when i decided to visit my grandma and stay overnight at her place so that my dad can just rest at home, and spend the most half of a pouring afternoon to watch the tv with her.

It has been long i must say; i had mostly given up all hope entirely on watching any tv shows made by channel 8 mediacorp. most of it are really unwatchable, and for most part, there’s just the screaming and the fighting which really irks me. But this was an old repeat of one that i didnt see before. It was this show named “书包太重 ”; another drama about kids suffering under the pressure of our education system today. Although cliche, i did notice the fact that regardless of the theme, the quality of the script by and large is actually much better than any other channel 8 shows ive seen for the past decade. I mean, i could easily relate to the sadness of the kids, as well as the nervous nature of the parents.

But during the progress of the show, i was suddenly alarmed at how the show hit a chord in my nerve harder than the incoming breeze did on my face. If Singaporeans can write a show revolving about the sadness of children in our society today much better than almost any other topic on hand, then isnt this one of the most important problem our country on the whole should tackle? Shrouded under this viel of meritocracy, has children possessing other talents other than books here deemed as good as getting the shorter end of the stick?

Talking to my good friends during university has by and large proved this point. Its so important getting good results here that the majority of us deem it unrealistic to pursue other dreams such as sports or art or design where we might actually do better. But think about it: If genetic facts are staring at us in our face, and its true that people do have varying learning capabitilies and aptitude, then it is actually unrealistic to continue to only pursue our education! If so, arent the majority of us already putting ourselves at the disadvantage right from the start? Instead of failing to work as hard to achieve the minimal scale of defined success, have we shortchanged ourselves into losing the pinnacle of achievement?

While saying that, i do know for a fact that i have been raised conservative no matter how much risks ive tried to mentally pressure myself to take once a while in my own life. Maybe just maybe, while i couldnt escape the lure of playing it safe by making sure that i had at least graduated with honors, i can do it differently for my kids next time. Probably then, it wouldnt be actually a dream for me to be travelling all around the world if my kids were to get uber-successful with their personal talents. I mean hey, its just genetics…