“Our system of elite education manufactures young people who are smart and talented and driven, but also anxious, timid, and lost, with little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose... heading meekly in the same direction, great at what they’re doing but with no idea why they’re doing it.” -- William Derisiewicz
 

In this special Singapore-based edition of The Line, we ask the hard question about raising excellent sheep with our guest speakers and invited guests, including Mamakan (artist), Sarah Ichioka (Hon FRIBA, The New Intentional Communities Project), Maya Thiagarajan (Educator and Author, Beyond the Tiger Mom) and Nadine Yap (Digital Media and Social Entrepreneurship Product Strategist, Business Operations and UX Optimizer).

Part of the evening:

Durand (moderator): 

Well, we are lucky to have with us here tonight the artist Mamakan, who can speak to the Scandinavian system of education that we’ve all heard so much about.

Mamakan (artist, Treasure Island 2017 at National Museum of Singapore and GastroGeography 2016 at Singapore biennale):

Coming from a country where everything’s free, paid for by the state, this whole tuition system really bothers me. I grew up going to whatever school is close to you. At one point, my family lived in a place withe three bands of income. There was a beach area with high income, a middle area and a poor area. I remember visiting a kid from the poor area, and her house was almost made from cardboard, and that was normal, and I felt sorry for her. I tried to make her come to the local disco, some kind of rescue thing which was totally silly. We had that exposure—it was normal. We grew up with all sorts of people. We didn’t have exams till we were sixteen. There were a few tests once in a while that nobody cared about. I grew up not making any homework. The beautiful thing about that is you grow up doing what you love. I spent all my free time reading newspapers and taking photographs. Today in my art work, I do fine art photography and installations, using social commentary in my work. I used my childhood for doing what I am today, and I think that’s maybe why I am successful, because I spent all those years doing what I love… Until somebody said, but no you also have to make a a living, and I spent a few years in the corporate world trying to do that, and I wasn’t very successful! What I’m trying to say is that I think that most parents are missing the big picture. Some of those wandering years, I spent in future research, and with the AI revolution that’s coming, there’s only three things that kids need to be good at. One is empathy because that’s the only thing that machines can’t be good at. Yet. Apparently some forty percent of Japanese men wish to have robot wives. Creativity is very important, because machines are not really good at that. The third thing is the wild card, that is if global warming goes completely crazy, which it will, and we’ll all have to be foraging and living in rudimentary conditions. And none of those three things are taught in schools. None of them.

Sarah: 

Building on what Mamakan said, I think when you look at the Scandinavian model, it really highlights how the majority of transatlantic anxieties around preparation for higher education is based in the neoliberal system, and which conditions us to perform as individuals in competition and with very little safety net. So you can’t fail. If you’re relying on your child to provide for you in your old age, of course you’re going to drive them to the lucrative job they can succeed at. Whereas in the Scandinavian model, because there is that broader social contract about supporting people, there is more room to let people fail. It’s envisaged more collectively. I really wish that those of us who are parents would use that as a catalyst to find solidarity with others to look at broader systemic change, as opposed to purely looking at our own pathway.

See the full story and listen to the podcast here

"Hi Mamakan, thank you for making our afternoon yesterday very special. It was the most interesting thing I have done in SG in a long time. The kids looooved it and were so enthusiastic about telling about it when we got home. They proudly told my husband that they were Senior Eco Warriors;)". Proud Parent

Join our band of young eco-warriors to defend edible plants in Fort Canning Park from a greedy general! The game plan: we hunt, taste and smell plants such as the sour apple, wild pepper, hibiscus and blue pea flowers*. Finish off with an exciting trivia game and a homemade snack to celebrate our successful defence of Mother Nature.

Tickets: $28 per player, includes educational game booklet, tastings and a snack. 

Notes* Edible plants are prepared for safe consumption and children are supervised at all times during the game. Recommended age is 7 years and above. 

Questions? Please click here

Join our band of young eco-warriors to defend edible plants in Fort Canning Park from a greedy general! The game plan: we hunt, taste and smell plants such as the sour apple, wild pepper, hibiscus and blue pea flowers*. Finish off with an exciting trivia game and a homemade snack to celebrate our successful defence of Mother Nature.

Tickets: $28 per player, includes educational game booklet, tastings and a snack. 

Notes* Edible plants are prepared for safe consumption and children are supervised at all times during the game. Recommended age is 7 years and above. 

Questions? Please click here

Invited by Xyntéo, a sustainability advisory company headquartered in Oslo, Mamakan was asked to create an art/food experience for The Performance Theatre, an annual meeting of thinkers, influencers and doers united by a shared commitment to reinventing our growth model.

Held in a different city each year, it provides a 36-hour space for leaders to learn, explore, reflect and question accepted wisdom. In 2017, TPT was held in Singapore on June 16-17.

The theme for 2017 was “Invisible Realities”. Across the world, there is a mounting sense of deep estrangement in many quarters – between citizen and leader, work and purpose, and even from ourselves. How do we connect to those who we struggle to see, let alone understand?

Join our band of young eco-warriors to defend edible plants in Fort Canning Park from a greedy general! The game plan: we hunt, taste and smell plants such as the sour apple, wild pepper, hibiscus and blue pea flowers*. Finish off with an exciting trivia game and a homemade snack to celebrate our successful defence of Mother Nature.

Tickets: $28 per player, includes educational game booklet, tastings and a snack. 

Notes* Edible plants are prepared for safe consumption and children are supervised at all times during the game. Recommended age is 7 years and above. 

Join our band of young eco-warriors to defend edible plants in Fort Canning Park from a greedy general! The game plan: we hunt, taste and smell plants such as the sour apple, wild pepper, hibiscus and blue pea flowers*. Finish off with an exciting trivia game and a homemade snack to celebrate our successful defence of Mother Nature.

Tickets: $28 per player, includes educational game booklet, tastings and a snack. 

Notes* Edible plants are prepared for safe consumption and children are supervised at all times during the game. Recommended age is 7 years and above. 

Spend an afternoon indulging your senses and be taken on a culinary art journey based on the highly successful “GastroGeography” exhibitions. The Mamakan Art Collective will inspire you to get creatively in touch with nature, tasting your way through local botanical treasures and rediscovering part of Singapore’s forgotten food heritage.

The Artist Lecture will feature an 8-course taster menu, each accompanied with a new story. Travel back to Singapore in the 1400’s with cocktails ranging from Bathing Princess on the Hill, a purple liqueur made from Fort Canning flowers, to the explosion of flavours in the SpiceBomb of Diversity, a daring futuristic infusion of native spices.

Book early as tables are limited. Notes: All taster items are vegetarian, gluten-free, and free of pesticides. Virgin cocktails (non-alcoholic) are available by request.

• Saturday 18 February | 3-5pm. Registration from 2.45-3pm.
• Venue: Glass Hall, Singapore Art Museum | 71 Bras Basah Rd
• $49 pax | $490 per table (max. of 10)