Warning: Only read this if you have like half an hour of your life to waste :)

I'm going share with you guys some of my thinkings on the school system in Singapore and our general lifestyle...

it may very well change your thinkings...

your feelings...

your life...




however I'm in a rush so I'm going to squeeze everything in one long paragraph. Basically I want to let everyone know that going to school is only good for one thing and that is to gain general knowledge so that you can impress that cute guy/girl into believing that you are smart. haha sounds stupid? yes it is. going to school is actually a very very very very very very very bad thing...........................................




ok I was just kidding about squeezing everything into one paragraph.

now cutting all the crap I'm going to ask you guys to visualise your childhood:

Point #1

You are a small and innocent child and all you know is toys, cartoons, and naptime. One day your parents send you to school for the first time. It’s a shock to your system but you have to go. You finally get there and it is a little intimidating.

This is one of your first social experiences with so many kids your age, a time ripe for developing your first social skills. However, just when you are adapting to this new environment, try to remember… what is one of the FIRST things that you learn?

“STFU AND PAY ATTENTION!”

Maybe that's not the exact same words you heard from your teacher but basically it means 'NO TALKING'. Why is this so bad you ask? I'll tell you why... not only is this your introduction to a world of strangers, but it is also the first time you are restricted from interaction!

*BAM* there goes your social skills if you played by the rules.

However, if you were like me, I chose to become a rebel. I sort of like became the school joker and pulled off a couple of pranks on not only my teachers but also on my entire school (long story).

Needless to say I got caught (wish I knew some magic principles back then then maybe I would not have been caught :P). I was told that my dreams would never come true if I kept misbehaving and blah blah blah. I remembered my form teacher say that such behavior would prevent me from entering a good secondary school, and then I would not be able to get into a JC, which would bar me from getting into University, which would consequentially lead to me being a total failure in life, a bum on the street!

At that point I thought to myself: "That's not too bad... at least I can earn money through hustling with 3 card monté..."

haha just kidding.

okay that's 1 bad point for the school system.

ONLY ONE??? ALL THOSE CRAP AND YOU'RE ONLY AT POINT ONE???

Yep!

But listen because this point is especially important.

How many of you have trouble performing your magic? Do your hands shake or tremble during presentation? Do you stutter or stammer often?

How about going after girls (for guys), how many of you are afraid to even talk to a girl you like? Are you afraid of rejection? Are you afraid the girl is going to say "STFU AND PAY ATTENTION"? If you're afraid of the last one, I think you shouldn't be dating your teacher.

Okay that's the end of point one and also the end of the philosophical section of this rant.

Next point, let's entertain some of our mathematical friends here:

1+2+6+4+9+3=?





Answer : 25! Congrats!

Just kidding... seriously let's do some calculations on the amount of school fees you're going to be paying if you go up to University.

Point #2

For Primary School, Secondary School and Junior College... I'm going to assume that you're malay so your school fees are $0 (ignoring the misc fees because they are ever changing)

HOWEVER, you still have to spend money on books and uniforms! This will cost $100+ per year. Then you enter university... and the school fees + books will completely drain your money away faster than you can say "STFU AND PAY ATTENTION!"

All these amount to how much? Quite a sum I'd say...

But of course you guys should know that I'm a magician, all those were just misdirection in hiding the real thing you're wasting...

You're wasting around 15 years of your life studying and you'll probably only ever use 15% of the knowledge you learnt!

Imagine what you can do with 15 years of your life... let's say you slack for the first 5 years. You go out and spend a lot time with your friends and of course you'll naturally learn some social skills from there. If you choose to be stubborn about slacking, you can steal your friend's school textbooks and flip through them once.

Next 2 years you become a salesman at the nearest major electronics store (eg Best Denki) earning $1k per month and at the same time learning the art of selling things.

The next 3 years you continue selling things BUT you pull in $3k a month instead doing the same job since you should already be a professional in selling by now. Don't be surprised with the figure, I have a friend earning average $200 every weekend doing sales. Once, he earned as much as $400 on a single weekend. Just in case some of you are thinking... weekend = saturday + sunday.

Look at how much money you're already earning without even going to school! And you still got 5 years more to spare! You can do something very useful with these 5 years like trying to measure the perimeter of our little island, Singapore.




:wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub:




Okay some of you must be asking:

So ZzaG, what is the real reason that made you write out a damn long article which no one will read or even care about?

Well all I want to say is that:

You're all lucky to have gone into magic. Magic teaches you social skills which is very important. Teaches you to be confident in yourself. Teaches you everything a school doesn't (mentioned in point #1).

However...







Magic also drains you of all your time and money LOL! (refer to point #2)

okay thanks for reading this tremendously long thread.

Peace,
ZzaG

AHAHAH!! Breaking away from cliche, I actually DID "Laugh Out Loud" when I read that... very nice article, ZzaG.

