I intend to be a tutor and mentor to Singaporean teenagers once I’m done re-taking my A-levels.

There are many tutors out there, but my priorities are as follows:

1: I want my students to spend as little time studying as possible.

16, 17 and 18 are beautiful learning years. You’ll never get those years back. Being young is full of opportunities that you progressively lose as you grow older. Junior College (or Polytechnic) is a unique opportunity. You should study, yes. You should get good results, yes. But you should also live a fulfilling, balanced life.

You should be learning- not just about what’s in your books, but what’s in yourself, and what’s in your friends, and what’s in your community, your culture, your world. You should learn to listen, to explore, to laugh, to dance, to express yourself and to respect others. I don’t want to charge by the hour, then create the illusion that “number of hours studied” is something to gun for. No. We will systematically kick the syllabus’s ass, and we’ll have fun doing it.

2: I want my students to enjoy learning.

If you don’t enjoy learning, I don’t blame you. If you’re an intelligent, inquiring individual, our education system is practically designed to make you hate learning. If you don’t have parents, peers, siblings or role models who motivate you to study, school is going to feel really lame and pointless. Because for the most part, it is. It’s obsolete, outdated.

But consider this- Mathematics, Economics, Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History- all of these fields (and others that I haven’t mentioned) have people who are intensely passionate about them. You’d never guess it from being in a classroom in a Singaporean Junior College, but out there in the world there are people who find differentiation, organic chemistry, monetary policy and iambic pentameter INTENSELY EXHILARATING. People dedicate their entire lives to these pursuits! Why?

Because it’s fun, because it’s interesting, but our education system doesn’t show it to you. Passion is what matters, what keeps you going. Sane people quit. It takes crazy people to succeed, and everyone’s crazy in some way. You have to find a way to get crazy in the right direction. I hope to help you with this.

3: I want my students to want to search for passion and meaning.

No, I don’t expect them to find it. I’m still looking, myself. I think I’ve kind of found it. I might look back on today 5 years from now and think “Wow, what an idiot I was”. In fact, I practically guarantee it. But you have to be doing something.

In life, I find, we ultimately regret the things that we don’t do. I don’t regret bumming around after school with my friends, I don’t regret skipping school to play rock concerts, I don’t regret staying out all night smoking and drinking. I don’t. What I do regret is what I didn’t do- I didn’t find a way to make my studies matter to me, I didn’t earn the trust and respect of the people I trusted, respected and admired.

4: I want my students to call me out on my bullshit. 

I want our learning experience to be as bullshit-free as possible. You have as much to teach me as I have to teach you. I want the freedom to be as honest, authentic and sincere with my students as possible- and their parents too, if necessary. I want to be honest with them about life, about school, about relationships. I refuse to use political correctness as a tool to avoid sincere engagement.

This is still an idea in progress. I will figure it out as I go along. I have faith that there are individuals out there who are craving this sort of engagement. I know I did, when I was a teenager. In fact, I still do. If you’re out there- I’m here. If you don’t like my style, I know others who are similar, yet different.