Drawings can reveal the priorities of educational systems. Let the drawings of my son unravel the unseen. The smaller drawing was done at his Singapore preschool. Notice that he wrote the date and his name. Through four animals 狗，猫，狮，猴, he learnt the radical 犭 . This shows how the paper race starts at a young age for many Singapore children. They are supposed to enrol into elementary school, having learnt how to read high frequency words and write simple characters. If parents don’t do their due diligence in preparing their offspring for the academic marathon, they will find that they are at the losing end - even before the referee fires the gun to commence the race!

The larger drawing was done at his Japanese preschool. He just drew pandas to his heart’s content. Japanese preschools focus on unstructured play and socialisation. No sign of them imparting the hiragana alphabet to their students! The mantra is play and play.

Hope you enjoy my critical eye on the differences between these two educational systems!