I've occasionally followed the Singapore National Education series of articles by Mr Brown, and since I'm a hermit, I found out about the shocking news of item 14 only today.
If you're a foreigner, these are some of the best/worst reasons why you should/should not let your child(ren) grow up in Singapore.
These kids were guilty of nothing more than probably watching pornographic VCD and the corporal punishment meted out by the school's principal was certainly much heavier than that of an equivalent army commander in Singapore. Hmm, is the principal trying to run a pornographic inquisition, the equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century?
I'd say, that principal certainly have the makings of an army commander or general.
Sex is a part of life, and indeed, it gives life. What's a school for? Education, isn't it? If knowledge such as geography, history, literature are taught to us, yet have not much value to us in our day to day working life, I fail to see why there shouldn't be a general sex education class. Where are teens supposed to learn about sex? In polytechnics? Junior Colleges? Or in universities? And the Singapore Government is crying about the declining birth rate?
Let's look at a comparative situation. Some road accidents happened because of drunk driving. So certain institutions publicised it, and indeed, ran advertisements informing the public not to drive while drunk.
So, if teenages are learning about sex via pornography, and may indeed, someday, contribute to the growth of the population, why shouldn't they learn about sex in school? Should teenages be taught about sex only when they have to face the consequences of having participated in it?
I don't see any reason why drivers should learn about drunken driving before they're even involved in an accident, do you?
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