Primary One- Melissa

Overview of the Exhibition: 

The first art piece that caught my attention were the plastic babies placed on every table. Some tables were higher than the others. Every plastic doll seemed to have a very grim expression on their face and were also carrying a cardboard cut out that either had a green tick on it or a red cross. At first, I thought that ticks and crosses illustrates if the baby was accepted in society, if they were, there would be a tick next to them. But after watching the video, I had an impression that the plastic dolls with the ticks and crosses were associated to the video that we'd watch. I felt that the ticks and crosses showed if the baby was disabled or not. I think that if they had a cross in front of them meant that they had a disability; such as they were deaf or blind. 

At the very end of the exhibit, there were many chairs and tables that were facing a huge screen. The tables had a small screen where there were flashing images and graffiti on it. Every table had different images and writings and each table had a different topic. The topics on the table had to do with the video that was played on the big screen.  Although there was no audio, I understood what was happening, as there were subtitles. In the first video clip, there was an Asian women and a blonde haired women. The Asian women did sign language whereas the blonde haired women did very vague hand gestures. I think that the video showed how much difference there was of someone who knows sign language and someone who only makes gestures and movement of someone speaking. The next video clip showed another women who was doing sign language to a baby. There were a few negative words such as, 'unemployment' and 'domestic violence'. I then realised that the words that words had a relation to the writings and pictures on the tables. There was a table, which had flashing image of heading that said broken marriage and also, a picture of actors and actresses who had divorced. The table writings also had words like, violence, tears, unhappy conflict and anti love affair. Walking around the exhibit, I had also saw a picture of a girl who was skipping alone in the basketball court. I felt that the picture showed social isolation. This picture reminded me of when I had started Primary School. When I was Primary One, my classmates and I would be on different ends of the courtyard and we would play by ourselves. 

Discuss one photo in depth:

One of the many images that I found very interesting was the one, which looked like a class photo. In the photo, no one was smiling. Instead, many of them had a very uncomfortable expression on their face and some just had a blank look. The class consist of many races. I think that the picture showed that there was racism in the class. 

Education in Singapore

I feel very blessed to be able to study in Singapore. I think that the education in Singapore has many benefits and has many opportunities for us to do well. Moreover, I think that the education in Singapore is very all rounded, as it has both physical education and academics.

Idealism vs. realism

Idealism is when you envision or see things in an ideal or perfect manner. Whereas Realism is to have an actual view of a situation. I think that being an idealist is causes us to see things in a very hopeful manner. I feel that there must be a balance in the two and we cannot be too idealist or realist. Being too idealist would make us over confident and may have lofty ambitions, but lack the clarity and focus to put them into action in an achievable way.

Globalisation and Nationalism

Globalisation affects people and states all around the world. It characterises a world that becomes more and more interdependent, not only economically, but politically and culturally as well. Nationalism is the belief that nations will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively, emphasizing national rather than international goals.