Is Teaching Dead?

An exerpt from Tangible Vol. 1 Error Analysis

written by Pearl Tang Xiaow Jun

(Updated as it was (initially accepted but on 9 April 2022) refused representation by a collective at Singapore Art Book Fair 2022)

In this issue of Tangible, I touch upon the education system and the general obsession with grades…as well as the efforts I take to create a positive learning climate in my own classes. 

Carrying out such a teaching philosophy means  both having to subscribe to – whilst subverting -    practices perpetuated by the tuition industry. However, at the end of the day, it is money that moves. Which means that feelings and efforts are given a material value…and in the case of the business aspect of education, society equates grades with value and worth. (Un)Fortunately for me, working as a tuition teacher in the private education industry has revealed contradictions that arises from such an equation.   

              As a teacher/ tutor/ educator (if these terms even describe me) who wants to celebrate my students’ strengths and triumphs in their learning journey (through life, really), I try to create opportunities where students can see that they are more than just numbers alone. That they are persons who can be lauded for their courage and creativity. 

Titled ‘Error Analysis’, this mini-zine explores the private education industry and its contradictions along with my role as a teacher and the collaborative art-making I engage in to actively encourage my students to enjoy the learning process. 

By making the collaborative artworks and processes into a zine, I hope to elucidate the fact that teaching and learning are not fast and formulaic. It is an emotional labour, an investment, a communication, a sharing of ideas, an understanding of the self in relation to others, and friendship(s) between individuals. 

Education is a business that is intimately linked to the economy. A quick Google search will bring you results stating that business, IT computing, and engineering are degrees that are sought after and that  they pay well (in particular if you work as a civil servant or if you work for big multinational companies). Here’s when the money + title = success equation comes in. It is really about branding, profit, and self- image. The college admission scandal in 2019 is basically an example of how education is a business. Wealthy business (wo)men paying to get their children into Ivy League schools like Harvard and Stanford (think $500,000 to a million USD). 

Education is literally an investment when parents fork out money to pay for brands (schools, renown tuition centres) in hopes that one day they will reap the benefits when their child joins Deloitte or JPMorgan (the bigger the brand, the more bragging rights). Sadly, this also means that children (and adults …hence, the ‘Human Resource Department’) are seen as a form of investment that can be measured or managed. 

In Singapore, the idea of meritocracy is drilled into us from a young age (remember the national pledge?). Work hard and you will succeed is the promise. However, in a culture where branding and position matters, it boils down to the haves and the have nots. In his book, An Apple A Day, Jeremy Fernando cites another philosopher, Slavoj Žižek’s observation of show trials – even if everyone knows that it is a performance, it is important to keep up and maintain appearances (p. 53). In this case, meritocracy (not the effort a kid invests in his studies) is an illusion whereby one is able to achieve branding and success through connections and being able to afford tapping into said connections. Tuition offers the dream of achieving what is defined as success in Singapore. It provides the illusion of offering a possibility of attaining a place at a prestigious school, better opportunities for branding, etc. However, to even stand a chance to achieve this dream, one has to invest money into it. So again, it is back to whether one’s parents have the means to tap onto what tuition offers. 

Even teachers are seen through a prism of sorts. Ultimately, it boils down to crunching out numbers through students and retaining clients so that they pay one’s salary. Here’s the contradiction: I do not teach parents who pay. However, in the eyes of businessmen, the clients we are talking about are parents paying me…not my students whom I teach. (Updates as of 31 January 2022, teachers are appraised more on their ability to retain customers than the actual teaching itself...)

In the Power of Gentleness, Anne Dufourmantelle, discusses how we try to make gentleness a commodity by making it desirable, by institutionalising it (p 53). In the case of teaching, the idea of passion – the expectation to go beyond and above one’s duty to nurture young minds – is glorified, placed on the pedestal to be worship by educators. Even if it means clocking in hours outside of work to contact parents, to generate scaffolds and visuals for students to understand the lesson, to attend meandering meetings, to mark and collate results, you are expected to suck it up because you are a teacher.  And teachers are paid …which makes teaching …more like… a service and that it is part of the job to work work work. 

I thought this parent was proper mad. This was the start of the lockdown in 2020 and teachers were figuring things out. If you were teaching for an average of six hours a day and just working on your laptop for the rest…you’d also feel zoom fatigue. But, obviously teachers are not people…we are robots…reduced to just service.

So… is teaching dead? By dead, I mean the rejection of failure, mistakes, and deviations, and keeping clients happy, etc. takes priority over actually nurturing a young mind? Also, what is learning? Repeating what is said in the text book? Not making mistakes? Getting As to show that you understood a concept?

Due to this grade-centric, money + title = success culture, students see themselves through their own grades. One is only a good child if one is a serious learner. Education is serious business! Lessons and studying must be rigid, structured and you must follow the pedagogy. I understand that it is important to have a scaffold for students to climb on and explore…but to just put it down to formulas and strategies? To brush aside the struggles/ joys of challenging a young mind with newer concepts. If they cannot regurgitate what you force down on them, you put it down to laziness? To stupidity? To a teacher’s inability to teach an abstract concept? What is learning if the focus is on grades (which is only one form of knowing…and it is not even an accurate gauge of effort or curiosity that a child has towards a certain topic)?

On that note, this particular series of work is titled, Making Merry in response to learning and grades. It is a reflection of the collaborative art making process and communication I have with my students as I try to understand my role as a teacher and how I see myself in relation to these young individuals. Learning becomes more multi-sensory and understood through not just words, but also pictures. Besides carving out a space and time to enjoy the process of teaching/ learning, I offer a temporary (and unfortunately, very brief) respite from the heat of conventional notions of success.

Tangible Vol. 1 Error Analysis is a limited edition mini zine that is available to order at my little shop.