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Monday, September 25, 2006

E06 E07

Personal Development andHuman Relationship

Choices to make in learning1) Do you think the achievements of

Chan and Sham are just one-timeluck? Your reasons?

2) Chan and Sham were not able tobalance their area of talent and theiroverall academic work. What arethe reasons? What have they promised to do tomake up for the shortfall? Do you have any sugges-tions for them?

Time allocation3) If you were Chan or Sham, would

you be willing to sacrifice yourleisure and study hours to developyour talent? What are the main con-siderations?

4) What are the criteria by which you allocate your

daily hours? Set a practical timetable for your newacademic year. State the objectives you wish toachieve this year.

Class discussion5) Some say it is good enough to excel

in one speciality and it is not neces-sary for one to become a “general-ist”. Do you agree?

6) Some say the fact that Chan Yik-hei has beenadmitted to university despite unsatisfactory exam-ination results shows that a good grounding in basicacademic knowledge is not important. Is this opin-ion valid? What do you think is the substance of“basic academic knowledge”?

7) Debate the topic in groups: “School-based educa-tion stifles creativity and leaves no room for stu-dents to pursue their dreams.”

INVENTOR Thomas Edison (愛迪生) used tosay: “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99percent perspiration.” (「天才是99分努力加上1分天

分。」)

Clearly, no matter how talented one is, to suc-ceed, one must work very hard. But working hardand having talent, it appears, just may not beenough, as the cases of Chan Yik-hei (陳易希) andAristo Sham Ching-tao (沈靖韜) illustrate.

Without doubt, Yik-hei and Aristo are bothextraordinarily talented. But the achievements intheir respective fields - science and music - haveapparently come at the expense of other areas ofdevelopment.

Their cases raise the questions: is it desirable tofocus just on the area of one’s talent to the extent ofneglecting other areas? And is all-rounded develop-ment just as important as excelling in one spe-cialised area?

In the newsBOTH Yik-hei and Aristo have been in the news.

Yik-hei was thrown into the spotlight when hewas named “Youth of the Year” for inventing adomestic security robot, Total Equip (全能機械人),which won second place at the 55th Intel Interna-tional Science and Engineering Fair in Portland,Oregon in 2004 when he was only 15.

He even had an asteroid, 20780 Chanyikhei,named after him by the Lincoln Near-Earth Aster-oid Research (LINEAR) centre for winning thecompetition.

Last November, he was in the news when ahydraulic rocket he invented was demonstratedduring the visit of China’s Shenzhou 6 astronautsFei Junlong and Nie Haisheng.

He was accepted by the Hong Kong Universityof Science and Technology

for a degree coursewhile he was a

Form Five stu-

dent at The Church of Christ in China Tam Lee LaiFun Memorial Secondary School (譚李麗芬中學). Asthe first Secondary Five student in Hong Kong tobe accepted by a university before completing hiscertificate examinations, he was again the subject ofmedia attention.

At the time, he described the news as “a dream”and promised to do his best to justify the faith theuniversity had placed in him. This summer, when itturned out that his results in the certificate exami-nations were less than satisfactory, with failures inboth English and Chinese, some criticised him forsetting a bad example of “overly indulging in a sin-gle area to the neglect of all-rounded development.”

Yik-hei admitted that he was stressed by becom-ing the target of criticism and pledged “to do what-ever it takes” to make up for the inadequacy in hislanguage skills.

Ten-year-old Aristo Sham Ching-tao, meanwhile,was dubbed a “gifted child” by the local media forwinning first place at the Ettlingen InternationalCompetition for Young Pianists near Stuttgart, Ger-many (德國埃特林根國際青少年鋼琴比賽) in August.

Upon his return to Hong Kong, Aristo was pre-sented to the press by the Academy for PerformingArts together with another Hong Kong student,Wong Wai-yin, 13, who finished third in the samecompetition.

But for Aristo, a student of the Diocesan Boys’Primary School, the time spent practising piano hasbeen putting pressure on his hectic academicschedule. He admitted being late occasionally incompleting some of his homework.

Young Aristo has made “handing in homeworkon time” his “new academic year resolution” andwill work hard to keep his top position in mathe-matics. To achieve this, he will be cutting back onthe time he spends on electronic games and onwatching TV.

Such are the prices these student prodigies payfor their achievements.

WHAT I hope to achieve most from my secondaryeducation:

A) Good language and communication skills

B) The ability to think critically

C) Interpersonal relations skills

D) Understanding oneself and concern for the world

Chan Yik-hei admitted by USThttp://hk.news.yahoo.com/060526/60/1o7ou.html10-year-old Hong Kong pianist wins international contesthttp://hk.news.yahoo.com/060813/60/1r8eg.html

Editorial, Sing Tao Daily: “We appreciate the opportu-nity given to this young talented inventor by UST.However, as tuition is conducted in English, the uni-versity should impress upon him the importance ofbeing competent in the English language. Otherwise,he would not be able to comprehend academic papers,nor would he be able to write his own. If this is thecase, he would be putting the scholarships he hadbeen awarded to waste, and would be a big disappoint-ment to his supporters.”Head of a parent-teacher association: “In terms of theamount of time at our disposal, we are all equal. Weall have to make choices as to how to allocate ourtime. It’s all about give and take. Some students may

choose to spend all their time on school work, andmiss the chance to develop a talent to its fullest. Like-wise, Chan Yik-hei has chosen to focus on scientificinventions, and in doing so he has given up certainthings.”A veteran educator: “Chan Yik-hei should try to take amore balanced approach to his work after he has start-ed university. While being enthusiastic in science, hemust not lose sight of the importance of developmentin other areas.”A Form Four student: “I admire Chan Yik-hei’scourage in breaking through the boundaries of the tra-ditional mode of education and his effort in realisinghis dream ... But of course, certain old rules are valid

and must be followed, otherwise we will go down theslippery slope of ignorance. A good foundation in Eng-lish and Chinese is important.”A columnist: “In a fast-changing world, knowledgefrom books is hardly adequate.”A Hong Kong Polytechnic University student: “Thepresent spoon-feeding style of education (填鴨式教

育) stifles the students’ creativity and the ability todream. Had Chan Yik-hei been spending all his timechasing after examination results in a famous school,he would not have achieved his goals in scientificinvention. One of his classmates said he had to giveup the competition (競爭) for his school work. Thatclassmate might be just as talented as Chan in

inventing things. It showed that it is a matter of giveand take.”A newspaper editorial writer: “In the learning of music,art and dancing, it is usually easy to start but difficult tofollow through. It is all too common for enthusiasm(熱心) to be overwhelmed by the increasing pressure ofschool work. In the end, only a few persevere.”A primary school teacher: “It is a basic requirementthat students complete their school work. If a studentneglects basic academic work, excellence in a spe-cialised area will be achieved at the expense of inade-quacies in a solid grounding in general knowledge. Astudent must acquire basic skills such as reading, writ-ing and mathematics.”

Is being extraordinarily talented in one subjectthe key to future success, asks JJaanneett WWoonngg

ProdigalLet’s review some comments on the case of Chan Yik-hei

Voting zone:

References

Translated by Lon Yan

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