politic

I learned in English that politics is a noun and politic is a adjective. Or an adjective. It means that if you do it once, it is descriptive but if you do it more than once, it is prescriptive. Because that is what adjectives are, they describe things, and that is what nouns are, they are things themselves and happy to let you know it.

So I will be politic. And maybe even polite, when I say that the education systems of East Asia are truly amazing. My so-called liberal Nordeuropean mind has suffered big wrenching and turning to realise that down here, governments actually mean what they say when they say the state is more important than the individual. It is very feudal, but it is also true, provided the individual keeps his importance. And here, it is so.

What I am saying is that here, a government says, "Every kid will get computer access and be able to do a research paper by the time it is eighteen." And then it becomes true. I am in awe. The main problem I see is that 50 kidders can do it, but only three can understand why it is a good thing. Over the years, it may become more, like maybe 30 of those 50. It is a transitional time, and made harder when I see my colleagues some of them have forgotten how to write such things. But they try very hard. I only see such workethic in Scandinavia and Germany, and nowadays, not even so much.

My boss proudly told me that the school I am teaching in has won every award. So I did some investigation. I think the school is able to make a big profit out of a little investment. They have very clever people here.