Failure.
Its been 3 years since I started my part-time teaching gig. Over the last 3 years, I ‘ve seen all kind of students pass through the doorsteps of the school out into the working world. After awhile you get a pretty good feel of who will make it and who won’t. You get a pretty good picture by quietly observing how they go about their work. Sometimes during my mentoring classes, all I do is just observe these guys.
I try to keep in touch with some of the students just to see how they are faring after graduation. In a way I am always curious to see accurate my initial assessment of them is. My observations are usually quite accurate. Its not difficult, because my line of work do require a good amount of dedication and you can judge how serious a student are by the way they approach their work.
Some are big talkers, some of quick burners. Quick burners are guys who approach everything with an insane amount of enthusiasm only to burnout brightly and quickly. Big talkers just like to talk big. These guys don’t last too long if they last at all. Most will dropout of the industry within a year if they manage to even get in.
And then there are the unlucky few who struggles for everything- people with so little innate talent that everything seems like a herculean task to them. Simple concepts which most students can grasp quite easily are usually next to incomprehensible to them. Its not that they are not trying hard enough, but sometimes even the best efforts may result in nothing. I can understand exactly how they feel.
It is like music and me. I have no musical talents whatsoever- can’t sing, can’t dance and can’t carry a tune. I shudder to think what a nightmare it would’ve been if my dreams had been to be a musician.
I suppose it might be a good thing for me to simply advise them to drop out- afterall the fees are really expensive and the their chances never did look good. Some had hardly picked up a pencil to draw since they were a toddler.
But I don’t. I never did and I never will- because sometimes you just never know. Some may be late bloomers who just need a little more time. I guess it might be a fool’s dream, but I think everyone deserves a chance, even a fool’s chance.
So I just teach them like I would any student. By advicing them to drop out would have been the equivalent of me quitting on them. How could I, if I taught them not to quit on themselves. The only thing I will do is to warn them of the consequences of not working hard and and not putting their heart and soul into what they do. I don’t believe being a CG artist is something that one could do if his heart is not into it. I don’t sugarcoat things for my students but neither do I want to crush their dreams. The only thing I can do is to like them know the truth. Its a hard industry to be in, but the payoff is you get to do something which you have always dreamed about. How cool is that?
I guess that’s why I find the attitude of some of our educators somewhat repugnant. I have honestly no idea what the principal had in mind when she told her students to simply give up and apply for ITE since the statistics don’t put them in a good position. I suppose in her own twisted way, she might even believe she is doing it for the good of the students. And in the end, it is entirely possible that she will be proven right as some of the students will fail to make the grade.
But guess what?
Sometimes failure is not the worst thing in life. I don’t believe life has a better teacher than failure. If you fail once and you don’t give up on yourself, failure can only motivate you to fighter harder and work smarter. Sometimes failing also lets you know the limits of your ability, helps you to know yourself better. I can never understand why singapore can do so unforgiving of failures. Failing in school is not a sin. Some people are just not cut out for academia. Why should we equate failures in school as failures in life. It is something I could never understand. There are many things that one could do well in life even if he had never done well in school. I wonder how many people never live up to their full potential just because they let their failures in school affect them later on in life.
School is just one small part of life, the rest of your life is so much more bigger than school.
14 Comments so far
I totally agree with your last sentence. I hope i can believe the same thing when i have children of my own.
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Adding my 2-cents worth … whether they make it in the CG industry should not be most important – the learning experience is.
Take any course, develop the right attitude, and one can make it in any industry.
Maybe not as the dreamed about professional in an occupation which require certain natural talent, but all industries today require multiple skills.
From personal experience, I got into IT because I liked programming. What the fish … the IT industry shifted to outsourcing to cheaper programmers, and I am retasked to do vendor management, team leading, quality assurance etc.
Of course, it’s different if I’m a top notched programmer churning out Warcrafts single-handedly, but I never had that illusion.
So don’t worry about whether a student will make it in the industry – the most important lessons from taking the course is to nurture the right attitude, mindset and background knowledge.
well say, marc. i gotta admit i’m one of those guys, whom u say, dun have lots of talent and with every simple thing that’s easy to grasp, i seem to have a hard time getting. it’s really a fool’s dream for me but it’s far better living in the Matrix of a singaporean mindset. like what steve jobs quote: ‘Be hungry, be foolish’
the other thing i won’t get it is the kind of principals and ministers our local schools are getting these days. it’s as good as they say,’ u are all idiots. dun study and get away from my elite uncaring face.’
As a student learn 3D CG and animation now, I can agree with you that you need perseverance and lots of determination.
When I first entered school, I was one of those big talkers. Then as I went into year 2, I became the big burners. I had lots of cool ideas and stuff I wanted to do, but burn out fast.
Now as I`m about to graduate in a month`s time, I`ve been humbled through see other`s work, seeing others work and working through final year projects myself.
And I agree that failure is one of the best teachers. But it`s only as good as you are strong or willing to learn. You must be able to accept failure, dare to try new things, learn through mistakes[dare to fail, so to speak]. It`s disheartening, but once you get past that phase, you learn a lot from it.
It`s heartening to see that there are still dedicated teachers like you who actually care about how students fare and teach without discrimination!
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You know, this is why I respect you so much more than that fucker called Stressed Teacher.
everyone deserves a 2nd chance…. especially when you are an elite. If you don’t make it (oops, I meant outperform) in the Army, you can try your hand at investments or maybe some statutory board. You see, Singapore gives people a lot of chances… if you are an elite.
More morons. This is certainly a morons’ convention. You cannot produce any proof that a farmer who left the SAF at a rank below BG was seconded to the banking industry or a stat board on “second chance” because such a person does not exist. Only the ones who made it or in your word “outperformed” in the Army have recorded such transitions. Unless you consider BG, COA and CDF are the ones who cannot make it in army context, which really underlines how stupid you are.
i feel sorry for your students if you were a teacher. You are indoctrinating them with your principles of using 1% of fact and mixing it up with 30% jealousy, 30% self righteousness and 39% common street whines passed down from loser to loser to make startling false and incendiary allegations. Sad case.
I am glad that there are still such sharp eyed people out there. For a moment, I thought we are losing such talent to other countries. This has helped us understand these people a little better.
Thank you for taking the time to post your comments. Have a prosperous new year and God bless
Wow, what diverse readers you have! Especially the eunuch who goes by the name of…can’t remember, was it eagle something?
That said, I believe that the intolerance of failure in Singapore stems from the very ‘efficiency’ that has characterized the nation. You cannot be efficient by allowing people to fail and not contribute to the society/economy.
That said, this strive for efficiency has become cancerous, blinding its practitioners to the values of nonacademic pursuits and ethics such as human empathy. A particular manifestation of this disease is the gross wastage of potential talent caused by premature pigeonholing and discrimination.
Kudos to all your efforts, IP. May your students remember and honour you for the good you’ve done to their lives.
lalaland, I don`t see why you should indulge in name calling just because someone does not agree with blogger.
He has his own opinion and is free to disagree with whatever the blogger has posted[I can`t say the same about Singapore and its government..].
You can disagree with him, but why stoop so low as to calling others eunuchs?