http://news.insing.com/tabloid/govt-studies-possibility-of-underground-science-city/id-00253f00
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I wonder how humans and rodents will co-exist in an underground city? This must-watch entertaining YouTube video clip explores one possibility:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tCtM8UEQv8&sns=em
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Meanwhile, I always thought the human rat race was stressful, and wise adults will let their children be children first. But, alas, even six-year-olds (or younger) are becoming trapped in a rat race of their parents' making, as this excerpted TODAY story below shows.
The story's angle faults the tuition centres in question ("enrichment centres" -- such an apt nomenclature... we know who are getting enriched!) but, really, the complicit parents and their hapless offspring are the ones I shake my head in sorrow at:
http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120103-0000020/Sorry,-your-child-is-not-bright-enough
'Sorry, your child is not bright enough'
Some parents and observers are questioning the motivation for entry tests for enrichment centres
[T]he practice of some enrichment centres of holding entry tests for children as young as six has raised hackles among some parents.
But centres which hold such tests defend it as a way to screen prospective students and understand their abilities better.
Finance manager V Ang's six-year-old son recently failed an entry test at a popular enrichment centre and is preparing to take another test at a different centre. The 33-year-old said: "The screening is quite ridiculous... when I sent my son to enrol, they even required information such as which primary school he will be going to. It is quite stressful, as it is not only difficult to get in but expensive too."
Another parent, Ms Serene Tan, said her son, who is in Kindergarten 2, was unable to get a place at the Learning Point after he could not pass the entry test in November. The investment consultant, who is her mid-30s, questioned the motivation of enrichment centres that are solely focused on helping students who are already strong academically to do better.
She added: "I find it very odd that they have such comprehensive entry tests even for children at that age. The centre said that my son didn't do well in his spelling and grammar, but he is only in K2."
Enrichment centres here conduct entry tests for children in kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools. The duration of these tests are usually between 30 minutes and one-and-a-half hours. An English test for a K2 pupil, for instance, can include grammar, composition, spelling and reading segments.
When contacted, several enrichment centres, which hold entry tests, reiterated the need for the entry tests and pointed to the results they have achieved in helping children who have the aptitude for accelerated learning.
[The rest of this story is not worth putting up here. You can read it all in the link above.]
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Imagine this scene (with some mashup of timelines, based on my theory of relativity):
Mother A: Albert, stop scrawling all those funny stuff on your kiddy whiteboard! What's all this stupid E=MC squared thing about? Scrub it off and go prepare for your enrichment class NOW!
Mother B: Issac! ISSAC!! Do you hear me, boy? Stop staring at that stupid apple tree and come home with me right now. You have your enrichment class too. And I'm not letting you hang about with that Einstein kid anymore. He's a bad influence on you.
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