Blog
A Look Through The Lens of a Child
As a society, we often examine a child's behaviour from a very limited perspective. If we were being honest and introspective with ourselves, how we take seriously the opinions of children themselves, let alone their ‘antics,’ can attest to this narrow-mindedness. ...
The Knowledge Machines of Our Time
It's been over 30 years since Seymour Papert's article, "Obsolete Skill Set: The 3 R's, Literacy, and Letteracy in the Media Ages," was published, and his words are more relevant than ever. With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), society is undergoing a...
The Necessary Allyship of Trustful Educators
Peter Gray, on trustful parenting, offers an exploration of a parenting philosophy that emphasises trust, respect, and collaboration between parents and children. At the heart of this philosophy is the belief that children are naturally curious and capable of taking...
The Misnomer of ‘School Refusal’
The topic of mental health is inextricable from the subject of the schooling system – this will sound familiar to you if you’ve followed us for any length of time. A recent article in The Straits Times recounts a parent’s struggle with their child’s ‘school refusal’...
Reclaiming Resilience
You don't create resilience in children by throwing them in the deep end at school and forcing them to cope. That's how you create resentment. That's like sending the average person into the gym to lift 100 kg and saying that if they just do enough mindfulness, think...
“Inclusion is not tolerance. It is unquestioned acceptance.”
Recently, I received a referral from the 'Head of Inclusion' of a large international school about taking in a child that the school cannot include. Needless to say, right away, this seemed rather contradictory to the principle of inclusion. After this, I received...
The Education Revolution is Already Here
We often look to the West—with an almost wistful fatalism—for many symbols of progressiveness in societal structures. Schooling is no exception. In Canada, for example, all school-aged children are entitled to a full educational programme regardless of any...
Beyond Books & Classrooms: Where The Real Learning Happens
Most parents tend to associate the word “education” with “books,” “school,” and “lessons”—there’s little wonder that this is the case, given the way mainstream schooling permeates the very fabric of education as we know it. Even those just dipping their toes into...
How Will Kids Ever Know What They Want To Do?
We get to age 18 and we’re expected to decide on a career path or a University degree and we have no idea what we want to do. Some people take a gap year to ‘find themselves’ – and I wonder when they lost themselves. Is this not itself an indictment of the pressures...
Retraining & Upskilling: Symptoms of a Broken Education System
According to a recent article in The Straits Times, the education system is now expected to retrain and upskill half a million adults yearly.
The problem with this is clear: retraining and upskilling are symptoms of a broken education system. What is the point of a 12-year school sentence if we have to throw it all away to retrain and upskill?