Confucius and Socrates

I had an interesting discussion with my wife's cousin yesterday during a CNY visit. He is not a local and he has sent his children to both government schools and international schools. He shared this insight.

He said that government schools are run along Confucius principles and that is the teacher is there to teach and the students just has to open their ears and absorb. I can just imagine the chinese movies depicting such scenes of rows of students sitting ramrod straight and reciting after the master.

The western version is adapted from the philospher Socrates. The teacher will teach enough and then prompt the students to ask questions. By way of the how and what questions were asked, the teacher senses the level of understanding of his charges and adjusts his teaching.

This however is very demanding of the teachers and the system, as this required customising.

He also shared that in international schools, there is no streaming. Weaker students are encouraged to mixed with the stronger ones so that they can learn from each other. More capable students however are not being forced to learn at a slower pace (as the example illustrated earlier) as the teachers will cater for their learning needs, but even this is done very subtlely.

My batch was streamed at primary 3 and even at that tender age we understood what it meant to be in 6A or 6B. This continued into secondary school and even manifests somewhat in work.

If I have children, I think I would opt for them to be educated in the way of Socrates. That is, if I could afford it.