I WOULD like to share my thoughts on one aspect of the issue on having children in Singapore, a topic brought up at the National Day Rally.

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How you expect when you jam pack 4 to 5 million people into a small space? Its everyone for himselfherself, wat! I believe our population density is about 6 to 7 thousand people per sqaure km and if we minus the forest reserve, it is possibly 10000 ker square km,. I am 99% sure it is the highest in the world.

Where got time to be courteous, caring, etc? Where got time to acquire and show characteristics of good character? Coupled with a stupid educational system where principals and MOE officials only want to wayang and are not really interested in fostering good old classroom teaching and learning, who want to raise kids here nowadays?

As a result, I know of so many young couples who want to get married but don't want to have children.

i think singapore is a good place to grow up in. at least is it peaceful here and we do not have to worry about being shot down by our nieghbours or bombed by terrorists all the time. i do enjoy growing up in singapore(:
yes, i do see some Singaporeean children behaving in a very selfish manner and all. but i believe that it is how we are brought up. singapore provides the things/equipment and what not that we need to progress from our foundation, of which, is the way our parents teach us. true, it is very competitve here in singapore, and at times it is all for oneself if we really want to go all out, but we can do it with the right mindset and attitude still. the real world outside/overseas, esp for developed countires can be that competitive as well. singaporean kids now are taking almost eveyrthing for granted, which is why they turn out like how they are portrayed in the article. teachers cant scold them, for the next moment, the parent will call in and complain against the teacher. sports training are so horrendously 'slack' now compared to the older generations, why? cos if training gets too tough and the child gets tired, she cries complains to her daddy/mummy and there, another complaint against the coach. parents have to first learn to let the kids toughen up, only then can kids lern things the right way and not think that they're the kings and queens of the world. anywhere we grow up in, be it in Singapore or in erm, USA?, if our parents are like that, the kids turns out that way. so there, it aint really totally Singapore's fault. growing up in Singapore is actually quite fine.

Singapore's society is very merit-based. Thus, I feel that many children are focusing on their studies, some to the point of being selfish as they are afraid that they will fall behind their classmates. Some parents are only fuelling this by placing an overemphasis on their children's grades, sending them for tuition or extra classes when they dont meet a certain expectation.

If Singapore is not the place to groom young man or woman of character, is there an "ideal" society? In western societies, youth have sex before the age of 16, people see having premarital sex as a norm and there are many teenagers who are single parents - surely this is not what we want our children to be. I feel that each society has its strengths and flaws and Singapore's flaw lies in the overemphasis of grades and credentials from young. However, we must agree that Singapore is a very safe and peaceful place to grow up in.

In one way or another, parents influence their children, especially when they are young. Parents should give their children some freedom to grow and let them learn to how to stand on their own feet from young.

As much as I do not agree that Singapore is not a right place for children to grow up in, I think that this issue is very subjective and I cant dismiss the writer's views of how she thinks that Singapore does not provide the ideal environment for children to grow up in.

However, i disagree with several statements that she has made. In my opinion, the examples of "prevailing attitudes among the younger generation", as so mentioned by the writer herself, does not reflect Singapore's society, but a global culture of the Generation Y. Fact is, this is not just the way youngsters in OUR society is turning out, but youngsters in the world is turning out. If this is what the writer is unsatisfied with in Singapore's society, then my only question to her is "Which country provides a society that fits the bill then?"

There is no perfect society for a child to grow up in, negative influences are everywhere around the globe, in every nation, every society. Peer pressure is faced by students even more commonly no matter where they are. What really matters is the how a child is able to distinguish right from wrong, and live life according to the values and principles that the family has set for them. And this is where parents play a very important role.

For me, the thing that really kept my life- actions, emotions and thoughts- in check is the kind of values that my parents have instilled in me. These are guidelines that i follow in life, and setting right my principles allows me to stand firm especially in situations where there is just a "fine line" and compromising seems so tempting. Since the global society seems to be walking towards a path that doesnt appear to be very healthy for this new generation, parents should be alarmed and be more responsible in inculcating right values into their children.

