You wanna know what’s the difference between the Singapore education system and American education system? I experienced it this morning in MS320 (Popular Culture) class.

Our TA, Ms Randolph was going through the lesson slides, we did some group discussion… About 15 minutes to the end of the class, she asked a question referring to the readings we were supposed to have done before class. Silence, no one volunteered to answer. She realised something was amiss and asked who had done the readings. No one except for maybe one or two put their hands up. That was it. It pissed her off real badly. She said it wasn’t fair that she did her part and we didn’t do our part, she proceeded to shut down the computer and said we were welcome to leave.

If you’re going “Isn’t that good? Class end early lehz,” you really haven’t grown up. I think the whole class felt pretty guilty after that. That’s the difference about the education system here, lecturers aren’t going to spoon-feed you with answers. In Singapore, when the lecturer asks a question and there’s silence, he/she ends up filling that silence with the answer or forcing someone to give the answer. Here, it’s different. You’re expected to participate in class, there’s really no other way to it. The lecturer does his/her part, you fulfill yours as a student.