Meritocracy and a kinder clock for human development.

It’s a good read. I am talking about Dr Margaret Chan’s article this morning - “Why kids shouldn’t have to audition for CCAs”. 

She went personal when she talked about her son, Jonathan. She wrote about how Jon was rejected again and again when he auditioned for CCA. 

The reason is that Jon and his family were overseas for four years and when Jon returned, he started school at the secondary two level, instead of secondary one. 

So, here comes the reason: “The class was already ahead by a year so having a newcomer would disrupt learning.” 

Margaret tried to explain why, and reminded them of her son’s passion for CCA, but the school stood their ground. 

Jon then joined the marine cadets but “was asked to leave a few weeks later because he did not know the marching commands”. It was in Malay. His mother fumed, “But wasn’t the boy there to learn?” 

Margaret then wrote an impassioned letter to the school and the rejection was withdrawn. 

But, the happy ending is that the principal/deputy principal of ACS(I) took Jon in. And this, Margaret thought she had to add: “No, we did not have to donate money or services to the school.”

Well, the rest is proud history for the family. “Last year, Jonathan Chan, my son, captained the team that brought back two golds in the 2019 South-east Asian Games.”

She credited Jon’s achievements to his coaches, Dr Ong and Mrs Tan (ACS principal/deputy principal) and the school itself. 

Lesson? 

Now, we have to be fair. Not all schools are like those who rejected Jon. Even for those who rejected Jon, well, we all change for the better; some, well, for the worst, no doubt. 

My point is best expressed by Margaret, when she wrote that the “Sanskrit word “guru” for teacher - which is also the Malay word - is popularly translated as “bringer of light.””

She said that schools should just let kids learn. Even if they don’t make the cut, they still learn something that value-adds into their trajectory of growth, especially at that age. 

Therefore, be someone who ushers in light to shine unto each small step taken with courage and hope. And soon, that beam will become the connecting link to a story of overcoming and joy. 

“And for the coaches who want to grow excellence: A faltering novice needs your grooming to grow into a champion. That is education,” so wrote Margaret. 

Again, the reality is that for every excelling Jon (partly because of such strong familial support and belief) there are many rejected Jons who will never reach that level of excellence. That may be due to the school’s restrictive selection criteria or the student’s attitude or his/her socioeconomic background or many others causes combined to varying degree. 

Nevertheless, I end with this thought: A kinder clock for human development. 

That is taken from one of the chapter-titles from the book, Late Bloomers by Rich Karlgaard. 

As I look at the many Jons in our schools, I realised that merit has its merit, but merit has its blindsight too. 

We take in kids of merit on paper and/or by quick judgement for a course or CCA, or for admission into a school, but more often than not, it is a snapshot of that kid at that point in time, not his potential in full, or the possibilities yet uncovered when he is placed in the hands of a guru via discipline, patience and hope. 

Yes, you can say that you can’t measure a beam of light with a ruler, because it leaves one asking, what does unpolished diamond in the rough look like? 

But that is also where Margaret’s a-faltering-novice-turning-into-champion and Karlgaard’s a-kinder-clock-of-human-development come in. 

Putting the two perspectives together, we have two choices in education: a result-oriented one within a predetermined timeline or a result-blooming one over a lifetime. 

While I understand to some extent the necessity for a meritocratic system aimed at churning out measurable units of production so that they can contribute to society economically, yet from Jon’s example, there is always this risk we should guard against (or at least mitigate) as spelt out by Professor Carol Dweck: -

“I think society is in a crisis. Kids seem more exhausted and brittle today. I am getting more fear of failure, fear of evaluation, than I’ve gotten before. I see it in a lot of kids a desire to play it safe. They don’t want to get into a place of being judged, or having to produce.”

Alas, indeed, as Karlgaard puts it, “the optimism of youth, it seems, has been warped into a crippling fear of failure.”

That being the risk, a balance between sourcing by merit and grooming by time ought to be struck in an earnest attempt to educate, to be a guru to another. And it is thus hope that such balance will over time be tweaked in favour of a kinder clock of human development.