The events in Singapore this week have been poignant and offered the world a glimpse of Singapore society as it stands today. Much of the news coverage reflected an outpouring of emotion that is largely unseen from a population known for being ' head' driven than one ruled by heart. It was to a large extent, refreshing to see a nation come together in sentiment and pay tribute to a leader who in many ways was larger than life.
As I watched the coverage of the funeral at the Parliament and read the reports online, I noticed the large number of very young children who queued up to pay their respects and offer written notes and drawings to share their condolences. It was indeed heartwarming , to say the least , but I also started to question what and how the story of this national figure was relayed to such young minds.
The thing is we don't ever teach politics in school do we ...much less preschool. Perhaps one could argue that we are teaching about important figures in Singapore as part of social studies. However, I'll be quite honest , as far as I know, we scratch the surface in the curriculum relating only knowledge about country , race, religion, culture , food and understandably so as young children would relate to these ideas much more easily.
As the UK is currently immersed in the run up to the elections, I could not help but imagine if the same situation occurred in the UK. Would preschool teachers even dare to introduce the idea of young children commemorating an important political figure and have them draw condolence cards? I think not. You would no sooner have an army of parents with diverse political views marching to the principal's office.
So maybe we need to think about how we address those sticky situations when personal views and institutional views collide. Obviously it didn't matter in this case, but what if a teacher was more inclined to have a different political view? How would that stand in the school? What was the story or information that was told and how do we avoid falling into the trap of 'caricaturing' the figure based on personal interpretation?
Let me give an illustration of the complexity.
When I was a preschool teacher , we had a theme called ' Singapore' in the curriculum which was fair as they should learn about the immediate world around them. Naturally ,there was a need to introduce stories related to Singapore and even if you looked around really hard , you will find that there's not very much aside from legends such as ' How the Lion City Got Its Name' or ' The Legend of Redhill'. The former was harmless enough but I felt conflicted with the latter. Firstly because of the inappropriate violent nature of the story and secondly, I studied South East Asian Studies at university so I was not about to propagate a narrative that would undermine my own race . Now bear in mind that I had a very high functioning group of Kindergarten 2's who would probably sit through the story quite rapt in attention. I didn't tell the story eventually because this is the thing about stories related to history and society, you view it through a lens and unless you provide a field of vision, you might not do the story justice.
So, although the intentions are good, it may not be all that simple and direct an initiative . Until such a point when a child develops better understanding of more complex concepts, I suggest we let preschool be a neutral space , free of politics and adult agendas emphasising instead the practice of critical thinking.
As I watched the coverage of the funeral at the Parliament and read the reports online, I noticed the large number of very young children who queued up to pay their respects and offer written notes and drawings to share their condolences. It was indeed heartwarming , to say the least , but I also started to question what and how the story of this national figure was relayed to such young minds.
The thing is we don't ever teach politics in school do we ...much less preschool. Perhaps one could argue that we are teaching about important figures in Singapore as part of social studies. However, I'll be quite honest , as far as I know, we scratch the surface in the curriculum relating only knowledge about country , race, religion, culture , food and understandably so as young children would relate to these ideas much more easily.
As the UK is currently immersed in the run up to the elections, I could not help but imagine if the same situation occurred in the UK. Would preschool teachers even dare to introduce the idea of young children commemorating an important political figure and have them draw condolence cards? I think not. You would no sooner have an army of parents with diverse political views marching to the principal's office.
So maybe we need to think about how we address those sticky situations when personal views and institutional views collide. Obviously it didn't matter in this case, but what if a teacher was more inclined to have a different political view? How would that stand in the school? What was the story or information that was told and how do we avoid falling into the trap of 'caricaturing' the figure based on personal interpretation?
Let me give an illustration of the complexity.
When I was a preschool teacher , we had a theme called ' Singapore' in the curriculum which was fair as they should learn about the immediate world around them. Naturally ,there was a need to introduce stories related to Singapore and even if you looked around really hard , you will find that there's not very much aside from legends such as ' How the Lion City Got Its Name' or ' The Legend of Redhill'. The former was harmless enough but I felt conflicted with the latter. Firstly because of the inappropriate violent nature of the story and secondly, I studied South East Asian Studies at university so I was not about to propagate a narrative that would undermine my own race . Now bear in mind that I had a very high functioning group of Kindergarten 2's who would probably sit through the story quite rapt in attention. I didn't tell the story eventually because this is the thing about stories related to history and society, you view it through a lens and unless you provide a field of vision, you might not do the story justice.
So, although the intentions are good, it may not be all that simple and direct an initiative . Until such a point when a child develops better understanding of more complex concepts, I suggest we let preschool be a neutral space , free of politics and adult agendas emphasising instead the practice of critical thinking.