Thread by @segalink

The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves. ⛱

Countries that value education design a means that makes it theirs as it matches and mirrors their society. This focus sanitizes the kind of contents that the future generation are attracted to. In other words, they avoid culturing ‘wet cements’ (impressionable) in the masses.

In China, the Gaokao is one of the most stressful periods of a high school student’s life. It is known to single-handedly decide your future job opportunities and social status within society. So you won’t say you we’re born into wealth or privileged by affiliation. You decide.

Compared to other college entrance exams in countries like Korea or India, you would think that the test is mostly based off of memorizing & using those “tricks” that are taught at special cram schools.

But some of those questions are actually incredibly thoughtful and creativity oriented. For instance while we dogmatically ask undergraduates to list 5 importance of science, they ask their high school students to imagine with essays in preparation for the future.

If you have been reading my tweets in the past decade keenly, and have learnt a few things that you are currently applying in your life, you probably would be living in Japan as one of their elites today. Here are a few of the kind of questions that you see in Gaokao:

Topic: Roads
Based on the three given uses of ‘road’, write an essay.

1. “The Earth had no roads to begin with, but when many men passed one way, a road was made.” —Lu Hsun

2. There is no such thing as a road that dare not to be walked, only people who dare not to walk it.

3. You may take the wrong road sometimes, but if you keep walking, it will become a brand new road. (From Fujian)

Do butterfly wings have colors? “A teacher asked the students to look at butterflies under a microscope. At first, they thought the butterflies were colorful, but when they looked at them closely, they realized that they were actually colorless.” Based on this, write an essay.

The containers for milk are always square boxes; containers for mineral water are always round bottles; round wine bottle are usually placed in square boxes. Write a composition on the subtle philosophy of the round and square.

Who do you think is the most glamorous person? A biotechnologist who led his company in international research, an ordinary welder who gained international fame through his work, or a photographer complimented widely for a series of photos?

If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? If a deaf person stands next to the loudest noise in the world do their ears get damaged or would they be unaffected?

In my years of building firms these are the kind of interviews I deploy to hire staff not certificates. Ask the hundreds that have crossed my path in the past years. In my world, I don’t leave hiring to HR. Most of the time what we hire for is never mundane but unique.

I learnt that the Gaokao examination period is one of the most difficult time in the life of any youth. It was also recorded that people take their own lives based on the stress. It is an open book exam by the way. You can do your own research but I doubt they allow computers.

This is why we must transform education in Nigeria and rethink the present. We can’t go on like this with PhD holders seeking to drive Dangote’s trucks out of frustration. We can’t keep having psychopathic uneducated officers in the police structure. #RiseAsOne

The turn by turn politics of ethnic extraction that churns out the worst of us taking leadership positions to merely do as pleased in the worst kakistocratic form must be avoided forthwith if the future of our children (Nigeria) must be guaranteed.

We Can, We Will and We MUST #RiseAsOne to build a nation where peace and justice shall reign. Fundamentally, we must raise a critical mass of transformational leaders and enlightened followers who are easy to govern, difficult to rule and impossible to enslave. 🤓

...End of Celestial Observation...

“For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation:

he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” Romans 12:4-9