long stuff
Sunday, February 8, 2009
I haven't been blogging for a while, but that's not due to a lack of material. On the contrary, I have a small stockpile, but i'm just lazy to type it down.
Anyway, I was going to talk about change in people's lives. Not those life-changing changes, but those sporadic alterations to one's everyday monotonous drone, such as welcoming of a new J1 cohort, delaying lectures to see a principal gamely abseil down a wall, and going for a friend's birthday party.
I don't enjoy going through a week without some change, given that the change wouldn't be too negative or time consuming. I lean more towards a creature of habit, having things rightly attuned to daily schedules and such, but change helps to break the motion too.
Still, I started this by mentioning "I was going to talk..." so I won't be dwelling on this much. I haven't got much material for it, and today I'm running a tight schedule that I'm supposedly going to follow. Needless to say, that schedule revolves mainly among due and upcoming work. So, on to my main agenda.
Yesterday we had reunion dinner with my father's side, mainly for those who couldn't make it the previous gathering. Besides the extra hongbao, the food (which I feel was overpriced) and the location, something piqued my interest with Uncle Kim Chun's banter about my older brother Isaac going for design school. Or rather, my insistence that my brother should. He said my father was too 'academically brained' and should see that design is something that will never go out of prospecting employers.
Creativity is not something one can learn out of textbook, he said, and more importantly, to study it, one should go overseas, London for example. He said my brother has a talent, (how did you know, Isaac asked, and he explained, I saw your work in your room last time I came! To which my brother replied, but those are movie posters! He countered, Ah, but that's where I can see what interests you have, and how you value design! hmm...) and that it would be wasted if he were made to focus on academics.
Needless to say, he is one of those people who stand by independent learning, who would not send their child along the A level route if there was an opportunity, and would stand by going overseas for studies for the exposure.
But that all didn't concern me. What concerned me was that he said a Polytechnic beat a JC by leaps and bounds because it allows students there to exercise their creativity and let them become independent learners at a much younger age, overall giving them a more valuable education. His defense for the creativity part was 1. the more or less lax attire allowed compared to dull and uniform.. uniforms in JC, and 2. The free time that Poly students had in between lessons.
1. I believe the link of freeing attire constraints and nurturing creativity is tenuous. It is a concept that I used to believe in, but seems to be quite unfounded the more I think about it. First, maybe we ought to put aside the case of those students who come to school in 'uncle' attire, complete with flip flops and singlets. I'm sure that wasn't the demographic my uncle was thinking about, despite them
being poly students. Secondly, let's put aside the notion and very real possibility that students dress in brands that many others wear, making them a bunch of highly creative people too. Thirdly, lets put aside the fact that creativity cannot be discovered in a Billabong, Diesel or Levis. What you essentially have is a sad confusion of creativity and the much more plausible freedom of expression.
To clarify this, both do not readily mix, the former can encompass the latter, but not vice versa. For example, sewing a dress can be creative and be a sign of freedom of expression, but buying an off-the-shelf tee is not creative. Similarly, If a person makes an art piece, it can constitute both concepts, but buying a beatiful art piece is hard to constitute creativity, it simply shows a certain style that the buyer appreciates and wishes to represent his taste.
Even so, some may say that many students go out of their way to make look stylish in school, forcing them to think creatively about how to stand out from the crowd. Rule out being the earliest to buy the latest fashion, rule out buying outlandish clothing, rule out buying a new set of clothing every day, week or month to look updated, and what one can seriously contend to be creative is making something on his or her own. Only that should constitute being creative.
Now then, let's tackle the opposing point, that JC students in uniform have stymied creativity as a result. Their uniforms become a prison for creativity. Who then, says that attire actually sums up everything in the first place? They are, again, merely a primary tool for freedom of expression, and both JC and poly students can exercise their creativity in other fields, that is where the real argument for creativity must lie. this one I will talk about in point 2, though not exhaustively.
To sum this point up, I believe the majority of Poly students who like the concept of free attire like it because it allows them to express their taste, if not to show which trends and fashions they belong to. Those who really like it because it nurtures creativity are those who actually make their own clothing. You'll never catch me commenting that a particular stranger wearing that outfit must be a creative person, but more possibly a person whose taste suits mine too, it's that simple.
2. This free periods thing has been sufficently explained to me by Yichen, who apparently has three hour breaks on some days. This case is actually much easier to tackle, all one has to do is see how many students spend their time doing fruitful things during those breaks, fruitful constuting things that stimulate creativity. Sleep, play cards, play LAN at the in-house LAN center, go out to shop, these options do little for the objective my uncle seems to think the break was intended for.
I don't think I need to elaborate on why I believe this break is seen more as a bane to the students who would rather come later to school or have shorter hours, much less be inspired to nurture their creativity during the 3 hours.
It all comes down to the lesson material that differs (I assume) so vastly from Poly and JC, that my uncle for some reason failed to cite. (And, pray tell, what about courses like accounting and food science? Is one really certain that those are the sort of fields that creativity is stimulated? [no offense intended at all, just in case] I think too many people generalise the Poly and creativity link just because courses like fashion, game and architechural design are included. (In other words, those that really require a stimulating dose of creativity.) It
can be a more creative learning experience for Polytechnic students than JC students, but ultimately it matters on the student's profile, course type and personality.
posted by joseph at 10:13 AM