Wednesday, January 20, 2010
When you screw up in life, sometimes you just got to force yourself back up
How many people out there in the world have cheated at least once in their life, whether in school or in life? At a conservative guess, I'd say 100%. Just a few billion.
"To err is human, to forgive divine"
Sometimes, you just find that no matter how hard you want to resist temptation, for some reason, you just can't help yourself. You give into it.
A classroom is one of the most taxing environments in the world, especially mentally. Grown men who have no problem facing down a rifle butt still think twice before engaging a test paper in mortal combat in the classroom. Part of the reason is because of the environment the inhabitants create is extremely hostile to the sane man. In a pragmatic society, students in Singapore are forced to compare and contrast their various results, in all manners of tests, whether big or small. And I am forced to admit that I have been drawn into this way of thinking.
It is contagious.
I cheated today for my Chinese test. If I hadn't been caught, I'd have no idea how many more times I'd do so just to get the marks I'll require to get into sec3. Or to be eligible for alternative education paths. While I feel guilty enough about my own actions, what I would like to highlight is the fact that while I was the only one caught, I was not the only one who happened to be cheating for such a small test. I name no names, but it seriously is disappointing to know that apart from yourself, your environment has also been severely corrupted.
Perhaps if society today relaxed its competitiveness in so-called better schools, people would have a better chance of developing their morals. Will this "kiasu"-ness ever be removed from society in general, particularly here in Singapore? We may never know.
somebody wrote this at [5:38 PM]
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