Country: Singapore                            
Title:    Inculcating Core Values in Our Children
Descriptors:       Values; Primary school curriculum.  
Full text: I made these points in order to put the issue in
  perspective.  But like everything else in life, there is a price
  for success and the price for Singapore is that for educating our
  people and our children in English as a key to the techological
  knowledge of the West, we also inadvertently expose them to
  cultural influences, attitudes and habits of the West.  Our people
  by being educated in English do not need to read books in
  translation as is the case in Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia.  They
  are able to read published materials directly from the West and see
  television programmes directly.  And this openness is accentuated
  by the development of television as the most pervasive medium of
  communication in the world today.  Television has made closer the
  realization of one world where events that take place in one
  country can be instantaneously transmitted with great emotional
  impact on citizens in many other countries around the world. 
  Whether it is soap operas, situation comedies or momentous events
  like the funeral of the Emperor in Japan or the destruction of the
  space shuttle "Challenger" in America - all these can be
  immediately perceived by our children in Singapore.  And this daily
  dose of television material from the West must, over time, have a
  significant impact on our children's attitudes and outlook towards
  life.  This is why we are today talking about why it is necessary
  to retain our core values in a situation where we have emphasized
  and encouraged the use of English as a common working language and
  exposed our people and our children to the media, particularly
  television from the West.

  How do we go about inculcating core values in our children?  I
  think the answer is not with the schools.  The answer is with the
  home.  Inculcation of core values must begin with the home. 
  Children absorb core values even before they go to school.  They
  learn them from their parents, grandparents, relatives.  When
  children are young, they are natural imitators.  They see what
  adults do, how adults behave in the home and outside the home, and
  they follow.  If there is an environment of politeness and respect
  in the home, these values are absorbed by children, as if by
  osmosis.  You do not have to teach them consciously.  But the
  values will remain with the children for a long, long time.  So it
  must begin in the home, but it can be consolidated in the schools.

  Within the school structure, inculcation of core values is best
  done during the primary school years.  This is because during the
  primary school years, from ages 6 to 12, these are the years where
  children's impressions and characters are still being formed and
  attitudes are being shaped.  By the time the child gets to
  secondary school, it is unlikely that there will be the same impact
  as in primary school when the lessons can be vividly impressed in
  his or her mind.

  Now, what principles should we follow in the teaching of core
  values in schools?  From the debate last Friday, it is generally
  agreed that the inculcation of core values cannot be effective if
  it is confined to a subject that is taught only at specific times
  and by specific teachers.  As noted by the Member for Moulmein and
  the Non-Constituency Member of Parliament, Dr Lee Siew-Choh, it is
  the ethos of teachers in the school.  It is the example of the
  teachers that play the decisive role in the transmission of core
  values to pupils in school.  A school that is well run and orderly,
  where there is an air of politeness, respect and consideration - I
  think that that school itself is a better vehicle for the
  transmission of core values than any formal lessons that we can
  devise.

  Last Friday Dr Lee Siew-Choh in his speech made a point that many
  of the Chinese stream schools in the old days, particularly the
  primary schools, used to teach good traditional values particularly
  good manners.  I think he has made a valid point.

  In fact, in 1979, noting the rapidly declining enrolment in the
  Chinese medium primary schools, the Government introduced a
  pre-primary programme in order to arrest the declining enrolment in
  the Chinese medium schools and to provide the foundation for the
  learning of languages.  Unfortunately, as I shall explain later,
  because of the changes that the pre-primary programme had to
  undergo in order to accommodate the large number of schools that
  were involved at the start (67 schools or approximately a quarter
  of the present number of primary schools), the programme had over
  the years to be substantially modified until it is today
  effectively a kindergarten programme.

  But the original intention was correct.  There is much in the
  traditional discipline and culture of the former Chinese primary
  schools which can be usefully incorporated to inculate desirable
  core values in Chinese children.  And we should prevent these
  Chinese primary school traditions from being totally lost.  Many of
  the Chinese primary schools have closed down because of declining
  enrolment.  But fortunately, we still have a number of existing
  primary schools which have not lost their Chinese primary school
  character, and we should retain these schools as Chinese-type
  primary schools but now teaching CL1 in addition to EL1.  These
  schools will help to keep alive the best traditions of Chinese
  primary school education.  And if we can succeed in keeping the
  number of Chinese primary schools, we can in a way use them as
  "seed schools" to see what lessons can be learned in the area of
  retention of core values which can later on be transmitted to other
  primary schools.