Daily Lesson from Life 07 February 2009

A reader to the national newspapers, The Straits Times, mentioned that: IQ without EQ is useless and Knowledge is a liability without moral values.

I could not have agreed with her more. And that 'character building' was a mere mention in the penal that is tasked to conduct a major overhaul of Singapore primary school education system alarmed her so much that she had to write in to share her concerns.

It is true that knowledge acquisition should be secondary to character building, especially in the primary school stage. As we all know, from a small corn a mighty oak tree grows! A tall building is only safe and secured if it has a solid foundation from the base up! So, character building must be the primary focus in primary education system! Hopefully by the time the students leave primary school the formation of a solid character is there.

That is one other reason why I objected to the suggestion that we teach primary school kids about money! Finance 101 or Economic 101 can come later as we should not turn them into money-minded people at such a young age no matter what the proponents said about teaching them the values of money so they grow up to learn the value of money!!

Lessons for me are:

1. if we do not get the right grounding in character building (or what I called: ETHICS) in our primary education system, it is not too late to become aware of this deficiency and the need to develop it! It is never too late!;

2. while primary school system is important to impart the ethical knowledge and develop ethical behavior, let's know forget that the home is where most of the kids learn about ethical behaviors first hand! And they learn from their parents!! Some parents may not realized that their kids will learn from their behaviors and NOT what they say or preach about ethical behaviors! NOW that they know, all should build up their own character and ethical behaviors! It will required self-introspection and courage to admit some behaviors need changing and taking actions to change them!;

3. authorities in the education sector must recognize the criticalness of making sure moral values and character building occupy a central part of primary education. There is a skewed view that knowledge acquisition and application is more important. At least from the number of hours and the resources provided, that is the message being sent! Beware, we do not want to create smart and brilliant bankers who will 'ponzi-schemed' money from the innocents, leaders who could not see that thousands are losing their jobs while they spend million renovating their office!, young children and youth that suddenly fell asleep on the MRT train when an old or pregnant or very young kid need a seat in a very crowded train! etc...

Society is made up of people. Various type. However, a society will only be gracious and progressive if each of it's citizen possesses the right characters, moral values and personal integrity and ethical values!

It is not easy to achieve that. It starts with ONE! YOU are the ONE!!