Transformsters

Problems. We face it every day. But the level of serverity depends.
(note: This is generic)

Level 1: Unimportant at all when met with a crisis.
- Problems are rather shallow
e.g "What should I buy? A pen or a correction pen?"

Level 2: Rather important, yet it does not involve a lot of thinking.
- Problems are important, but may not drastically affect your life.
e.g "Should I go for my tuition or my SYF rehearsals?"

Level 3: Important and your choice may decide if you live or die.
- (Rather self-explainatory)
e.g "Should I go and talk and comfort her? (as she had just experienced a break-up)"

But are problems actually worth our life? There are people in Singapore who commits suicide or attempt suicide because of problems in which a solution cannot be found. (Breaks off into the song "Solution"... Whoa-oh! God be the solution...)

Sometimes, when we face problems, really big ones, we try to hit it head-on by ourselves. Not very successful, as we just make the problem worse.

Let's just talk about the education system in Singapore. The world is getting more competitive. Everyone is fighting (literally) for job posts and any other thing in life that is beneficial. It gets more and more stressful as parents start to stress their kids in school now. (To all parents who may read this, I am not blaming you, as you would want the best for your kids.) Even primary school kids are getting so stressed. P6 kids are leaping off blocks just to escape the looming giant known as PSLE. Sec 4s are cutting their wrists with rusty penknives because of the battleaxe-wielding O levels. Even university students wants to get run over by cars just to avoid the crazy exams.

But what is actually the root of all these problems? What is causing the students to kill themselves? Is it really the stress? Or is it the system itself?

The education system is so... packed with work that we students are forced to do so much and learn so much in a short period of time. Yes it is because we are living in a fast-paced world but does this mean that you sacrifice lives just to keep up as "One of the top fifty Education Systems in the World"?

Even adults are not able to keep up to the pressure. Adults are getting retrenched just because they do not know some particular thing that came up 15 syllabus after their own. Lifelong learning is important, yeah I know.

But some of the students studying are not able to handle the stress. And because the teacher is under more pressure, the teacher cannot help the students. And, by that, students get left behind and left to worry about topics which they do not understand at all.

Do not forget, teachers are under more pressure to keep the number of passes up. The lesser the number, more likely that the teacher will be "asked to leave".

Education minister, is this what you are trying to acheive? Yeah, I understand when you want a great education system, but some are not able to be on the mark. With no one else to turn to, they will take their life, as they feel that "If I die, everything will be better. I will not get steamrolled by this stress." Studying is important, but now we are just studying for the sake of it. Few have experienced the joy of studying, just because of the breaking point of the stress level. Minister, how are you going to solve this problem? We do not have a heavily-flawed education system, but we have neither a flawless education system.

When we meet up with this kinda problem, I guess we got only one way to turn to. And that is God. Jesus can relieve us of the stress and, furthermore, comfort us about it.

Suicide is not a solution. It is a sign of cowardice.

Erm.. what was shared here, please keep it within the CG... I do not want this to leak out to every Tom, Dick and Harry.

Ok, I admit, I had thoughts of contemplating suicide last year. I just felt that everything was against me and I did not have the stuff to go on. Felt really terrible that time. Classmates were against me, my studies were against me. I may appear as if I had no problem at all, but inside me is a rough and stormy sea. Felt as if I was controlled by the devil.

But during one of the Youth services last year, one of the visiting pastors (sad... I forgot his name) shared a super powerful sharing. And when he called for an altar call, I just went up. I did not know what made me do it, but I just did it. And that was when God just re-hit me with a sledgehammer. I knew then that God actually loves me a lot. It's just that I'm too occupied with worldly stuff that I totally forgot about God.

Ok... too much digression...

Anyway. We must turn to God whenever we hit an obstacle. No one ever said that the Christian walk is a bed of roses. The obstacles can actually bring us close to God.

Talked too much... again
(P.S I'm trying out block colouring... it's like cooler)