Everyone agrees that
education is Singapore’s salvation and we are on a high platform of educational
achievement ready to take off to greater heights. Building on this, the Super
School concept was proposed by a group of professionals and educators; an
architect, a lawyer, two economists, an entrepreneur and a retired ex principal
and MOE director. A working paper was presented at the Institute of Policy
Studies of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy on 24th April
2014. Over 40 people from diverse backgrounds came, there was vigorous
discussion and a broad consensus was arrived at.
The Concept of the
Super School links academic learning with life experience through
“learning-in-place”. This is the long term plan for schools to be co-located
and integrated into vibrant community spaces. It will take a long time to
achieve this. Meanwhile, we start with Super School Field Camps located in
information-rich locations. At such camps students get to learn from the
environment facilitated by tutors
guiding them in self-initiated investigation of aspects of the location students
are interested in. The Field Camps will be in tents with proper toilet and bath
facilities. There will be on-line information accessible by tablet and smart
phones. The output of the student teams will be photo-essays or videos telling in
a creative way the story of what they have discovered. These will be uploaded
and good stories will be published in print media. This promotes the joy of
learning.
There will have to be
over 200 such camps all over Singapore if the SSFCs are to eventually cater to every student three times a year in
3day 2 night camps. These camps will eventually be the foundation of the
generalized Super School system - i.e. smart academic work combined with life
skills! They are low on infrastructure cost but high in educational value.
The first camp will be
in Chinatown on the roof top of People’s Park Complex kindly made available by
the owner who enthusiastically embraces the educational camp idea. There will
be a detailed program of activities with clearly defined learning objectives.
The camp will be conducted by experienced educators. 20 students for this first
camp will come from Siglap Secondary School. They will be a mix gender group
consisting of express, normal acad and normal tech students. It will be both a learning experience for the
students and for the facilitators. The entire camp will be video documented for
analysis and record. Developed further through at least three other such camps
over the next year the experience gained will serve as the template for the
future proliferation of such Super School Field Camps all over the island.
The next camps could
be in Little India, Kampung Glam, Sungei Buloh, Pulau Ubin, Marina Bay, Gardens
by the Bay, Singapore River, Waterloo Street, Bukit Timah reserve, the Zoo; the
Bird Park etc. the list is long and the educational possibilities enormously
rich and varied!
The learning journey starts
with recognizing one’s own capabilities and tendencies. Here adults can help. So
starting with capability and competencies. These are the foundations of confidence.
Once capabilities are recognised, the child gains courage which underpins and sustains
natural curiosity; the ability to ask hard and puzzling questions and be
creative. Creativity thus naturally kindled added with empathy makes a good and
effective person. Added the 7Cs together, collaborative ability becomes
natural. And thus, the natural competitive and anxious character of individuals
is thus transformed to become positive attributes of an educated person. This
is what education is truly about!
COME;
JOIN THE SUPER SCHOOL MOVEMENT IN PIONEERING THE FUTURE!
ON THE
TRAJECTORY OF WHOLISTIC LEARNING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Education is to bring
out the capabilities of the individual rather than only to input knowledge. This
perspective is central to the ambition of humanizing education for
everyone. This is the core concept in
the Super School idea.
When we observe little
babies grow, we see the expression of the innate will to achieve self control through
attaining bodily competence first in turning over, then in crawling then in
walking and finally running, throwing, catching, tumbling and jumping. These are
all biologically selected propensities imbued by nature.
From this we can see
that the beginning of an individual’s confidence is through attaining physical
competence and control. As such competencies
increase through interacting with environmental challenges and social demands,
and if success is experienced more than failures, courage comes about. Courage
is the self-believe that one can overcome difficulties. The greater the
confidence and courage the greater the ability to face challenges. This is the basis
of successful living and of life-long wish to learn and to be ready to tackle
any challenge that may come along. Thus the process of attaining such a state
is first to develop physical courage then intellectual courage and finally moral
courage.
Physical courage is
attained through mastering bodily movement, coordination and extension. This is
foundational. Some will take this capability to extreme capabilities many will
attain a working level of competence. This depends on choice, innate capability,
inspiration, training and challenge.
Intellectual courage
follows from the confidence attained through physical courage but is not
limited to or by it. A certain level of physical ability is necessary. Many
intellectually high achievers may be physically clumsy. Intellectual space is
nevertheless characterized as having a sort of mental athleticism in the form
of its agility, flexibility and elegance of movement.
Moral integrity and
ethical courage are the highest levels of intellectual attainment. This is
attained when knowledge is so comprehensive that it extends beyond calculated
self –interest to encompass compassion and empathy. At this stage of
attainment, the individual can be said to have become fully educated – a whole
human being!
