Thursday, October 26, 2006
Scenario One:
Earlier this afternoon, while on the bus, I was observing the scenery. Among the scenery, stood Siglap Secondary School. This being the end of the year and all, there's plenty of advertising going on, hence posters like "PSLE Students, come join us!" are aplenty. One of these posters caught my eye: a poster of Hady Mirza, followed by a caption that said "Dreams do come true" or something like that. (The bus was too fast.)
Well, I know it isn't wrong, but it doesn't exactly make much sense either. What were they trying to promote? "Join our school and up your chances of winning Singapore Idol"? Do you suppose more students wanted to get into Anglican High School because it churned out Desmond Koh and Sun Ho?
Not that I'm criticising anything or anyone. I'm just trying to say that there seems to be a missing link in the logic somewhere.
... Hmm, I just thought about it, and one of the few ways for it to make sense is that the school has a culture that encourages you to pursue your dreams. Well, every school should have such a culture. It's just the education system, as usual. Pragmatism is good, but we're almost completely submerged in a culture that teaches us to run the rat race. Most of the time, it's more like, "Follow your dreams only if it pays well or at the very least you earn a decent living and you can pay your taxes".
I'm rambling again. I don't know... There's just a fallacy somewhere. Because, let's say I were a PSLE kid absolutely smitten with Jonathan Leong, I wouldn't be able to get into St. Joseph's Institution, would I?
(He is from SJI, right?)
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Scenario Two:
While searching for some books, I found this ancient storybook called "Festival Fairy Tales". One of the stories inside is the classic favourite "Cinderella", and we all know how it ends. Nevertheless, I shall put down the last paragraph of the story here:
"And it so happened that the Prince married Cinderella and the two of them lived happily ever after. That was the reward Cinderella received for all the sacrifices she made and the hardships she endured with goodness and self-denial."
Self-denial!? What are they trying to teach young children? It's just as well that back then, when I first read this book, I didn't understand what self-denial means. Now it doesn't make sense on another level. Young children wouldn't know the term, so why put it in an innocent storybook?
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Okay, I think I'll go to school now, and see whether the mock GP paper has been marked. Then I'll study a bit and be back home to watch TV.
In a world that doesn't make much sense, I guess I'll just stick to the artificially coloured and sweetened lollipop world of television. And that, doesn't seem to make much sense either, but who cares?
♥ The lights faded at 2:02 pm
