My Learning Experience

It’s been 13 weeks into my journey of ES1102. Yet, I still feel that the classes were not enough. There is much to writing than just practicing on a few points such as summary, reader response and an essay. Along the way, I figured that part of the objective of the course was to help us find out about our specific problems in writing.

For me, the one thing that I struggled with and still do is with the organization of content. I had a tendency to go straight into writing without making a skeleton of the structure. For example, when I decided on Eugenics as the topic for my essay, I researched and discovered a few good points that I could utilize, without a clear goal in mind. I believed that I did not have much to do as these points were readily available. All I needed to do was to elaborate on then.

It turned out to be so much more work than that. Without a clear end in mind, my points were scattered throughout the essay and I had great trouble trying to piece them together. That process of restructuring took a lot of time and effort – much more than I would need to put in if I had bothered to create an essay outline in the first place.

Sad I was to see some of the good points go, it made all the difference in helping my essay flow better. I realized then that I had to work on forming some sort of blue print before I start writing and not simply rush into things. My excitement during research was not helpful as it clouded my judgement. It was sometimes almost essential for me to use irrelevant points, especially since some of those content were so good. This usually ends in either cutting away those points or painstakingly trying to fuse it to my original topic.

As with all assignments and exams, deadlines are a given. I find myself often taking too much time on a specific task when compared to others. It dawned on me that if I concentrated only on the relevant points, I would be able to save up on a lot of time.

As we progressed, another good learning experience was through the presentation of essay. As mentioned in my previous post, I supported the exercise simply because there was great relevance in our university life. One aspect which I learnt was the idea of “fake it till you make it”. When I first watched the video, I was relatively unconvinced. People who can speak on stage can usually speak well the first time. I later understood “faking it” to just be practicing. This means practicing on stage, not in the bedroom in front of a mirror as to truly get the feel of what it’s like being in front of an audience.

The first step before that? Understanding the material at hand. In my previous presentations, I realized that I focused too much on writing the speech or appearing less nervous instead of truly taking time to absorb what I wanted to present. I managed to apply this in my marketing presentation where I learnt the content by heart, before starting on any form of presentation practice. The result? I was much less nervous than I was before. Plus, I could answer the questions without much worries.

Therefore, my learning experience in ES1102 had been somewhat enlightening. Hopefully I am able to practice more on organizing my content so that it turns into a habit.

 

Presentation

Supporting the system

Presenting is one of the unavoidable task in university as a student. Therefore it makes sense for students to also try it out during the ES1102 classes.

As mentioned by our tutor Brad, speaking and presenting also requires a good grasp of English writing. What words to present on the slides and how to phrase your sentences are just examples.

The idea of having presentation also helps if the presenter is given immediate feedback to work on it. Often times we go through presentations without understanding how we did in terms of body language, tone of voice and even clarity.

Perhaps the most important part is to have students have a feel of what it feels like to be on stage. The experience although terrifying at first gets better over time.

The terms “fake it till you make it” never caught on to me in the beginning. However it made sense over time since the only concern was for the audience to believe in what you’re saying.

I also particularly liked that we were encouraged to not used slides as to get better in understanding our material.

This way we don’t have to be tied down to the words on the slides. The plus side to this also comes in during the Q&A session where you’ll be more prepared for questions about your content. Many of us often forget this aspect as they are too focused on getting their speech right or working on their slides.

They forget that the presentation ultimately involves presenting an idea which you know and fully understand about.

Therefore I agree to having presentations at the end of the semester to not only learn about ourselves but also from others.

Essay Final Draft

Tung Lye Yee

A03

Eugenics in Singapore: How It’s Costing Our Population

According to Goldin (2009), globalization is getting more complex and is occurring at a rapid rate..Humans will therefore need to manage their population growth using technology that not only allows humans to grow older, but also grow wiser, so as “to support the populations of the future”. As a result, the Singapore government has introduced various eugenics policies in an attempt to create a better and stronger nation for the future and stay competitive with the rising demands of globalization.

Introduced by Sir Francis Dalton, the term eugenics is the “study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations, either physically or mentally.” (Newman, p. 441) Dalton believed that by selectively breeding for desirable traits, a “super race” of humans could possibly be created. His idea of eugenics gave rise to various social movements throughout history, such as the German Nazis who conducted mass sterilization and genocide during World War II. Hitler, who was a great believer in eugenics, believed that he could achieve “racial hygiene” by wiping out the Jews.

