Raising Our Successful Children, Singapore Mom Blog: Becoming Singaporean (Citizenship Education)

Becoming Singaporean (Citizenship Education)

The individual who has a strong sense of self awareness would eventually become a citizen who will care and want to contribute to the community, nation and world.

Being a Singaporean, it is a responsibility to raise our young to be a Singaporean. To many people, the term 'Singaporean' is just another label and the word 'Singapore" is simply associated with the red passport that they hold. With the trend of social media, we can see many young Singaporeans are voicing out their opinions freely and sometimes, naively. Other Singaporeans uses social media to voice out their resentment. Personally, I feel that we need to educate our young and raise them to be Singaporeans who are interested in learning about the history, culture, who cares for the nation and finally, who wants to contribute when they grow up, to make Singapore a better place.

Why is it important to raise our young as Singaporean?

Every year when I go into a new class to teach Social Studies or a Citizenship Education lesson, I never fail to get this comment - " Cher, propaganda time again?"

To find out why they have such thoughts, I question further.

Me: "What makes you think that it's propaganda?"

Student: " Because you are just going to teach us that the Singapore government is very good and everything about Singapore is very good."

Me: " Alright, can you tell me what I am going to teach you specifically?"

Student: " You will teach us that Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Lee Hsien Loong are very good leaders who help Singapore become what it is today."

Me: " Go on."

Student: "You are going to teach us that our HDB very nice and we are very lucky to be here."

Me: " So how is this propaganda?"

Student:" Because these are not true. There are so many people who are unhappy with the government. Everyday suck money only. ERP suck money. HDB so expensive. House so small. Then must wait so long to get a house. Everything in Singapore so expensive. Then everyday, must study, study, study."

Me: " Wah..everything seem so bad about Singapore, why don't you go to another country?"

Student: " I will when I have the chance."

Me: " To where?"

Student: " country A"

Me: " The leaders are corrupted there."

Student: "country B"

Me: "The traffic is jam everyday."

Student: " Country C"

Me: " The public housing there is quite bad. It is always dark, cramped and and these shoebox apartments are exorbitantly priced. Poor people live in metal cage homes. You sure you want to live in this kind of housing?"

Student: " Country D"

Me: " Racist."

Student: ' Country E"

Me: " unstable currency".

Student: " Country F"

Me: " Country F is a very good place to live in. There is no need to go to school and study. You just need to wake up before sunrise and work in the farm until sunset. No books, no homework. Such a good life."

This is when most students will burst out laughing.

Student: "then go where? Everywhere also got problem one. Where else is good?"

Me: " Try country G. They believe in complete freedom. You can even buy a gun. But, you must be careful every time you go out or go to school. Some crazy fellow might just decide to shoot you. If not, country H is also not bad. The males have all the say and the females just need to stay at home and look after kids."

Student: " Aiya, just stay here la. At least won't die when I go out. Then won't starve to death."

This is where the teaching moment comes- when the students realised that nowhere is perfect. Young Singaporeans are very sheltered and they always think that the "grass on the other side is greener". However, when one makes a direct, specific comparison, they will realise that "Singapore is not bad at all." These negative comments about Singapore stems from the fact that these kids, don't know enough. They are being socialised at home (perhaps) by their parents or other adults to think this way. Moreover, they have no global awareness and hence, they cannot make the proper comparison.

My next question is always - " Tell me something good about Singapore?"

The conclusion is that the students always value the peace and security of Singapore the most.

Therefore, instead of raising Singaporeans who are naive and unhappy, we must do our duty to raise our young to be appreciative of what they have here in Singapore.

There are also 3 stages of Citizenship Education.

Stage 1: Knowing ( cognitive)

Stage 2: Caring ( empathy)

Stage 3: Making a Difference. (Contributing)

Our young must learn what it means to be a Singaporean. This means that we must aim to help them become more socially aware, know what is happening in

Singapore

and have a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by

Singapore

. In short, they must learn about what is happening in their community, nation and in the world.

