Học sinh Singapore học gì? Giáo dục, đầu tiên là dạy làm người. Người có học là người biết cư xử, văn minh, nhân ái, trọng kỷ luật và trật tự xã hội. Đây là cốt lõi của giáo dục. Vô học hay có học, thể hiện qua cái này.
Tiếp theo mới là kiến thức. Giáo dục cung cấp cho học sinh hiểu biết về thế giới bên ngoài và bên trong mỗi con người. Giáo dục Việt Nam hiện đang làm tốt cái này (nhưng tập trung nhiều quá do hình thức thi cử khoa bảng nên vẫn tập trung học kiến thức, game show “đường lên đỉnh Olympia” hay thi tú tài ĐH đều CHỈ kiểm tra kiến thức, như vậy sẽ dẫn đến người ta trọng kiến thức, và học lệch, dạy lệch).
Tiếp theo là thể chất, không có thể chất thì kiến thức trên vô nghĩa. Dặt dẹo đau ốm hay gầy còm, thấp bé….thì giỏi cỡ nào đi nữa, hội nhập quốc tế khó mà sâu được. Các gameshow học sinh trên tivi thường có thi kiến thức kèm thể lực, và các tài năng khác. Phải chạy bộ 100m nhanh mới tới bục cầm đề toán và giải, ai giỏi thì phải nhanh và khoẻ mới được.
Tiếp theo là khai phóng năng lực, dựa trên khả năng của mỗi người mà có cách phát triển phù hợp. Một người bất kỳ đều thiên tài ở một lĩnh vực hẹp nào đó. Nếu không giỏi chữ nghĩa ăn nói thì sẽ giỏi âm nhạc, thể thao, nấu ăn, cơ khí, buôn bán,….vấn đề là tìm cho ra để cho học sinh tự do phát triển thành nghề nghiệp sau này. Học sinh Singapore học gì?
Lý Quang Diệu đột phá dữ dội khi đưa tiếng Anh thành môn ngôn ngữ thứ 2 (second language) thay vì môn ngoại ngữ (foreign language) dạy ở trường, sau đó chuyển luôn tiếng Anh thành ngôn ngữ thứ nhất (mỗi sắc tộc có tiếng mẹ đẻ, là môn học thêm ở trường) áp dụng cho cả nước. Chỉ trích quyết định này của ông thì vô vô vàn vàn, nhưng ông Lý vẫn kiên định.
Và từ một hòn đảo nghèo, Singapore trở thành trung tâm kinh tế, tài chính, văn hoá, giáo dục của cả châu Á và thế giới chỉ trong 1 lứa học sinh tốt nghiệp. Hộ chiếu Singapore trong top các hộ chiếu được miễn visa nhiều nhất (nước nào cũng mời người nước giàu đến chơi vì tiêu tiền, chứ không có chuyện trốn ở lại xin việc, di dân là gánh nặng cho người ta, nước nào càng có nhiều doanh nghiệp và nhiều việc làm thì hộ chiếu nước đó càng quyền lực). Rất nhiều nước châu Âu (ví dụ Hà Lan) chỉ dạy bằng tiếng Hà Lan tới cấp 3, từ bậc ĐH trở lên là dạy bằng tiếng Anh các ngành kinh tế, công nghệ, khoa học…Các nước Thái Lan, Mã lai, Indo….đều học tập Singapore để có bước phát triển vũ bão trong giáo dục gần đây. Ở cấp 2-3, học tiếng Anh bằng màn hình video tại trường có thời gian rất nhiều (mà không cần giáo viên). Họ tuyển sinh ĐH dựa vào điểm IELTS, hầu như toàn bộ các trường ĐH đã dạy song ngữ các môn và trường ĐH lớn đã 100% dạy bằng tiếng Anh (có môn giáo viên trực tiếp đứng lớp, có môn học online, giáo viên nước ngoài dạy qua máy tính, cả lớp nhìn vào màn hình tự học), khiến sinh viên ra trường rất có lợi thế cạnh tranh. ĐH ở tỉnh xa xôi vẫn thuê được giáo viên Harvard dạy qua máy tính cho sinh viên mình học. Các ĐH ở VN vẫn còn dùng tiếng Việt để dạy các ngành kinh tế, công nghệ, khoa học….là rất đáng tiếc, vì phải dịch giáo trình từ nguyên bản nước ngoài ra, lỡ dịch sai thì dạy sai, hiểu sai. Các môn này chúng ta không có phát minh ra, nên dạy luôn bằng ngôn ngữ gốc mới đúng được.
Việt Nam, nếu muốn phát triển đột phá, phải nhanh chóng tiếp cận cách giáo dục của Singapore trong việc đưa tiếng Anh thành ngôn ngữ thứ 2 cho toàn dân. Có thất bại cũng chẳng sao, cũng đã có 1 tỷ lệ người dân nào đó thành công và đổi đời.
Singapore, diện tích chỉ bằng một huyện nhỏ ở ta, dân số chỉ có 4-5 triệu, mà GDP, tức tổng tài sản hơn 300 tỷ đô la Mỹ, gấp rưỡi cả 92 triệu dân chúng ta cộng lại. Có tiếng Anh, dù không giàu thì cũng không thể nghèo. Ai muốn thoát nghèo thì tự họ chăm chỉ học tiếng Anh. Có giáo viên càng tốt, không có thì vẫn học được. Trên mạng có đầy đủ. Chỉ là muốn hay không muốn.
Một học sinh cấp 2 của Singapore thường có bài tập về nhà là phân tích các bài diễn văn, ví dụ: Ý kiến của bạn về bài nói của Mr Obama “You make your own future” như dưới đây.
Bài diễn văn này rất hay, các bạn cùng nhau đọc nhé. Mong các giáo viên ngoại ngữ từ cấp 2 ở VN trở lên, in bài này ra đưa cho học sinh tập đọc và tập dịch. Rất tốt cho tư duy của trẻ, vốn quý nhất của dân tộc mình. Đầu tư cho tiếng Anh là gặt hái rất lớn về sau. Một cá nhân, một gia đình, một trường học, một đất nước bỏ tiền và thời gian ra để học tiếng Anh là đầu tư, không phải chi phí.
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YOU MAKE YOUR OWN FUTURE
Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event
Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009
The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn.
And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work – that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it. Học sinh Singapore học gì?