I was supposed initially to talk about my mum's medical expenses, but the Singapore Government was not in a rush to bill us as they are wealthy this year. Even though I took the pains to configure my access to my mum's medical bills via the HeathHub app, I can't get billing information.
Instead, I'd like to discuss my work teaching Law at a Polytechnic. Some adjuncts have not renewed their contracts, so we have no guarantees that we will have (earned) income next semester. Naturally, some of my colleagues feel a bit nervous. It will seem more like a disappointment for me because I enjoy teaching pre-employment students, and I take the liberty to give them some extra material I deem essential to young adults, which I wish someone would have taken care of when I was in JC.
One issue I was passionate about was the low Singaporean adult literacy skills reported on mainstream media. I wanted to verify whether this was the case in young adults. Before asking for more details on their books, I reminded everyone that reading is a hobby that women find attractive, even though I know guys tend to buy fewer books than women.
Most of my students read a non-academic book over the past 6 months.
They could also tell me about the books they read.
Finally, I recommended a book for those who generally don't bother to read anything. Michiko Aoyama's What You Are Looking For is in the Library would be a great way to start, as it is about how reading oblique book references can lead to massive improvements in a reader's life.
There are a lot of folks out there who want to apportion blame on why literacy rates amongst adult Singaporeans are so poor. I read about some literature teachers blaming our policy of de-emphasizing the humanities as the real reason this is happening.
Examining and testing folks on English Literature is to blame because Singaporeans who need fiction to pass exams will not be intrinsically motivated to read. My first serious literature was shoved down my throat when I was 10 years old; it was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, but still today, my belief is that once you understand Mr Darcy's cash flow from his estate, you don't really need to know about rest of the work. I also think it's very colonialist to force Singaporean teenagers to read books written by dead white men.
I will never choose Shakespeare over Gary Gygax. What is the point of understanding Macbeth and the nature of human ambition when the 1st Edition D&D Dungeon Master's Guide already provides rules on the pentagram you need to draw to summon or entrap demons? Lady Macbeth can't fight a Type V Marilith demon. I read more than 95% of the Singapore population because I knew when I was 10 that digesting hundreds of pages of RPG rules makes me competitive in the RPG gaming tables and, subsequently, in some math/verbal exams. One of my greatest moments was seeing the word "necromancer" on my SAT verbal exams.
Anyway, while we are on the topic of reading, I just completed the first arc of Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives.
The first arc of the series is contained in 5 brick-sized volumes. Reading it was a massive effort that took up much of my life.
My motivation?
The Cosmere RPG based on this series generated $13M on Kickstarter, and I don't want to miss out on this new generation of RPGs.
Even fantasy has evolved beyond what my generation has enjoyed, like Dragonlance, Magician or Game of Thrones. This series ended up weaving concepts of mental wellness into a fantasy work.
Sadly, I must teach myself to remain open-minded and enjoy this series.
Five volumes are a serious investment of my time, and there are five more to go!