I do not disagree that society's influences and peer pressure are external factors that might sway the minds and attitudes of children, but this is part of growing up, and so is monitoring and actively correcting the lifestyle of your children part of parenthood.

I agree that the Singapore society places alot of emphasis on Education, but i'm proud of it. Our education system helps students to excel academically, and contrary to what the writer thinks, i think that our education system promotes good values as well. Sauntering in late for appointments and expecting the professors to wait up for them are not values that the education system promotes, these are attitudes that this generation of youths have given birth to, and is something parents should attempt to correct. Apart from what the various examples that the writer has given, i think she has failed to see the other side of education system that has reflected positive learning outcomes from students, such as independent learning and project-based learning that has allowed them to learn to work with peers and be a teamplayer.

The writer argues that Singapore is not a suitable place for children to grow up. I do not think this is the case. Singapore is actually ranked the top among other countries as one of the best places to settle in. In countries like Japan and South Korea, the education system is much more demanding than the one in Singapore. The students there only have a few hours to sleep everyday and due to the countries' booming population, the competition level between peers is so high that sometimes students cannot cope anymore and resort to committing suicide, etc. In Indonesia, the education system is so lexing that in the end it does not motivate the students to work harder. The students are given less work to do, and therefore have a lot of free time to play. It can be a bad or a good thing. But, I was once a student in Indonesia, Surabaya, and I found that my friends were generally lazy and did not have the self motivation to work hard, which was very different from my classmates in Singapore. I found that the education system, peer pressure and society's influence in Singapore offer just the right intensity and quite positive values. Sometimes, we cannot solely think on interests of children but also the future that they can have. If they are allowed to pursue their interests or to do something that they like, but may not bring benefits for them in the long-run, the parents have to think twice. I also believe that resilience and the ability to embrace failure are values that are offered here in Singaporean society.

the writer thinks that youngsters nowadays are not well-developed, even though parents are doing their best to aid these teens in their character development. i disagree with the writer regarding this point. with just a few examples surrounding the writer, he/she assumes that all youngsters nowadays behave the same way, which is not true. he/she also doubted the education system in singapore, whether it promotes moral values to students to aid them in a good character development. it is right to say that factors such as schools, social systems etc do influence youngsters, but i personally feel that schools have been doing their best to teach moral values that will help develop these youngsters well. i believe that ultimately, it really depends on whether these individuals are willing to develop themselves well, and in order to let these youngsters be willing to develop well, parents have to teach them well when they are very young, even before they start attending any lessons in schools. as children learn better at young, and it gets more difficult to change and correct them as they grow, having a good start when the child is young is equivalent to half a battle won. thus, i believe that wanting children to develop well really starts with what the parents do with their children when the child is still young, and as the child grows, external factors will not influence the child, or youngsters, so easily.

If Singapore is not the good place to bring up our children, try living in HK, Taiwan, Korea or Japan.

You will learn to appreciate what Singapore has to offer given the disadvantages our small island has to face.

Maybe I would like to share my view on th points the writer made. Having living in Australia for 5 years, wat I can said the Aussie younger generations have got the same, all even worse, problem. The Australian education and enviroment are too relax and the Singapore system is too rigid. This really amazes me for I just wonder why people have to go to the extreme in confronting education. Because of Singapore's limited size, our people have really limited oppourtunity to persue other interest other then going into Finance, Law, or purely academic studies. Aussie kids are allowed to persue sports, dacing e.t.c subjects to get into Uni.This should be the point the gov should look into.

i would like to say that there are implementations in the Singapore's education system grooms us to be responsible. take 'Teach Less Learn More' and 'Student-Initiated Assignment' for example. both require students to do their own research for their projects based on given questions and tasks and conduct presentations which will be counted in the overall marking scheme, so as to make sure students do participate actively in their own researching. saying that all students in Singapore expect all the information to be given to them would be generalisation.