I do not believe that setting ridiculous rules will help students appreciate the values of rules. Hair is a ridiculous rule, that is for sure. Why I think so is simply because people are going to hate these unnecessary rules, and in this age of globalisation, we all have friends moving abroad, studying in less stressful institutions such as international schools. We as students want the same for ourselves. Also, there is NO justification besides what raistmar said, so why keep it?
Well, I believe that "MTV imperialism" works for me, so according to you, I should discard all my roots and take what works for me. I feel that tradition over here is just wrong. Confucianism is a thing of the past that ought to be thoroughly exterminated and quashed like the bug who wrote those teachings, sure they were practical and useful a few thousand years ago, but today, it's just the outdated musings of a dead man.
I think you're misinterpreting what I'm trying to put across, like what i said, inorder to ignore the rules, first of all you have to know what is right and wrong. Although the hair rule is ridiculous (in our point of view) you cant deny the fact that rules are there to put order in things, and thats what people appreciate; order. Perhaps the hair rule is there to determine the success of implementing the school rules, like for example teachers wont really know if you smoke after school, perhaps this hair rule just reaffirms them that if students follow a simple 'hair rule' they are probably not breaking any harsher/more serious rules. But I'm just speculating, and we wont really know untill we ask the right authority.
And if you want to see a globalised utopia then you better appreciate the value of rules. Why? because globalisation in essence is the combination of all the cultures, (its not really a combination, but like existing together in a peaceful way), so there will be conflicting ideologies which without rules and such, there would be much chaos. Also you seem to be very supportive of globalisation, which will ultimately rob you off your identity in a sense. You may ask why, because globalisation is not about individuality, its about collecting everyone and putting them together, you cant just do whatever you want, you have to be tolerant and mindful of other cultures. Yes globalisation is good, but like everything, it also have its downside.
And lastly, your ignorance demeans you. Sure, if you think that christmas, chinese new year, new years, valentine's day, hari raya and all those special days are all about selling products, if you think that its good and cool to disrespect your parents and each other, that its all right to look down on someone poorer or someone different from you and all those flaws I see in an american culture, if you think that all these is what the humanity needs, and these are all your goals then yeah, sure, be one of those zombies walking around complaining 'hey if my brother/friends can do these, why cant I?'. I have a few friends in an international school over here and some in other countries, and everyone of them seem to think that the teachers doesnt really care all that much, that most of the students gets violated someway or another, where students can even bring weapons and such, if thats what you're after then jyea, fight for what you believe in.
Also when I said tradition, I dont mean confucianism, I meant our values, our asian culture where we value our family, that health is wealth and that money should not drive us, our tradition and not just our ideologies. Of course Singapore has flaws too, but like I said, we have to find our own truth, our own way of doing things.
Sometimes I wonder what would happened had China/Japan been the more dominant country
