I considered using “Premier” to I could avoid using the much more provocative (not to mention connotative) term of “elite” in my title, but that would be missing the point of the post. If “elite” can become a bad word in Canada, it sure can become one in Singapore, if it hasn’t already.
“Diary of a Reformed Elitist” has been making its rounds on the internet and the comments from other Singaporeans makes for required reading, if only to appreciate the diversity of opinions held towards this particularly touchy issue. But no doubt, there is definitely a feeling of divide and the subtle differences in how one experiences and approaches life that come with being seen as “elite”.
Conversations with Cabbies
It was right after Grad Night; a group of us lived in the same area and it was close to midnight, so we shared a cab. Relieved at finally getting a cabbie who went in that direction, we were happy to humour the chatty driver. He asked us how old we were and we said Secondary 4, just celebrating our graduation. He asked us if we had just taken our O levels and we said yes but didn’t say only for Higher Mother Tongue – you don’t have to take that in a through-train system. Then he asked us which school we were from.
The brief silence that followed affirmed to me the idea that for all the incidents others might have caused, a large number of students are almost apologetic for coming from such schools. That’s because despite how much or little you may know about others outside of school, there’s this awareness that for every extra dollar that is invested in the “cream of the crop” as per meritocracy, many others don’t get that dollar.
It’s not so much the idea of “(landing) on earth from your ivory towers and (learning) some ‘life lessons’ from the poor commoners” as it is a genuine worry that for all that is said for meritocracy, it is not exactly a fair system. And that we are benefiting from that system.
Which explains the silence whenever this perennial question is asked. A friend of mine even once said “Bishan Secondary” (it doesn’t exist) to avoid the issue. Whether it be naive contrition or genuine concern, this discomfort with flaunting our school or other signs of being “premier” have been drilled into us from a lifetime of lectures on not being elitist, of “the whole other world out there” – of how grateful we should be to be so lucky. A teacher of mine once half-jokingly said that of all things her students feared the most, it was not failing the exams or losing a competition, but being seen as elitist.
In the end we told him our school, and the taxi driver rather considerately drove the conversation towards his neighbor who studied far too hard to get into a top school, but I think we felt a common understanding regarding that momentary uncomfortable silence.
Still, I prefer chatty cabbies.
“Oft Unwitting Elitism”
It’s my favourite phrase from “diary of a reformed elitist” because that’s basically the problem – as seen above, most don’t consciously choose to be elitist. They don’t set out to be haughty or nasty to others because that’s not how most people are like. It’s more about how a system that allows people to easily ensconce themselves into bubbles leads to a shocking lack of sensitivity. You know the drill: kindergarten, a “branded” primary school, Gifted Education, a “premier” secondary school, some “branded” tuition in between, through train (no O levels) and then you’re in a good university and pretty much set for the rest of your working life. Oh and throw in a scholarship for good measure.
It’s definitely not a wrong or shameful thing to choose to take the path that allows you to achieve your best. But such a smooth path makes it very easy for a person to live most of life in a bubble, well-meaning but ignorant, and thus dismissive, of others who might not have benefited from or fit into such a system. Furthermore, while it may seem to be a stereotype, only those who are better-off will be well-positioned to succeed early and thus build on that success. If you get into a kindergarten, you will do better in primary school. If you do better there, you can get into a better secondary school and so on. The opposite is also possible. An observation was made that in the past, you’d only see one or two Mercedes or BMWs among the vehicles used by the few parents who drove their kids to my school, but now the number has increased quite considerably.
Again, it is not a crime to be born into a rich family or do better in school – that would be making the same mistake as assuming poor people are poor because they don’t work hard enough. It’s only that there is a greater risk of insensitivity and ignorance of “the world out there”.
Up till most of my Primary School days, I lived in a HDB flat. It was located near a CC and a huge playground where we could play with all the other kids from the area. During the moon cake festival we would get those paper lanterns and light them with matches, and when we got bored we would get a stack of leaflets from the little troughs in front of the letterboxes and light them. Back then the playground still had sandpits, too. Before going for Gifted Education I went to a neighbourhood Primary School that had only been set up about three years before. And I walked because it was nearby. My brother would play basketball with the rest of the bigger boys from the area. I tell this not to flash my “local” credentials but because it shows how easily things could’ve turned out differently; after going Gifted, I noticed a marked change in the sort of financial background, experience and outlook I came to expect. And I realised if not for these years, I would never have understood really what it’s like. In short, I got a wider experience.
On one of my recent cycling trips, I visited the old playground. They replaced the sandpit with rubber!
Lack of experience breeds ignorance, and that creates such “oft unwitting elitism”.
Coming to Terms with being “Elite”
So if one cannot get such an experience naturally, the next best method would be actually going out to get such an experience yourself. A great channel for this would be through CIP, but as I’ve written about before, it’s shockingly easy to remain in a bubble, yet rack up hundreds of CIP hours. While the rationale and goals of CIP are very well founded, CIP hours are not as restricted in their provenance or rationale.
One particularly meaningful CIP we had in school, though, was a home refurbishment project for 1-room flats.
Recently, I met a teacher from another secondary school as part of a project. It was not even a “CIP” project, even if our goal was helping the community, because we did not get approval from our school and operated it independently. So no CIP hours.
It was the day when the O Level results were released, so (as mentioned earlier) we had just gotten our results for Higher Mother Tongue. I was not exactly satisfied by my result, but oh well. I mentioned this to the teacher as a way of conversation (“So you were busy with O level results today too, right?”) and he replied, while describing the status of the school, “not one student got an A1 today”. Many were in Normal Academic or Technical stream, students which he actually liked to teach because while they may had have to work much harder to score, they were also pleasant and eager to learn. Furthermore, some might have other problems at home – they would have to sleep in the corridor as there was not enough space in one-room flats, and there were no study rooms.
I won’t disclose any more, but needless to say we walked away very humbled and hopefully more aware. It was an important conversation because it also made me realise, despite it being only a few years since before I joined Gifted Education and the so-called “elite” track, how much less sensitive I had become to “the world out there”.
And with that the determination that while there is no shame in pursuing my goals and ambitions, all the while I have to keep searching for a way to sensitize myself – CIP hours or not.
And that’s how I’m coming to terms with being “elite” – not elite in the sense of being elitist or ignorant about others, but elite in that for better or worse I am going to aim to be the best, and that often entails being labelled an “elite”, depending on your definition of success. Because as much as I am inadvertently taken away from more grounded realities, I will have to make it back there through my own effort.
And the next time I am asked which school I am from, I definitely won’t hesitate to answer.
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