sharing

recall the time when your teacher asked the class to share some ideas say pertaining to a particular topic that was related to a composition you all were tasked to do. what was the immediate scenario? did anyone raise up their hands eager to spill whatever ideas he/she had? or did the teacher have to single out individually to get the class to spill ideas?

for Singaporean students, i am pretty sure it is always teh case of teacher singling someone out before any answers could be heard. a teacher of mine once said something thought provoking that disturbed me up to today. that is why i am going to talk about it. she was telling us that generally the Asian schooling culture has been brought up in such a way that students are discouraged by the parents to share ideas and information with peers in fear of others getting as good as or better grades than their children. sadly, in the short run it might seemed a little logical but this mentality isn’t exactly healthy in the real world in the near future. at least this was what my teacher pointed out and so i went on to ponder as well.

i remember in primary as i mingle with my friends, their parents are always comparing results and what not. the area outside the school gate was like a place for parents to show off their kids’ grades. but that wasn’t all, i will always hear a parent of a kid who was from a smart class telling him/her not to talk to a kid who was from a not-so-smart class. being in both of such classes before in primary school, i was extremely puzzled at that time as to why they were asked to do such things. now, think back, i think parents told their smart kids so just to ensure that there remain this boundary between them.. separating the smart and the not-so-smart one.

you see, habits that are cultivated from young are not easy to change. such simple “advices” soon impacted the students’ involvement in class. they rather keep answers and ideas to themselves if they were not forcefully asked for it. this brings on to the next part of my discussion.

does hiding knowledge and ideas hinder progress? yes and no. not sharing will not hinder progress as students will keep on keeping track of what he/she don’t know and hopefully go on discovering stuff on their own. independent learning. not sharing will hinder progress when it comes to tackling an issue that no one has a clue on. say each one has bits and pieces only and not sharing will no spark any further thinking. personally, i find it better to share since who knows someone else might be able to take the current idea to the next level. after a while, who knows something new can be discovered.

i know what some of you might be thinking now. if you share and someone else build upon it and find something great out of it, wouldn’t the person claim credit or what not? the fear of losing credit might be a primary concern to some when the idea of sharing comes into picture. however, this is where you have to weigh it out, whether you prefer self-progression or progress as a group.

so yeah think about it. this is probably somewhat related to the fact as to why the Asian culture don’t churn out as many discoveries as compared to the West. discoveries made there, if you realised, often published with multiple credits.