Yes, I'm glad that Justin freaked me out with a mathematical mentalism card effect back in July/August of 2002... if not for me getting hooked on magic, I'd still be the pathetic, conformist, shy little fair-skinned kid that I was. Actually, I kinda got a tan from those NDP days, but that matters moot.

Another factor that made me the crazy whack American dude that I am today is my move to the American School. Here, it's more social-based... you actually get to talk about subjective matters as opposed to just taking in all this (to me) useless info and regurgitating it out later in an even more objective exam that will determine your future.

And lastly, had it not been for Huron's "tips" and his "Maths 2004 for Dummies" I got for my birthday... well, you guys don't need to hear about any of that stuff :P

But yeah, thanks again for posting this article, ZzaG... truth lies in your words ;)

-Kev

Yes. Refer to my post about wasteing life away here:
http://singaporemagiccircle.com/index.php?...topic=1435&st=0

Good post btw.

Thanks Kevin and BuaYa for the replies... I'm glad you liked my article :)

haha come to think of it, my post is very similar to yours except that yours is direct to the point.

Reading through other threads, I see you've chosen to enter JC. Hope you know that this path means that you MUST go to a university because an ITE cert > A level cert. ^_^

anyway your thread has inspired me to extend my article a little bit in this post of mine:

I see lot of people in your thread are like saying "Don't neglect your studies or you are going to regret it!"

The reason most people study up to University is to get good jobs with high pay right?

Study hard, get into a university so you can get a good job!

A very common advice to all of us.

Well here's an advice from me to you:
Watch the movie: Fight Club

A quote from the movie:

That was beautifully said by Tyler Durden in the movie.


He also said the following which is a bit :off:

really makes you think huh?






in a nutshell, do whatever you want to do. If you have a dream, pursue it. Why be normal like the other 4 million Singaporeans? Society has us thinking that if we don't follow the norm, we're wrong. It's human nature to follow the crowd. That's why I'm here... I'm here to disturb this natural...umm...stuff.

I know people are telling you that being a pro magician is not easy, hard, crazy and whatever... so what do you do? I say you go ahead and prove them wrong!



oh and Kevin... I'd like to thank you for inspiring me to get into card flourishes. Great tutorials you have in your website :)

what is especially cool about your flourishes is that while other people are flourishing with their bikes, tigers and vipers... you're flourishing with aladdin. Respect B)

hmm.. I agree with you to a certain extent. (don't worry, Level-Structured essay is not about to follow) ^_^

similar to Kev, my school talks about subjective stuff, life-related social-whatsoever skills, sad part is that they focus on academic shi* too. and CCA. and house-based activities. and leadership, and just about anything a damn school can think about. so perhaps, each school has its pros and cons.

I LOVE FIGHT CLUB. watched it over and over again, when I got the dvd. just like I watched the LoTR trilogy, but that's not the point.

hmm.. do I sense some stereotyping of Singaporeans? B)

I believe that for quite a large proportion of Singaporeans, or rather the rest of the world influenced by Western culture, their dream is to be able to retire blissfully (also in a nutshell). they've been brainwashed with PAP virtues through the mass media, and peer pressure. not that this goal of theirs is bad, but do the means justify the end? or, (as quoted from a particular movie. forgot which one.) is the juice worth the squeeze? sure, they can retire blissfully. but when they look back they realise they never set out to do the things they really really wanted to achieve.

here, books like 100000001 things to do before you die, or Living Real for Dummies would help.

where did all those dreams of becoming a hero (say, a fireman/policeman/superman/wonderwoman or whoever) go to? perhaps another reason why some of us found magic, was to be able to recreate the feeling of being that hero, one who shares the happiness of others, rather than being happy for himself.

I've gone :off:

to sum up my post, schooling is um.. bad. why? simply said, the end does not justify the means when it comes to schooling.

Wow. Reminds me of one of THE most dramatic lines EVER, from a movie I have yet to see:

Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a f***ing big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of f***ing fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the f*** you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing f***ing junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, f***ed up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life.

Taken from Renton in "Trainspotting"

-Kev

seriously this passage is way too long for me to read but oh well school sux >.<

all u temasekians out there... this may sound familiar. it is in english but this forum cannot display chinese characters... it only sounds nice in chinese...

studying is hard
studying is tiring
study still must pay school fees
why dont go join underworld
got money got reputation got status
*******

the last line i find it a bit offensive to some people, so i censored it.
justin ye, i think you know this rite?

quite relevant to the topic. if people came up with this "poem", how much does the education system have to suck?

lets see, that would be:


读书苦，
读书累，
读书还要交学费，
不如参加黑社会，
有钱有名有地位，
*******


this sounds cool, really!　anyway, did i get any part wrong? :)

Let's go join the 黑社会 then!

:P

gordie... correct... even got the last line correct! you know this quite well eh...