In a article, an issue about the advantages a student from a high income family has in receiving scholarships was raised. This is a result of them being able to have more effective mentoring at home, better schools and tutors, as well as an edge in co-curricular activities. This was proven by the following statistics: 47% of scholarship receipients lived in HDB flats, whereas 53% lived in private housing, which does not seem significant except for the fact that 85% of Singaporeans live in HDB flats. Also, an issue about whether meritocracy was fair or not was raised as well.
I feel that this is true in the sense that a student from a higher income family could probably have better tuition and CCa's than someone from a lower income family. However, a poorer student cannot be given an advantage in receiving scholarships, or given free or cheaper mentoring than that of a student from a higher income family because then it will be unfair to the richer people as they have to spend more money in order for their child to have the same level of education as that of a poor family.
Meritocracy is the rewarding of results regardless of background. True enough, people may say that someone's background may affect their results and therefore poorer people have a disadvantage. However, there is a huge flaw in this statement. Why do parents work harder than needed and scrimp and save? To provide their child with the best. How do parents provide their child with the best? By first having the results to get a good job and by working hard. A parent puts in effort not just for himself, but for the sake of his child's future. If poorer students are given an advantage to bring them to the same learning platform as that of a richer student, that would mean that the parent's efforts are unrewarded and thus, meritocracy would not be achieved.
True enough, this may seem unfair to the student because he is rewarded not just based on his individual efforts, but the cumulative effort of his predeccessors, but that is the reason why previous genertions work hard in the first place, not just for personal riches or glory, but to provide their children and decendants with the means to do the same. Because of this some may say that meritocracy is not achieved either, and I agree. However, if enough effort is put in on the student's part, he can still get a scholarship regardless of background, but it will be more unfair to disregard the effort of previous generations just to make it fair on an individual level.
Ultimately, I feel that meritocracy can never be truly achieved, unless the background of all people are the same, and no external effort like parent's effort come into play, but currently, I feel that the meritocracy we practice now is the closest we can get to real meritocracy.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Democracy creates stability in a society
I agree to a large extent. Democracy allows everyone to have an equal chance for job or school applications, and is unbiased in terms of race, language and religion. In a democratic society, everyone is equal, and rewards, jobs and school admissions are based not on riches or status, but on merit. This ensures that everyone does their part in society to the best of their ability instead of lazing around letting others do the work for them as they will only benefit if they work hard. This ensures that every aspect of society is well taken care of and not neglected, creating a much more stable society.
Democracy is especially important when the society has many races, religions and languages. If favor is shown to a single race for example, many people of another race will be unhappy, and riots and protests may occur. This definitely makes a society much more unstable, thus showing how important democracy is to create stability.
However, democracy is not perfect, and a loophole in democracy may be that the larger race has more “power” as a whole, and can overrule other races just because of size. This creates certain problems like one race being dominant over another, like in America where the whites are dominant over the blacks. Because of this outnumbering, the largely white government creates policies that are in favor of the whites, and conflict arises as the blacks find it unfair. This also applies to religion and culture. Another problem could be that some people in the society are not mature enough to hold such “power” in their hands. An example of this is people who vote for the sake of voting, and do not choose wisely. This may cause the government to be made out of unsuitable candidates, who do not have the capability or ability to lead the society, naturally creating further problems which lead to instability.
These problems mostly arise because of the fallibility of the human race. If people can accept people of other races, religions and cultures, the problem or a certain group having more power can be solved. This problem is caused because people cannot accept those who are different as their equal, which is due to the pride of the human mind. Also, this may be caused by the fact that some people find it hard to work with a person with different views and backgrounds. This can be easily solved if everyone if more willing to mix with other people, and get to know them better.
Almost all the problems in today’s societies are cause by the fallibility of man, which is true; however, democracy prevents many of those problems, unlike other forms of government. Many problems that arise in democratic societies would be worse if it were a communist community or other kind of society. An example would be China. In China, riots and protest happened all the time as the people were not happy with decisions made by the communist government.
