Another personal story.

I didnt do well in my MCE(SPM). In fact I did abysmally. Somehow I couldnt learn. And this was during a time when we had a good educational system with many dedicated and professional teachers. But they couldnt reach me. My mind rebelled. I needed to know the whys and the hows. I also needed to know the why nots. And they could only teach the rules of operation. So I flunked. Not their fault. They tried their best with what they had. And because they tried I thought I was stupid.

And this stupid boy was sent to London. There I met a student from Penang who was doing his PhD in law. A guy called KP Tan. He saw something in me and he spent many many hours teaching me how to reason, how to think, how to learn. Then I met a Pakistani lecturer in Economics and he took me to his night classes in Economics at University of London, I met a maths teacher from Greece who would meet up with me in the evenings to discuss philosophy. My physics teacher wrote me a testimonial and said I was a genius. I dont think that is well deserved but all the same that was what he thought.

How come? How did a dropout from Malaysia become something in the UK? What did they see and appreciate that the teachers in Malaysia didnt. They liked my questions. They excited my mind. They made learning interesting. They were interested in learning too. And they didnt talk down to me from their insecurities. And the boy blossomed. And now I am a man, a father and you have this blog. :)

When I got involved in Chess, I found many Chess players with that kind of mind. Questions, questions, questions. And over the years I see the light dimming. They dont question so much after a while. The fire is dying. So maybe its personal. Maybe I see myself in them. And now we dont even have the type of education system we had before anymore. What a tragedy.

The teachers then didnt know how to handle kids like me although they too produced smart people. But now we know that there are some very smart kids that need different approaches. We have that knowledge now. What are we going to do with those smart ones that cannot afford an overseas education or get a scholarship for one? The environment counts.