I wanted to make some caramel apple galettes today, but I decided I'll be a good girl and refrain myself from baking until next Friday. Wish me luck!!! 

Before our paper 2 of Chinese started, I was talking with a couple of friends while eating mac and cheese (yes I eat a lot). Everyone was complaining about school. 

It's this thing about Singapore's education system that makes us so unhappy. 

Take Chinese-

I'm not bad at Chinese- at least my Chinese used to be my best subject in primary school. If you write Chinese essays in Singapore, you would be familiar with things like 应用文 and 报章报道, where we express our thoughts on national and global issues and give suggestions for improvement on policies and ideas. Which is great- learning to express thoughts and feelings and give feedback is necessary for the new generation of youths. 

But our teachers tell us all the time- if you want to score, answer it this way. Say you agree with the government's polices and that it will be effective. If you want to do well, write it that way. Because the examiners in the national exams are from the ministry - you can't attack their policies. 

But the truth is, we don't always agree to every policy. What if we have our own thoughts that we want to express but we can't because we want to score and the people who mark our papers want to see that answer because it is "morally and ethically correct". What if we have different things we want to say and what if we feel differently about the things? Are we all just writing it that way because that is what everyone else does? Are we just faking our way through exams, putting down the thoughts we don't really feel at all for the sake for getting that A? 

Are we really learning or are we simply learning for the sake of learning? 

But do we really want our kids and the generations after us to grow up thinking that - I must think I in this way because this is what everyone else does and this is what will me the grades? 

No, definetly not.