What’s the point of learning history? Can we learn anything from Singapore history since it’s so short? What are the problems of learning history in Singapore? The Singapore Heritage Society wants to hear from students in seminar to be held this November entitled Students at Centrestage: A Seminar on Learning History in Singapore.

To be held at the National Library, this seminar is organised by the Singapore Heritage Society. Here’s a preamble about the seminar from the event’s Facebook page:

The teaching of history has undergone tremendous change in recent years: syllabuses have been rewritten, sources have become a major form of assessment, and the content has been framed to cultivate thinking skills and citizenship education. The changes are, we know, part of the ongoing revamp of the education system in pursuit of Singapore’s desired status as a world city.

This seminar will return students to centrestage. It will acknowledge the interest, creativity and potential many students show towards the past, while highlighting the obstacles and frustrations that plague the experiences of others. It will, most importantly, listen to students’ views and feelings, not because they are necessarily true, but because they exist and ought to be empathetically heard and understood.

We invite teachers to approach their students or students to contact us directly to present their views and experiences (10-15 mins per presentation). We are looking for students doing history and social studies at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. The form of presentation is flexible. Students can present singly or in small groups (up to 3 persons), or engage in an informal dialogue with a teacher. Besides the presentations, students can also send notes of their views and experiences by email to the conveners. Teachers will not present at the seminar, although they can facilitate a dialogue session and are encouraged to attend.

Find out more about the event here. To start you off thinking about Learning History in Singapore, James has a reflection filled with cartoon anecdotes which you can read here.