A mature person

I spoke to a German lady who married a Singaporean and had lived in Singapore for 30 years. She explained the key feature of the German education system to me. During her time, and that was 3 decades ago, she was selected to be in the "gymnasium" stream. Students who had the ability to think logically and abstractly were selected for this stream. This was the stream that went into university and, during her time, comprised the top 5% of each cohort.

On completing the gymnasium school, she received a Certificate of Maturity. Her school principal told her that shw was certified to be mature, which meant that she was able to think and decide on her own,  and to learn new things on her own. She was "mature".

I was impressed with this approach. It is what education should be. I find that our education system produced a different type of person, who is not confident of taking decisions and responsibility. Our education system do not produce "mature" people.

A university professor, who has taught for many years, observed that many Singaporeans mature when they are 40 years old. Before that, they were not confident and had to be told what to do. I agree with her observation about the (lack of ) maturity of Singaporeans. Some never mature at all.

Tan Kin Lian