousity is something innate.

Somehow, I just feel that the only way to live a fulfilling life is if we live for meaning that is for ourselves, and independent of any external perception.

(I'm sorry if I sound very incoherent, or if my points sound stupid.) The thing is, I just try to follow a stream of consciousness, I just try to follow what my mind thinks of and just write, without trying to over think about the way it should be expressed.

Ideas and language. Is the Sapir-Wolf Hypothesis true?

I am inefficient, I am lazy, 心不正。
But that will change, yes it will,ich werde besser!

There is definitely a need to write down stuff everything. I really can't remember now what was the "speech I read" and "something urgent". Anyway, let me talk about this interesting TED talk about desertification.

This guy called Allan Savory is some kind of biologist/ environment researcher. His initial idea about the reason for desertification seems rather common sense- overgrazing by livestock. Hence, he proposed to kill elephants in Kenya over a period of time in order to slow down the rate of desertification. Many other researchers looked into his study and agreed with his conclusion. However, the result was an worsening rate of desertification. He then decided that he shall devote his life to finding the solution to desertification.

At this point of the talk, I was really curious to know about the solution he would propose. My perception of desertification is really common sense, as he proposed, that one of the major causes is by livestock. Could he provide a counter-intuitive solution?

The solution was rather counter-intuitive. And a brief internet search showed that his method of "holistic management" has been criticised for having failed to find scientific support. The idea is to systematically introduce livestock into an area of grassland to be restored. As these livestock move, trample the ground and excrete their manure, a process similar to the large scale migrations of animals over grassland is achieved. With this systematic approach, the soil and plants in that area of land can decompose naturally, and the soil becomes more fertile in the next cycle. Well this is the basic idea and obviously I haven't thoroughly understood the ecology behind it. However, he showed many photographs showing how much grassland he has restored. Of course, I should not just judge the success of his method by the photos, but it really seemed to be an effective method. (oh gosh I've just taken medicine and I really need to sleep now....)
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Okay!!! I can finally continue!

There are two reasons why I was impressed by his speech. My understanding/perception of desertification was challenged, the common sense understanding is poor. He was able to challenge his own thinking to find a solution.

To be challenged, and to challenge one self. I think that will lead to progress.
(oh damn, suddenly I'm not feeling the drive)

You've got to be more efficient man. Finish Physics, start on German and EE tomorrow please!!!

Later I will be reflecting on the TED talk I just watched, a speech I read and something urgent.

Later I will be reflecting on the TED talk I just watched, a speech I read and something urgent.

So many things to do, and I'm still slacking...... 集思广益，持之以恒！！！

A Reflection

I always like to set goals and make plans, but I have never completed any of my plans. Is it because I don't persevere? Just like how I always wanted to start a diary, tried multiple times but failed. I've subscribed to 2 courses in Coursera, it's a great website. But I didn't manage to finish my first course on python, so I really hope I can succeed in finishing these 2 courses. I'll probably use such MOOCs during NS as a way to prevent my intellect from becoming dull. There are many things I want to write about, but some I would like to keep to myself.

I was a good writer, I think. Well, I think people will laugh at me if I said that I used to write good compositions in primary school. But during that time, I could feel an impulse to write and that impulse sustained throughout my writing. “灵感” is what it's called. I could let my imagination run wild and just write. But after almost 6 years of writing argumentative and expository essays, I feel like I can no longer show my creativity in writing, which is rather sad. My favourite piece of writing was a short story on a frog called 蛙, it's pretty interesting how the chinese nobel literature prize laureate Mo Yan has a book called 蛙. (I should probably read the book soon). So the purpose for me to write now, is to retrace that “灵感”, and be able to write a story as imaginative as the one I wrote many years back.

I have many other things to do right now, I 'll come back and write more later. 

First Day

I have always wanted to write a diary. I have tried multiple times but failed. Instead, I will use this blog to reflect on the things that happen each day.