"In order for success, you first need to fail"

To me, learning and education is essential to a betterment of oneself. When I think of education, an image of a child being fascinated at his surroundings which spurs him on to take the initiative to find out more about his environment and how these individual parts affect him as a whole pops up in my mind. However, I understand that education in its literal sense may not always be as ideal as the above scenario. But however different the methods we use to educate others, especially the young, shouldn't the original purpose still remain?

I happened to have a conversation with my youngest brother today, which brings me to the point of why I decided to write such a post. I have always felt that the local education system is somewhat stifling. Sure, before we reach a decade old, most of us already have a basic foundation of English, Mathematics, Mother Tongue. These days, so many enrichment programmes are available out there for children as young as 2 years old to learn critical thinking skills and even non-academic talents (piano, art etc). Children are educated and are fully literate with a huge database of knowledge in their brains. They are adept at listening, at spelling, at learning how to solve equations and problems sums, they are active mentally and physically. Most of them have a wide range of resources and reading materials for their personal enrichment outside of school as well. With all of these information available to them, shouldn't they be able to be more discerning and street-smart when it comes to knowing and adapting to their world more?

My brother just received his examination results today, and when I asked him about them, he responded that his Chinese Language exam did not go so well. He scored 65% for this particular examination paper, and this is pretty average (I did much worse than him when I was his age, I admit). Yet, he burst into tears and launched into a complaint of how he felt that he did really 'badly' and he wasn't as good enough as his peers. My brother has always been excellent in academics since Day One, even scoring a full 100% on his Mathematics examination sometime last year. Probably that was why he felt disappointed this time round because he did not do as well. Furthermore, his Mother Tongue has always been a weaker subject, so I can completely understand. It didn't seem like a big issue to me at all, until he went on about his performance for other subjects. 

"I scored 86% for my Mathematics paper."

"Wow, that's great! That's like an A+ right?"

"No, I'm so dumb, more than half of my classmates scored above 90% this time, I'm not up to standard."

"You're far from dumb, what about all your other papers before, when you did so well?"

"That was last time, but what matters now is that I'm not as good as everybody else. They are improving, I am not."

"But what matters is you improved overall, and at least you are adding to your knowledge day by day, right?"

"What matters is my grades, they are my future, they are what's important."

SAY WHAT? I was pretty speechless by the end of our conversation. I really don't know what to say anymore. Grades are all that matters in the pursuit of education? Who the hell drilled that into his head at such a young age? It is one thing to be ambitious because you want to improve, it is completely another matter if grades are all you care about, and NOTHING else. My brother pretty much sounded like his obsession was focused purely on his results, and how he was 'stupid' because he couldn't get 'at least 90%'. I mean come on, honestly? Is this the kind of lessons we want to teach our young? To be result-oriented if not you will fail in life and have a bleak future? That's totally the opposite of what learning is about, in my opinion. And I felt SO disappointed when I heard my own brother utter those words, because he is a pupil of brilliance and has one of the quickest and bright brains of the kids that I know. Is this what education is all about to him? 

I am not saying that the education system sucks. I acknowledge the fact that they are trying to introduce reforms to make learning more flexible and fun for the kids, and yes these changes take time and benefits can only be seen in the long-term. However, is society so focused on just the results that the process is forgotten? If that's the case, which it pretty much seems so, then maybe everyone of us needs to stop and rethink what image exactly are we painting for the future generation. Teachers, parents, siblings, relatives, even as members of the public, I think that everyone has a role to play to preserve the true meaning of education, not turn it into some materialistic investment just so we can be 'successful' in life. Is the idea of success just a material achievement then? To earn lots of money and shift into a big house with a big car and then continue to earn more big bucks? I don't think so. I've seen so many kids that are raised to be so afraid to fail, they grow up completely not knowing what failure is. But without failure, how do you climb up the ladder to be successful? If you don't wanna chop down a tree out of fear that it might fall on you, how do you build up a house with your bare hands?

Where is the balance in the picture? I don't know how I am going to change my brother's skewed perception, but I'm gonna do whatever it takes. Still mega shocked hearing his words. Sigh. 

Disclaimer: This blogpost is purely based on my experience and they are my opinions and mine only. It is not a criticism of any particular institutions or people. I really feel quite strongly about this issue, and all I'm trying to put across is that I think mindsets need to be changed, myself included. If I have offended anybody with whatever I have written, I apologize. No hard feelings ya? (: