Character development or academic excellence

     Education is very important in our life. In schools, the two main part of education are character development and academic excellence. In Hwa Chong, academic excellence will be including our daily subjects, such as Language Arts, Maths, Science and Chinese. On the other hand, character development might refer to Arts, and other lessons that build our character. Currently, there is an emphasis on academic excellence. However, I have to agree that schools should be placed more emphasis on character development than academic excellence. Firstly, it will affect our relationship with others. Secondly, we will be healthier. However, without academic excellence, our life will be harsher. 

     Firstly, character development is important as it affects how well we can communicate, and more importantly, have a good relationship with others. We have AAT lessons, they help to improve our thinking. With the help of the AAT tools such as the Habits of Mind and the use of Socratic Questioning, we will be able to understand ourselves, and understand others better. This allows us to communicate with others. For example, Steve Jobs was the former Chief Executive Officer of the Apple company. He was able to understand the customers, know what they want. He was also able to communicate well with people, thus able to promote his products. He did not succeed in his studies, showing that academic excellence is not as important as character development. This also showed that it is important to be able to communicate well, and by having more emphasis on character development, it will be easier to succeed in the future.

      Secondly, character development will improve our health. Singapore is a fast-paced country, everyday we are rushed and stressed, thus leading us to be ill easily. Character development will be important. PE, Music and Art, they develop our character. Sports can keep us more healthy, as we need to exercise for a period of time per week. Music and art, if we can appreciate them after lessons, we will be able to relax ourselves, being less stressed. Illness is mostly because of our mind, if we are in a better state, we will be less likely to fall ill. Thus, character development will improve our health and more emphasis should be placed on it.

      However, we need some academic excellence so that we can achieve things. Teachers need to have knowledge to teach, we will need some maths in the future, be it being checking for errors in receipts, or being a scientist. It is important to have academic excellence so that we can achieve better results. 

      Even though academic excellence is important, there are many examples of people who did not have academic excellence, but was able to achieve great results. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and even Albert Einstein, they did not complete their education but that did not stop them from succeeding. It is more important to have a    resilient heart, to never give up and give in to failure. IQ can get us a job. But it is necessary to have EQ to get a promotion. We might need academic excellence to make a step forward, but it is even more important to have character development to take more steps forward. We might not have the step forward for academic excellence, but we will need character development to pull us through. Thus, schools should place more emphasis on character development than academic excellence.