Confidence is shaped by failure

I read with interest Prof K Ranga Krishnan’s commentary, “How confidence boosts motivation” (July 14), and would add a few points that I feel have key relevance to this topic. A compelling case could be made that failure shapes confidence.

Our educational system is like a sorting machine that grooms children who get straight As and discards below-average pupils to streams that carry a stigma of failure, starting at Primary Three and continuing throughout a child’s life in our educational system.

Failure in itself is a life experience and shapes a critical life skill. Children who stumble and get up to continue would go on to make a real difference in society because they tend to be the ones able to take the knocks and press on.

Some who have made the biggest impact in society today have been mavericks who did not place a premium on scoring As, such as Apple’s Steve Jobs and DreamWorks’ David Geffen.

Being a country whose biggest resource is our human resource, we must ask some hard, fundamental questions about the value of having only As, versus the value of having average grades with superior life skills. The key question is whether companies have the thinking and analytical skills to get the job done. Superior grades are, unfortunately, no guarantee of this.

The world is changing fast. I worry for Singapore and my two sons, as I feel we are trapped in a 1980 mindset, especially in primary schools, where grades matter the most. We, including parents, must change this mindset.

We seem to have an A* fetish without realising that our children’s education does not end with the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

Education is a marathon, not a sprint, so it scares me to see the workloads handed out these days, even to my son in Primary Four.

The pressure on children at the PSLE is comparable to the pressure a footballer experiences in a penalty shoot-out in a World Cup Final.

It is cruel for society to subject 12-year-olds in this day and age to that kind of emotional pressure. It is unsound to let a single examination decide their fate. We must correct this.

At the rate other countries are developing, we cannot afford to build another generation of doers rather than thinkers and dreamers.