The aims of GP emphasised by teachers...

I'm sure all the JC students will take a new subject that they will either love or hate. This wonderful subject is known as General Paper, or more affectionately known as GP to many of us.

As you can see by now, this post is going to be a rant/constructive argument on the subject known as GP. (Thanks piaroh for classifying my blog's argument as partial rant)

GP is one of the few subjects that I had looked forward to when I was in secondary school. The reason why I was looking forward to it was due to the fact that I found English lessons in secondary school to be too restrictive when it comes to writing about various issues and social studies to be too politically-correct. GP seems like a beacon of light in a dark tunnel which provides us, students, with a chance to express our own views and opinions on a wide variety of issues that affect our daily lives...

After entering JC and taking GP however, you could say that this "dream" about GP for me has been shattered by a 15 ton hammer, pounded into dust and left to be blown away by the wind into nothingness...

As a GP student, I find myself not evaluating and commenting on what is happening in the world around us, but more on trivial details such as "how to answer this type of question?" and "how to write an essay based on some topic that will not really concern me..."
Is this GP?

What are the aims of GP? The aim of GP is to
a) Create an awareness in students of the world around us
b) Look at the situations objectively
c) Think critically about these issues

Are these aims fulfilled? As far as I can see, this is not that aims of GP that my teacher believes in. Apparently, it is this set of aims:
a) Methods to answer a question
b) Get an A for GP at the A levels
c) Discussion of issues based on strict adherence to the syllables

Why do I say that the teacher has adopted the above set of pseudo aim for GP? Pseudo aims that will not result in imparting of skills to the students that are learning it.

Firstly, we spend more then 90% of our lessons on how to answer questions in the GP exams. Sure, this is a good thing, through constantly going on on how to answer questions in the exam, we would definitely score well for the GP exams. What happens is that we spend each lesson staring at the teacher as she drone on and on on how to answer the question. "You cannot do this...."

Sure we can score well, but I ask how is that going to help us? Through knowing how to answer question, is it true that we will thus learn how to think objectively? What would happen when we go out to the real world? Is everyone going to answer question put to them about current issues in exactly the same way? Is our training now of answering questions sufficient for future events, when all we focus on is answering questions in a fixed set of way?

Face it, questions given in a GP exam would most probably never ever come up again in real life. Just knowing how to answer the questions would probably not do you any good. As society changes, current issues changes as well. The Internet may no longer be a menace in the future to quote an example, but are we still going to say that because we only learnt how to answer questions in a fixed sort of way?

Secondly, through all these discussions on how to answer questions, our GP teacher seem to be only aiming to make sure that all of us get an A for A level and that's that. Then what's the point of me studying GP when it will become a useless subject because we do not learn the skills that are being emphasised in GP? We become a generation of Singaporeans that are only capable of answering fixed sets of question about current issues 10 years ago by the time we step out to work. Isn't that sad?

Thirdly, there is a freaking strict adherence to the GP syllables. Our GP syllables do cover a lot of aspects in our society, but what happens is that the only thing that the teacher does is that she goes on and on on how to answer questions from each topic. Ask yourself, how is that going to help you?

Primary aim of GP: To allow students to think objectively about issues surrounding us. If we don't even go into discussion on the issues surrounding us, how are we going to ever ACHIEVE that?! Through discussion on issues that are already researched for a long long time and which already have a logical conclusion? Oh, WOW!! Internet is a menace, has always been a menace, menace menace menace. Is there any objective thinking available in discussing about whether Internet is a menace when it is so ... overly discussed?

Over the period of five months, so many things had been happening around us. From natural disasters to raise in salary, from Iraq to National Day Rally 2007. These are all the current issues that are happening all around us, but yet, have we ever went to think about them in our GP class? These are the issues where we can feel the impact on our daily lives, that interests us and makes us want to think more about the world all around us.

Isn't GP about current affairs, about the world around us? If so, why are we not having discussions on these issues? Paradox? You got it...

When we go to school, it is not just about learning knowledge and content on our subjects. It is so much more then just plain learning about stuff. Imparting values, becoming good citizens, these are all part of the education of the young. Education isn't just about the mind, it is about the soul as well.

GP isn't so much about the mind, but the soul. The soul that is to be filled up with being able to think critically about issues around us. If GP became a content subject instead, what is the point of us learning GP then? So that we can tell the world that Internet is a menace 50 years ago?

I've heard GP lessons that are extremely interesting, with long and heated discussions on current issues around us. GP lessons where no one falls asleep and though there is a greater emphasis on discussion of issues, their results for the GP exams are not affected. GP is not a methodical feeding of the brain with knowledge that is irrelevant 50 years from now, but life skills that are to be learned, that will stay relevant, no matter where you may be in the world.

Some people argue that it is through touching on these long-gone issues that have been thoroughly researched that we gain the life skills that I had described above.
Yes, it is possible that you can gain the skill... but why not you take a look at this example:

How are we going to think objectively about an issue when it has been researched by scholars, researches and other people. They would have generated their own set of "objective" opinion covering both sides of the story. How on earth then are you going to think objectively, when it has already been done for you? Its like just copying what others had said for a really long time...
Internet is a menace, has always been one, and will probably still be for some more time. We all know that... I have even lost count of the amount of times I had read that Internet is a menace or is not a menace in various mediums. Do you think you can think independently, critically and objectively when the issue has been so thoroughly discussed?

GP is supposed to be a very interesting subject, with lots of discussion on current affairs and independent thinking. At the rate things are going, we will soon have a generation of scholars that don't think, leaders that don't realise...

Remind me again, what is the purpose of education?

Discmon