The Young Ones today

How materialistic image-wise! Where's the innocence of the past?
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What President’s scholars do not want you to know

(with thanks to Sunday ZB)- By Lim Shi Hui

The most prestigious of local scholarships – the President’s Scholarships – were awarded last week.

Many past recipients are now national leaders, while others hold key positions in various national institutions.

This year, there are four recipients. Although I have only been on the education beat a year or so, I have had many opportunities to interview scholarship recipients and top scorers. Most of them struck me as having high IQ and EQ – they were intelligent, articulate and not at all stand-offish.

However, I was quite surprised at the President’s scholars I interviewed this year. One of them, when asked about setbacks he had faced, answered without hesitating: “Setbacks? Of course I’ve had them. But I don’t want to talk about them. I don’t think it should be published.”

What an answer! It is very smooth – it shows a strong sense of privacy. But such a flat no to letting readers know more about him does not seem very smooth. Most of my previous interviewees were open to talking about setbacks, even something as small as failing a test. Even if they did not have an answer, one could tell they were giving serious thought to the question.

Another recipient, when asked about his interests, launched into a listing of all the competition prizes he had won. This is the first time I was given such an answer. Most interviewees would answer the question directly and talk about their interests, whether reading, co-curricular activities or surfing the Internet.

Another recipient got the scholarship despite not scoring straight As. The media felt that this is very positive, as it shows that the scholarship committee does not only look at results, but that overall performance is more important. Surprisingly, the day after being interviewed, this recipient asked the media – in a not-too-friendly way – not to mention his results. He said this was the biggest setback in his life and he did not want to publicise it. But as the recipients’ results were clearly stated in the media brief from the Public Service Commission, it was reported anyway.

We reporters were puzzled. Even if his results were not as good as expected, his hard work was rewarded with the scholarship, and his future is bright. Why is it that he cannot face such a small setback, and was even trying to hide the facts?

The four recipients definitely have what it takes to be President’s scholars, but I think that as role models for the elites and as future leaders, they should also have the ability, courage and grace to face failure and learn from it. Also, there is nothing wrong with showing their strengths, but they are only 19.

The fact that they are already evading even harmless questions and making it hard to get close to them makes me wonder what kind of poise and attitude they will carry when they become leaders in future. However, precisely because they are only 19 and are new to the ways of the world, we should not be so harsh on them. Hopefully, by the time they complete their studies and gain more experience, they will be more confident and sincere.

After all, besides being smart and capable, we would also want our leaders to be unpretentious and magnanimous.

(The writer is a Zaobao reporter.)