It's Hard to Beat the System

'..And what the young can do is first find their voice and then use it'

Thursday December 18, 2008

A WRITER'S LIFE BY DINA ZAMAN

We prematurely write off people as failures on the flimsiest whim. But a straight As student does not necessarily possess the right humanistic values.

ONE thing that piqued me at the UOX event in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, last Saturday was who were those kids who came to while away a few hours dancing to live bands and hanging out with their friends?

It was a young, lively and energetic crowd. They wore sunnies, tight skinny jeans and displayed a nonchalance only the young can carry off. They were cool, they were young and they were having fun. But after that, what? Who are they at home and in school?

I will not dare assume that these kids are the urban poor and academic failures.

They could be all-star students for all I know, but in that sea of young faces, I wondered who’d have a future and who’d be doomed, not just through his or her failure at school, but because of the external factors surrounding him or her, such as poverty, not belonging to a family well connected to the powers that be, for instance. Not being at the right place at the right time, nor talented or pretty enough.

I am not going to say that they are of the wrong ethnic make-up, because I know many bumi kids, who are in the same shoes as their non-bumi peers, who did not get the opportunities they deserved. They’re are the NEP Invisibles, the kids who slipped through the cracks.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, he observed: “… because we so profoundly personalise success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung. We make rules that frustrate achievement. We prematurely write off people as failures.

“We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And, most of all, we become passive. We overlook just how large a role we all play — and by ‘we’ I mean society — in determining who makes it and who doesn’t.”

He detailed how the Canadian Junior League hockey teams select their players. A high percentage of the boys picked to be players are born in the first three months of the year.

As Gladwell said, it has nothing to do with the moon and stars.

In Canada the eligibility cut-off date is Jan 1. If a potential player turns 10 on Jan 2, he may have to play with someone else who does not turn 10 until the end of the year.

So you can have potential stellar hockey players in Canada, and other countries who have similar selection processes in other sports like football but who are not born at the right time and do not meet the selection dates.

We’re talking about the vanquishing of budding hockey/soccer stars, simply because they were born at the wrong time.

Now what happens next? The selectors stream these young players, who then are privileged to have differentiated experiences.

In a simulated environment, coaches tell you that you are great, the world belongs to you, all you need to do is train and focus, and all the good in the world will belong to you. It is not difficult to believe you are the best, you deserve the best.

Even if one of the selected players is slightly less able than the others, in such a simulated superior environment, he runs a mean streak. He will be afforded that because he has the supporting environment to back him up.

Now what of other young boys who may be as talented and have the capabilities to be world class hockey players, but do not make the cut simply because they were born in the wrong month?

They don’t make the grade. As simple as that. Now, apply this to Malaysia.

Smart kids of a certain ethnic make-up qualify to enter residential schools, which also afford superior experiences. Equally intelligent children of wealthy means go to overseas boarding schools. Whether they will be the next Bill Gates is debatable, but these children are advantaged.

What happens to a Malaysian child who may not be as intelligent as his above mentioned peers, but possesses talents and capabilities which may surpass them? Very few will cut it.

We Asians pride ourselves on how academically and professionally superior we are; we hustle, study hard, just so to be among the ranks of those who have arrived.

These are the values that we, young and old, see that must be acquired. Rare is that parent who is content to leave a child to muddle about in life, pleased with the little he has.

You can be industrious, pious, but what values do you have? And what confidence do you have? Is it a confidence that is superficial, handed down by our parents, and you do not dare go against the rules?

A straight As student does not necessarily mean he or she will have the right humanistic values.

If you had read the Star Business last Saturday, you would have come across P. Gunasegaram’s essay on how to be successful in Malaysia. For a kid who has no connections, no looks or wealth and the smarts, everything will seem too bleak.

Parents and teachers have their hands tied; the authorities juggle amidst war-cries that the system has failed every student in the country.

Academics and intellectuals go to forums and write important essays on the de-construction of the education system, which will be talked about for awhile, and then forgotten.

We need less rhetoric. We need effective and proven solutions. Then perhaps, these kids will not end up as Mat Rempits or as disenfranchised teens slouching about the corner.

And what the young can do is first find their voice and then use it.