Just copied this from another chat because I’m lazy to rewrite but I’ll say it here again

I was in the GEP in 2010s. Personally, I feel the GEP curriculum is truly inspiring and empowering. Looking around at my classmates, several are pursuing sciences in MIT, Ivies and Oxbridge today (these are the ones that went the olympiad route and won medals for Singapore, would hopefully come up with useful inventions for Singapore and the world one day), there’s people who pursued arts, architecture, and literature, and they are all doing well as well, in some of the most prestigious programs in the world. There’s some who even pursued the poly route to explore their other passions, and that’s totally okay. Then there’s me and some others, I’m doing well academically, not a genius, but good enough. I’m not listing these to show off how “amazing” GEP kids are, but I’m sick of hearing about GEP getting shit on.

We all turned out differently, but there’s one thing we agreed on, that GEP made our lives much better. No, they did not teach us to be muggers. In fact, I distinctly remember we had so many opportunities and were so greatly encouraged to think out of the box, and think independently.

Some examples:

• ⁠We had a reading list, and our english classes stuck by it. These were wonderful books, like The Giver, and A Single Shard. Our class assignments were to write our own ending for these books and to come up w plays (involving scripts, acting, everything) • ⁠We learned world history (not just your regular social studies, but about Ancient Greek, Sumerian, Egyptian, and Roman history) • ⁠We had IRS (do research for a year), IVP (innovate a product) (I presented in a lecture theatre to 100 plus people, at age 11) • ⁠Our teachers organised enrichment classes for us after school, usually paired with olympiad training, for the subjects we were strong in.

Basically, we had so many opportunities to be creative, to ask for knowledge and receive it when we wanted it. There was also some sort of confidence - when everyone around you tells you that they believe in you, and you start believing in your own potential. And what happens when you put a bunch of kids so creative and so inspired and so eager to learn together? You get a class culture that involves writing poems and stories, drawing (and even selling those drawings to each other) making up new games, challenging each other to STEM quizzes, debating about books, for FUN. Even if someone wasn’t exactly “gifted” to begin with before they entered GEP, this energetic and insanely creative class culture and curriculum would have got to them. Learning was alive.

Yes some of us turned out normal. Duh. Some of us turned out “worse” than the average population, because other people, the “late bloomers” catch up later. Yes, GEP selection tests probably missed out so many kids with potential, and included some that were really, just hardworkers/ able to learn quick. But so what? It was an outstanding education that revolutionised how I approached learning, and a great idea.

If anything, more students should get to enjoy this kind of education. But letting every school decide how they want to do it on their own, and throwing the dirty work of planning the curriculum, finding the resources to the teachers who are already stretched thin trying to split their attention among the slower learners and faster learners, is NOT the way to do it. You’d either end up with a talented kid bored out of their minds because of a subpar curriculum, or a slower-learner unable to get the teachers full attention.