After reading the features from CUP Magazine November 2009 Issue 94, I have the following the add to the discussion. I am in agreement with Mr. Chip Tao regarding the failed attempt in driving the Hong Kong's education system in including teaching subject of Liberal Studies or the so-called General Studies (通識教學)
I think placing a label or having a category of its own is already an incorrect approach to the concept of Liberty Studies / General Studies. It is a life long learning process or "life experiences" for a lack of a better word. It is an attitudes towards learning, there are no specific subject areas to teach; the quest to learn has to be self-motivated, knowledge-driven and self-experienced. I know it is lame to say it but it is not about what you have learned, it is about how you are to process / apply what you have learned. General studies to me is "living" or perhaps "the desire to live your life to the fullest."
One of the main sources of knowledge is from the news / newspapers; however many students and youngsters in Hong Kong could not care less about current affairs. Go grab one of Hong Kong's Chinese-based newspapers and there is a high chance you may find the Entertainment related sections to be the thickest and that they are the only sections many youngsters care to read. Again, it is the attitude towards knowledge that has to be changed, forcing the subject of General Studies as part of the school curriculum would change nothing!
How did we come to this? In my opinion, there are many factors in my opinion, the Chinese culture developed over the past few centuries is one major factor and the relatively short-sightedness of the Hong Kong's society (due to its unique history) can be another. I am not going to go into details of the reasons behind it because I am not an expert in social sciences or cultural studies; but what I do know is that we should act fast before our next generation starts to have difficulties in developing logical & independent thinking or even worst, no interest in learning!
I think placing a label or having a category of its own is already an incorrect approach to the concept of Liberty Studies / General Studies. It is a life long learning process or "life experiences" for a lack of a better word. It is an attitudes towards learning, there are no specific subject areas to teach; the quest to learn has to be self-motivated, knowledge-driven and self-experienced. I know it is lame to say it but it is not about what you have learned, it is about how you are to process / apply what you have learned. General studies to me is "living" or perhaps "the desire to live your life to the fullest."
One of the main sources of knowledge is from the news / newspapers; however many students and youngsters in Hong Kong could not care less about current affairs. Go grab one of Hong Kong's Chinese-based newspapers and there is a high chance you may find the Entertainment related sections to be the thickest and that they are the only sections many youngsters care to read. Again, it is the attitude towards knowledge that has to be changed, forcing the subject of General Studies as part of the school curriculum would change nothing!
How did we come to this? In my opinion, there are many factors in my opinion, the Chinese culture developed over the past few centuries is one major factor and the relatively short-sightedness of the Hong Kong's society (due to its unique history) can be another. I am not going to go into details of the reasons behind it because I am not an expert in social sciences or cultural studies; but what I do know is that we should act fast before our next generation starts to have difficulties in developing logical & independent thinking or even worst, no interest in learning!
Cover Page from CUP Magazine
2 comments:
"it is not about what you have learned, it is about how you are to process / apply what you have learned"
"the quest to learn has to be self-motivated... and self-experienced"
resonating with these two lines the most. based on my own expereince, the education i had failed to nurture my interes in learning or i could say it even discouraged if not killed my budding interest becoz of the overwhelming knowledge feeding practice. the lack of critical thinking is probably also the consequence of such practice.
i have been drawn into taoism in the last 1/2 yr or so becoz of some chinese medicine reading. the whole experience is both surprising and enlightening. taoism actually disapproves the accumulation of knowledge thru book reading. "the quest to learn has to be self-motivated... and self-experienced" -- i guess this is also one of the messages in Lao3 Zi3's Dao4 De2 Jing1. i came across a term called unschooling as a home-school practice about 1yr ago. i didnt quite understand it then but seem to see its point now. everything is a trade off. when we are overwhelmed by the knowledge as per others experiences, we tend to compromise our own understanding of the world thru our own intuition. no wonder for "bliss of ignorance" at a time of info explosion. einstein said intuition is the gift from God, reasoning the accompanying servant.
i think the last 100yrs we east have tried too hard to learn from the more progressive west, resulting in marginalizing of much traditional wisdom of our more conservative culture. some people said western dominance is diminishing and the world is going into an asian century. it sounds big headed but the very fact of our own long and continuious history of civilization is a good enough validation of our own survival wisdom as a group, which unfortunately had been much overlooked or even sacrificed in the last couple century. time for a change.
@anonymous: Thanks for dropping by my blog! This is a very heated topic in Hong Kong right now and I have been hearing it discussed on the radio this very afternoon as well. Hong Kong's education system has been too focused on examination and learning has a different meaning in general nowadays.
The objective behind learning (for a lack of a better word for the time being) is no longer the desire to know more things, to search for higher knowledge or to simply gathering the ability to ask questions. Kids, teens and adults nowadays are very ... object / result oriented if it makes any sense at all. Many want to know only as much as they are needed just to get whatever they wanted.
I reckon that with that attitude, it is hard for many to truly value or appreciate the importance life learning. I have to admit that I was once the victim of such a system with similar attitude towards learning. Took me many years to realize how much time I have missed and how much things I have not experienced.
You are quite right that the Chinese culture has survived for some long time that it should be a good validation of our cultural wisdom but it is also the same that withheld us from further exploration and development both in social and cultural perspectives.
Just my 2 cents of course :)
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