Archive for November, 2005
29 November 2005
Ambition
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Uncategorized.
“All that we call human history - money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery - is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
C.S. Lewis
Detractors sometimes accuse homeschoolers of abandoning convention for fear of losing out. Homeschooling parents want so badly for their kids to be No. 1 their competitive streak is symptomatic of an adult kiasu* mindset, so they say. They insist that these same parents have turned their homes into a hothouse and their children into trophies to show off.
Yet few parents, if any, expect nothing but the best from their children and that is not necessarily a bad impulse. I happen to believe that they are poor parents who do not encourage their children to aim higher or do better when they have the means and resource to do so. It is a great disservice when we are too easily pleased, delight in low expectations, and excuse mediocrity as spiritual contentment. No parent ought to stand for laziness, and neither does our heavenly Father.
But ambitious children may be shortchanged if we do not also teach them that capabilities or qualifications by themselves do not translate into more usefulness. The Bible records individuals whose ambitions were thwarted (by conflict, injustice or moral failure) although that did not stop God’s will from being done. It goes against the grain of common understanding but Paul reminds us that the foolish, the weak and humble, remain God’s favourite subjects to further His greater glory, for their boast would not lie in their abilities but God’s enablement (1 Cor 1:27-31).
It pays therefore to remember that the desire to excel, like all other passions of the flesh, is similarly tainted by the Fall, making it a vehicle that either draws a person towards God or away from Him. Ambition becomes selfish when we define ourselves according to achievements instead of character, or when our sense of worth is tied to a pat on the back or a framed certificate on the wall. So Paul’s letter to the Galatians warns against selfish ambition, which is another way of saying that neither ambition nor its attainment is to be sought as an end in itself (5:20).
John Sung (1901-44) on repenting of his backsliding threw his diplomas and awards (he had 3 academic degrees) into the sea and became one of the greatest evangelists China had ever known in the last century. Like Paul before him, he counted all his achievements as a liability compared to the greatness of knowing Jesus.
The lesson here is not that ambition or the pursuit of excellence are incompatible with being a Christian, but that they need to be redeemed and placed under the lordship of Christ if they are to mean anything. It starts with recognizing that we are no longer our own. We belong to our Creator; our gifts and potential are a trust whose use their Giver will hold us accountable. It’s not that we have arrived - how well we run the race matters just as much. At the finishing line, the ultimate honour is hearing God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
* local Hokkien dialect meaning,”afraid to lose”
29 November 2005
The Lessons Fathers Teach
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Uncategorized.
As long as a father lives responsibly, work hard, put food on the table, make time for church, he is deemed to have done his part. He hopes however that his diligence, work ethic, and commitment to provide and protect will impress his children to do right in the future.
Yet if fathers hope to raise children who live God-honouring lives,they will need to do more than impress their children. To do that a father has to intentionally and purposefully direct, instruct, and mentor his children (Eph 6:14), in ways that say who his Lord is and where his heart is set. Exercising this kind of influence is what spiritual leadership is about.
At some point every child must be helped to recognize that Jesus is Lord of all or He’s not Lord at all, and that living like Jesus is right and worthwhile. There is nothing easy in such an enterprise, but ready or not, our children are already taking their cues from our life and attitudes. When our 13-year old Elliot told me his dad was supposed to represent the kind of man he hopes to be one day, I think my heart skipped a beat. Of all the things unsaid about fatherhood, the one that we avoid is that which begs the question: how would you like your child to mirror the person you are today?
I find the notion rather unsettling because children in particular are better at doing what we habitually do instead of what we usually tell them to do (i.e., “do what I say, not what I do”). They consciously or unconsciously pick up cues from our lifestyle and attribute significance to our choices, and just as surely take after our indifference – neglect that the early church fathers rightly call ‘sins of omission.’
The Bible assumes leadership of fathers at home and assigns responsibilities that cover body and soul. Fathers who homeschool because they want to do right by their children will have to think hard about the shape of their leadership, because fathers lead – even when they aren’t leading. Children live what they learn. Sometimes the lessons they learn are the ones we fail to teach.
By David BC Tan
10 November 2005
Unintended consequences?
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Uncategorized.
AB Sulaiman makes a no-holds barred commentary on the state of education in Malaysia following our local universities’ slide in international ranking. His frank and painful analysis leads him to admit that the unintended consequences of social engineering in the country is the 800-pound gorilla in the way of progress.
The unintended consequences are dire: teachers teach only whatever is necessary and become mediocre in their performance, and students do not shine because they do not see any further than the need to pass an exam. They seem to be taught thus: “This is how I want you to think. This is the book you can read. Those are books you cannot read.” Do not talk about achievement motivation and striving for excellence to the students when they are taught only to conform and to the protection of the status quo.
Teachers and students alike are reduced to conformists. Teachers have to conform to the wishes of the university management only in order not to jeopardize their career prospects. Students on the same token have to behave to help ensure their studies are not interrupted by dismissals. Teachers lecture in order to guarantee their monthly salary, and students study just to pass an exam and get a degree.
What has caused the country to lead to the development of these negative features in the UM? Who is accountable for this entire fiasco?
10 November 2005
Out-of-job grads
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Uncategorized.
As if Malaysia’s education system is not in a bad enough shape, here’s more bad news. Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr Fong Chan Onn said the week-long census carried out by the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department uncovered 59,250 graduates looking for jobs.
The New Straits Times reported Dr Fong saying 81 per cent of those jobless had attended public universities and that the three main reasons the graduates cited for not getting jobs were:
- No job experience (49.7%)
- Poor command of the English language and lacking in communication skills (33.3 per cent)
- The courses they took in universities were not relevant to jobs available in the market (32.2%).
Another report in the Star had this to add about unemployed graduates:
- They want only the easy jobs
- They think they should not be inconvenienced by their work
- They do not have social skills
- They are just not hungry enough
It appears one reason for their poor attitude is due to over-protective parents who spoilt junior rotten by not giving him or her responsibilities at home. Of course there’s the over emphasis on scoring A’s, and excessive tuition, but I can almost hear parents complain that it’s the system that’s to blame. There’s this confusion and parents can’t tell schooling from education, and pity the kid who has to pay for the misapprehension. Something’s seriously amiss with education in the country and it’s a blight that’s tainted schools from primary to university levels.
A recent survey in the World Universities Rankings compiled by Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) revealed that Malaysia’s premier university Universiti Malaya (UM) fell sharply from 89th place in 2004 to 169th place this year. That’s an 80-place plunge. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) was in 111th place last year but this year it has been unceremoniously dropped from the Top 200 bracket. Poor show all round.
It’s a situation that should have invited soul-searching but not for university administrators at UM. UM vice-chancellor Hashim Yaacob instead made a boast of its Top 200 placing in a farcical display during a press interview. He was quoted in a local daily that although UM may have slipped in its ranking, it nevertheless is better than some 30,000 major institutions around the world, having made it to the Top 200! En. Hashim expressed “great happiness” that it even did better than last year (!) since UM made it to the top 100 in three sectors. That’s an educator speaking here. What’s more appalling, billboards (see pix) celebrating UM’s ‘achievements’ have appeared in the face of public criticism and even agitation for the smug vice-chancellor’s removal. There’s something comical about the whole business, but few people are laughing.
Across the causeway, Singapore’s national university took a tumble too, from 18 to 22nd place. That’s cause for a ruckus for anyone who has any sense of pride in their public institutions, although 4 places down is nothing compared to UM’s abysmal drop. Curiously, someone wrote to the Straits Times online wondering if the slip may be attributed to insufficient ‘branding.’ You know, wrong perception of strengths and leadership, etc. Now isn’t that something?
I don’t want to go into an “I-told-you-so” slanging match but what’s happened can only be a sort of vindication for homeschoolers. You won’t believe how many people have asked if by homeschooling, our two boys would be able to find a place in local universities. Do you think they will see the light now?