Mind the Young Mind
By Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng
August 2018 EDITORIAL
It is often claimed that traditional Asian ways of teaching encourage students to memorise facts – so-called rote learning. The Western way, in contradistinction to this, it is claimed, is to teach children to think for themselves and to be critical – to be analytical. Like all generalisations, these ones hold some truth, but they hardly tell the whole story. Far from it, in fact. Rote learning, as we popularly understand, aims first and foremost at filling students’ minds with...
Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng
is the Executive Director of Penang Institute. His latest book is Signals in the Noise: Notes on Penang, Malaysia and the World (Singapore: Faction Press) Homepage: wikibeng.com.