Learning about the Community:
To create awareness about the community, I developed an activity for the children to explore the neighbourhood. Nothing beats experiential learning for children. After having the knowledge, young Singaporeans need to care for the people around and for the community. They need to constantly reflect on how they can help or contribute so that eventually, when they are mature, they would be able to make a difference.

Learning about Singapore

We have to start educating the kids from young and getting them to learn about Singapore generally- ranging from the culture of the different races in Singapore, history of Singapore, roles of the different units in Singapore. Learning and experiencing different cultures that make up Singapore helps to create a sense of identity and belonging.

For me, I bring the children to different places of interest to learn about Singapore. Also, we make an effort to bring them out to fun places to just play and explore. For example, we go Catching Crabs at Sembawang Park and the Dog Run at Bishan Park. In addition, the children can also learn about culture and Singapore through art and craft. These activities will help to strengthen family bonds and at the same time, explore more of Singapore. Through these explorations, the children will learn what makes Singapore, Singapore. They would then cherish what Singapore has and strengthen their sense of belonging and national identity. ]

Moreover, events and celebration such as National Day and the passing of our founding father provides opportunity for us to educate our children.

The schools are also doing a fantastic job in their Character and Citizenship Education and I fully trust the schools to further educate my children in this aspect.

Personally, I strongly believe that our young must learn and know about Singapore. They must know the interconnections within the society. I have taught many students during my teaching career. But to me, my contribution is not enough. Even though I've made a decision to be a stay-at-home-mum for now to look after my children, it doesn't mean that I stop contributing. I wanted to continue contributing and making an impact. I have been looking for opportunity to contribute. The opportunity finally came when a friend rang me up one day and ask if I was interested to develop a game as part of the SG50 effort. Without hesitation, I agreed. Today, I am honored and proud to present the game - SingaPlorers( official website). SingaPlorers(click to find out more) is a card game on Singapore's Nation Building. In addition, I've designed an activity booklet together with the game so that children can learn more about the history, cultures and challenges of Singapore. These resources cam be downloaded, free online. I hope that through this project, many more people can learn about Singapore.

Some mothers (including myself) from the Singapore Mom Bloggers will be contributing to a blog train on 'What Singapore Means To Me' this August as part of our effort to celebrate SG50.

Developing Global Awareness

Global awareness can be created at home. Through simple activities such as map work or art and craft (Landmarks around the world) , children can learn about the world. Moreover, reading the newspapers together with the children and highlighting news about the world to them would help arouse their curiosity and increase their knowledge.

Family vacations are also golden opportunities to raise global awareness. A special travel booklet is often designed to help my children learn about the country we are visiting and also for them to record their observation and learning. Very often, it ends with the comparison between the country we visited and Singapore.

See sample booklets:
Krabi - Thailand
Melbourne Australia

Make family holiday a learning journey, making it more meaningfully for you and your children.

For than just learning and knowing, the children should be able to contribute. Even if their contribute maybe small at a young age, it is nonetheless a contribution. When overseas, we try to make small contribution as well by visiting local orphanages and try to make a difference to them. One example is our visit to an orphanage in Bandung, Indonesia.

Quoting my husband( after our visit to the orphanage):
" Now, they will have some knowledge and a better impression of Singapore." To our children, " we are the ambassadors from Singapore. Our actions will have an impact on how the world looks at us and interact with us as Singapore."

Contributions by Mothers in educating our young Singaporeans.

See what we, mummies have done to raise our little Singaporeans.

Mummy Ai Sukura

Mummy Danessa Foo

Merlion Park & The Esplanade

Mummy Jenn:

Mummy Klessis Lee

Memories at Old Ford Factory

Mummy Liang May

Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Rest in Peace, Sir

Mummy Lin Ying

TeachingChildren about Singapore History - The Illustrated Men in White

Mummy PC Lee

Back to the Nature! SBWR

Mummy Qian Wen

Mummy Rachel Teo

4singapore heritage trails to bring your children 4-8 years old

Mummy Serene Seah

Army Museum of Singapore

As part of our celebration of SG 50, 13 mummies have come together in a blog train to share about "What Singapore means to me", hosted by Finallymama. Click to read what Singapore means to us.