Ultimately, democracy is not perfect, but compared to other forms of government, it is one of the best forms of government, and relative to them, creates stability in a society.
Democracy is especially important when the society has many races, religions and languages. If favor is shown to a single race for example, many people of another race will be unhappy, and riots and protests may occur. This definitely makes a society much more unstable, thus showing how important democracy is to create stability.
However, democracy is not perfect, and a loophole in democracy may be that the larger race has more “power” as a whole, and can overrule other races just because of size. This creates certain problems like one race being dominant over another, like in America where the whites are dominant over the blacks. Because of this outnumbering, the largely white government creates policies that are in favor of the whites, and conflict arises as the blacks find it unfair. This also applies to religion and culture. Another problem could be that some people in the society are not mature enough to hold such “power” in their hands. An example of this is people who vote for the sake of voting, and do not choose wisely. This may cause the government to be made out of unsuitable candidates, who do not have the capability or ability to lead the society, naturally creating further problems which lead to instability.
These problems mostly arise because of the fallibility of the human race. If people can accept people of other races, religions and cultures, the problem or a certain group having more power can be solved. This problem is caused because people cannot accept those who are different as their equal, which is due to the pride of the human mind. Also, this may be caused by the fact that some people find it hard to work with a person with different views and backgrounds. This can be easily solved if everyone if more willing to mix with other people, and get to know them better.
Almost all the problems in today’s societies are cause by the fallibility of man, which is true; however, democracy prevents many of those problems, unlike other forms of government. Many problems that arise in democratic societies would be worse if it were a communist community or other kind of society. An example would be China. In China, riots and protest happened all the time as the people were not happy with decisions made by the communist government.
Ultimately, democracy is not perfect, but compared to other forms of government, it is one of the best forms of government, and relative to them, creates stability in a society.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
teenage issues
article from:
http://www.1888articles.com/teen-with-emotional-problems-09m72wfc20.html
I agree with this article as many friends i know and even myself, feel pressurized by many things in life, from CCA's to studies, and family to friends. These can arise from bullying in school, violence at home, or even high expectations by both family and self alike. Also, youths tend to keep to themselves very often about problems they have in life, afraid that their friends would not take them seriously. However, most of them do not know that many of their friends are probably facing the same problems, and only make fun of others who have these problems so as to make everyone else think they do not have problems. Also people around them like their families and schools always stick to routines and fixed thinking, not leaving space for them to "grow" and be independent. It also smothers their creativity and will to be different, causing them to bottle up their feelings about anything and everything until they "explode". I agree with the point the article made about how parents should make teenagers feel good about themselves. However, some parents go too far in trying to this and cause their child to feel pressurized. An example would be when parents keep telling their child they CAN get GPA 4.0 till the point where their child feels that he/she must live up to expectations. In this case, the parents are not making the child feel good about himself, instead, give them more worries.
http://www.1888articles.com/teen-with-emotional-problems-09m72wfc20.html
I agree with this article as many friends i know and even myself, feel pressurized by many things in life, from CCA's to studies, and family to friends. These can arise from bullying in school, violence at home, or even high expectations by both family and self alike. Also, youths tend to keep to themselves very often about problems they have in life, afraid that their friends would not take them seriously. However, most of them do not know that many of their friends are probably facing the same problems, and only make fun of others who have these problems so as to make everyone else think they do not have problems. Also people around them like their families and schools always stick to routines and fixed thinking, not leaving space for them to "grow" and be independent. It also smothers their creativity and will to be different, causing them to bottle up their feelings about anything and everything until they "explode". I agree with the point the article made about how parents should make teenagers feel good about themselves. However, some parents go too far in trying to this and cause their child to feel pressurized. An example would be when parents keep telling their child they CAN get GPA 4.0 till the point where their child feels that he/she must live up to expectations. In this case, the parents are not making the child feel good about himself, instead, give them more worries.
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