Love for learning
Remember how, as kids, we might have picked up that dinosaur book, spaceship model, or flags-of-the-world catalogue and allowed ourselves to dive into a whole new realm of adventure. ?
My earliest memory of Republic Polytechnic was its association with the fatal news in 2010 involving members of the ‘Sah Lak Kau (369)’ gangsters. I also learned about the latter society then. Several years later, I remember being in church after a nighttime event, and one of my older friends said he was taking classes in a Polytechnic. I remember that moment vividly because it was also when I found the whole situation strange. Wasn’t he already holding a pretty prestigious job, and weren’t Polytechnics not very ‘good’ schools (lol, I know right - the callousness. And I assure you I wasn’t even considered a sheltered kid to have those narrow ideas ingrained into me at the time. I have long gained a fairer perspective and repented.) So, why would he be taking classes there? His response was simply that his employers were paying for it, so, ‘why not?’ and it had been refreshing and enjoyable for him as well to feel back in school.
I thought to share this memory from many years ago, because the rhetoric and culture on upgrading had since seen a monumental shift. Anyway, this isn’t a pro-government, SkillsFuture-esque plug on upgrading (or the trendier 'upskilling'). I was just delighted to have attained my first ever certificate awarded by a Polytechnic! The goal was not to upgrade or increase my employability per se. It was purely in pursuit of the many multidisciplinary areas I had always been passionate about. It is also one of the few courses I had paid out-of-pocket after university - an extremely rare move I make, given how I had always been one of those parsimonious learners who wholeheartedly believed that in this day and age, almost anything could be learnt for free on the Internet; something I believed I had been quite successful at ever since honing the invaluable art of 'learning how to learn' since my pre-university days. Even this course was purchased in view of supporting any potential licensing and accreditation endeavours, were I to actually proceed in this path. Otherwise, I would have probably still taken to the limitless knowledge hub of YouTube, MOOCs, and the like. Anyway, congratulations to me - I hope we learn to say that to ourselves more often, especially in silent and solo endeavours such as these.?
I also hope all the more that we continue to venture into new areas of learning, not for the sake of some socioeconomic survivalism, but for the sake of our Baudelairean souls in a world where the Working Millennial endures daily battles with burnout. Baudelairean - I mentioned: “Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will, childhood equipped now with man's physical means to express itself, and with the analytical mind that enables it to bring order into the sum of experience, involuntarily amassed." Remember how, as kids, we might have picked up that dinosaur book, spaceship model, or flags-of-the-world catalogue and allowed ourselves to dive into a whole new realm of adventure. ?
Talk about the social fabric of a nation bursting at the seams with organic interdisciplinarity. May we love ourselves enough to love what we have fallen in love with learning.?
[Early Apr 2022]?