Another supporter of eugenics was Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who believes that smart couples are more likely to produce smart children than couples who are less smart (Plate, 2013). In the National Day Rally speech of August 14 1983, he warned citizens that “the economy, administration and society will suffer” when less-educated women have more children than well-educated mother, since the country could only depend on human intelligence for progress (Lee, 1983).

However, as Goldin also mentioned, globalization does not happen equally. The growth only benefits those who have access to new technology while low income groups continue to be left out. In this case, education is closely linked to income level as it is generally found that those with lower income have less education. In such a situation, class inequality has been observed in many countries including Singapore. By providing social and economic initiatives only to a selected few through its eugenic policies, the Singapore government is further intensifying the social gap between the educated and less educated.

Currently, Singapore is faced with population woes as fertility rate continues to decrease. At 1.2, the country’s total fertility rate is well below the required replacement level (World Bank, 2013).

However, the government is still enforcing policies such as Home Ownership Plus Education (HOPE) Scheme, which continues to promote de-facto eugenics in the face of low birth rates. The HOPE scheme currently provides financial support to low-income families but only if they don’t have more than two children (Ministry of Social and Family Development, 2010). For some parents, this also spells emotional turmoil as they undergo abortion procedures to secure the scheme. It also reflects how the government wishes to discourage lower income groups from reproducing through such schemes in the name of eugenics.

Similarly, compulsory abortion counselling is only required for Singaporeans with secondary education or higher and who have fewer than three children (Ministry of Health Singapore, 2013) Those who do not meet this requirement are allowed to request for abortion without any question. With such an effect in place, Singaporeans are faced with this question: Why do some children seem more important than others?

Another form of class inequality can be observed in education. According to Giddens (1997), education has consistently been seen as a means of equalisation. Singapore has also prides itself on practicing meritocracy at all levels as  “academic grades are considered as objective measures of the students’ ability and effort, irrespective of their social background” (Yamashita, 2002). However, there is a practice where Singapore children with siblings in school or whose parents had previously studied in the institution, are given priority for admission to the school. As only children of the better educated will have more opportunities for education, the social gap between the educated and less educated widens. 

Therefore, social groups representing lower income community should pressure government to revisit such eugenic policies and effect change. This is to provide more equality among citizens regardless of background.

           

Another initiative is to focus on helping with the education of children from lower income families so that they do not get left behind. Financial aid and special education programs can be introduced to help them with their studies. The belief that lower income children are not smart can be easily disproved by Eysenck, the eugenic scientist who retired Prime Minister Lee borrowed ideas from. He stated that Singapore’s program was a misapplication of his ideas ast “there is the regression – where a very dull parent might have a bright child and vice versa…It would be quite wrong to decide the fate of a child by the intelligence of the parent” (Palen, 1986) With such policies in place, Singapore will have a wider pool of young generation to help lead the country into the future.

In the end, what eugenics represents in Singapore is something which is logically correct but ethically wrong. The cost of creating a better future for the nation should never be at the expense of discriminating against citizens based on their education status or income level. Therefore, the government should consider other solutions so that Singapore can improve further with the help of all the citizens equally.

Reference:

Giddens, Anthony. Sociology. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Policy Press, 1997.

Goldin, I. (2009). Navigating our global future. TED Talks (online). Retrieved on March 3rd 2014 from: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html

Lee, K.Y. (1983) National Day Rally Speech of Aug. 14, 1983. Straits Times.

Mika Yamashita (2002). “Singapore Education Sector Analysis”. Education Resources Information Center.

Ministry of Health Singapore (2013) Pre-abortion counselling. Retrieved on March 15th 2014 from: http://www.moh.gov.sg/content/moh_web/home/pressRoom/Parliamentary_QA/2013/pre-abortion-counselling.html

Ministry of Social and Family Development (2010). Home Ownership Plus Education (HOPE) Scheme (online). Retrieved on March 2nd 2014 from: http://app.msf.gov.sg/Assistance/HomeOwnershipPlusEducationHOPEScheme.aspx

Newman, Horatio Hackett. Evolution, Genetic and Eugenics. New York, New York: Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1969.

Palen, J (1986). Fertility and Eugenics: Singapore’s Population Policies. Population Research and Policy Review , Vol. 5, No. 1 (1986)

Plate, T. (2013). Giants of Asia: Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew: Citizen Singapore: How to Build a Nation. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd.

World Bank. (2013). Fertility rate of Singapore (online). Data retrieved March 2, 2014, from: https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_dyn_tfrt_in&hl=en&dl=en&idim=country:SGP:HKG:MYS