Students Growing Up

These very young students playing field hockey on a Sunday morning got me thinking. This is a playground in a public housing estate in Shatin. The kids are probably not the most privileged nor the most deprived. They all look healthy, energetic, and smart. In fact, kids at this age do not vary too much in terms of intelligence, temperament, and knowledge. Surely there are subtle differences, but it is not too pronounced yet.

Another image came to mind immediately. A college student was interviewed on TV last week. At 2 AM, he was wandering with his friends on the streets in Mongkok, because the game parlor that they were in just closed. No problem. Because soon afterwards, the 4 of them were each holding a game machine, playing each other in a 24-hour fast food restaurant. At day break, he finally return home exhausted. Later he was found strolling towards the classroom. He was late, since he could not get up in time. But he did not care, he was used to it already.

Will some of the field hockey-playing kids be like him in 15 years time? His is obviously not the best scenario but certainly also not the worst. Some of the kids will grow up to score As in the public examinations and enter university. Many more, however, will fail in every single subject. Some lives will be totally wasted. Why? What can we do to prevent it? Many of them fail not because of inherent poor intelligence and attitude.

As parents, we have responsibilities over a few of them. As teachers, we can influence many more. What is the impact then of high ranking officials deciding far-ranging policies? For example, having studied English for 13+ years, why is it even many of our university students cannot write in decent Chinese or English?

Many people aspire to that policy-making power. If given that power, however, I will probably endure many sleepless nights wandering what went wrong, and what can be done to provide our kids with the opportunities, the environment, the support, the incentives, the motivations, to strive to succeed. But the flippant attitude of some of the officials are scary.