when are we going to learn from others?

Taken from the US National Education Association (NEA) January 2007 cover story:

“Global competitiveness depends on students’ abilities to innovate and invent, not on their test scores,” agrees Yong Zhao, professor and director of the U.S.-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence at Michigan State University. America has long embraced its students’ passion, ingenuity, dreams, and ideas—none of which can be measured by test scores, says Zhao. Asia, on the other hand, has traditionally valued test scores above all else. Even where scores are high and innovative educational approaches are valued, as in Singapore, it’s still felt that testing plays too much of a role.

“Yours is a talent meritocracy, ours is an exam meritocracy,” Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister of Education of Singapore, said in a Newsweek interview. “There are some parts of the intellect that we are not able to test well—like creativity, curiosity, a sense of adventure, ambition….America has a culture of learning that challenges conventional wisdom, even if it means challenging authority. These are the areas where Singapore must learn from America.”

Another blow for too much objectivity in the classroom. Maybe our beloved scihi teachers can advocate this to the proper authorities? We are a leading school after all, so it is just right that we lead the pack in terms of progress. Speaking of which, here is Toyota’s recipe for success. It is a manifesto on innovation – not for the faint of heart, but definitely a good read.