27 FEBURARY 2016 INTERNATIONAL.NYTIMES.COM “WORD (WORLD) of YOURS” WRITING COMPETITION 2015 “Global Education” Queensland Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology · St Luke's Grammar School · St. Leonard’s College · SSES Shanghai Shangde Experimental School · Baptist Lui Ming Choi Secondary School · C&MA Sun Kei Secondary School · Canadian International School · HKMA David Li Kwok Po College · Immaculate Heart of Mary College · King Ling College · Our La- dy's College · Po Leung Kuk No.1 W.H. Cheung College · Sha Tin College · SKH Lam Kau Mow Secondary School · St. Joseph's College · St. Mary's Canossian College · St. Paul's Co- Educational College · St. Stephen's College · The Independent Schools Foundation Academy · TWGHs Kap Yan Directors' College · TWGHs Lo Kon Ting Memorial College · Victoria Shang- hai Academy · Yan Chai Hospital Wong Wah San Secondary School · Bombay International School · Fazlani L'Academie Globale · International School Aamby · Podar International School · The Heritage School · The Shri Ram School - Moulsari Campus · Vivek High School · Bina Bangsa School Bandung · Jakarta Intercultural School · Sinarmas World Academy · Stel- la Maris International School · Daewon Foreign Language High School · International School Parkcity · Malacca Expatriate School · Sri Emas International School · Rato Bangala School · St. Xavier’s School · Stanford University Online High School · Cebu International School · Good Tree International School · Philippine Science High School Central Luzon Campus · Philippine Science High School Eastern Visayas Campus · Philippine Science High School Southern Mindanao Campus · Philippine Science High School Western Visayas Campus · Singapore School Manila · Southville International School and Colleges · The Sisters of Mary Schools - Adlas · Dunman High School · Nanyang Girls' High School · NUS High School · Punggol Secondary School · Raffles Girls' School · Raffles' Institution · River Valley High School · St. Joseph's Institution · St. Patrick's School · Temasek Junior College · Bangkok In- ternational Preparatory and Secondary School · Bangkok Patana School · Garden Interna- tional School · Harrow International School of Bangkok · Headstart International School · Rayong English Programme School · Renaissance International School Saigon · In- draprastha Institute of Information Technology · Shiv Nadar University · Universitas Katolik Parahyangan · Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya · Asian Institute of Technology and Management · COMSATS Institute of Information Technology · Nanyang Technological University in Singapore · National University of Singapore · Singapore Management Univer- sity · Singapore Polytechnic · Yale-NUS College · National Taiwan University · Can Tho Uni- versity · 15 ―Word (World) of Yours‖ Competition 2015 The Death of Comfortable Education BY ANGELA FERGUSON Champion Yale-NUS College Singapore There may be an outfit for every oc- eyes in more ways that I can say, did absolute formula for structuring a casion, but one in particular has not come without growing pains. I society. Norms that work in some served me in my most daunting mo- sometimes found myself deeply un- societies simply don‘t exist to the ments: a grey V-neck, magenta Nike settled. The more I learned about the same extent in others, and that‘s the pullover, and black yoga pants which world around me, the more unsure I nature of diversity. have never once been used for yoga. felt about my place in it. Ironically This was my battle armor when I enough, it was being away from After a year of mulling over these took the SAT, then again when I took home that, for the first time, pushed ideas, I finally went back to Ohio, and re-took the ACT. Other times, me to reflect on what it means to be only to feel like a total outsider. Here this was my I‘m-sleep-deprived-so-I- an American citizen. As opposed to I‘d made best friends and undergone might-as-well-be-comfortable outfit reading about U.S. foreign relations the horrors of puberty and learned to for nights of working on the high online, I was living it. I finally drive a car and yet, it was as if the school magazine until 5 am. These learned what young people from oth- last one year had written over the were my comfort clothes. So of er countries thought about my own past 17. Now I was straddling two course, that‘s what I was wearing one and, rather naïvely, was shocked at different worlds: the former one, re- July morning as I hugged my parents the polarized views I heard. That was volving around my 28-square-mile outside airport security and sobbed. when I began to sense my behavior suburban stronghold, and the one in being unconsciously shaped by the which I now cared about Rohingya I was leaving for college, the caveat stereotypes I perceived. If people refugees and South China Sea dis- being that it was located in Singa- generalized Americans to be cultural- putes—people and events far re- pore—three flights and 24 hours ly insensitive and lacking global moved from the place where I grew away from home in aggressively awareness, it felt like my personal up. My perspective had permanently suburban southwest Ohio. And yet, responsibility to prove them wrong. shifted and I was uncomfortable in just six months ago, I hadn‘t been So I caught myself inadvertently try- both of these worlds. But perhaps confident that I could find Singapore ing to go the extra mile, overcompen- that‘s the point. Global education on a map. Even after I‘d decided to sating as if through my actions, I should make me feel uncomfortable. enroll, my mom‘s friends had berated could say it‟s alright, we‟re not real- It should open my eyes to other cul- her for sending me abroad when ly like that. tures while allowing me a new pair teenagers in other countries would through which to see my own. give up so much to study in the U.S. When I wasn‘t attempting to defend Ultimately, though, I wanted to learn my country from negative stereo- Undoubtedly, it‘s a position of privi- more outside the classroom than I did types, I criticized it for seemingly lege that allows me to fly 15,427 km in it. That idea tugged enough at my misunderstanding my new home. I‘d away from home in the pursuit of mind to make me leave behind every- grown to love the diverse, bustling higher education. But at its core, I thing that I knew, but not enough at city-state that I once knew nothing have to think that global education my heart to make it easy. After cry- about. Singapore‘s education system today doesn‘t require moving half- ing through the morning car ride, the had taken me in and its people were way around the world. It is a mind- walk through the airport parking lot warm, from the construction worker set—a willingness to learn from peo- and the check-in process at the airline who always chatted with me to the ple whose backgrounds differ from counter, any words I tried to find teacher who‘d treated me to supper your own, and about places that exist strangled themselves in my throat when I was lost at midnight. I‘d de- outside your own bubble. To engage before I could choke them out. My veloped a secondhand appreciation with ideas which go against every- mom found only two: ―Just go.‖ And for the country‘s fifty-year transfor- thing that you‘ve always believed to so I did, crying as I went through mation from a small port to a global be true. The simple act of being open security and walked to my gate alone. hub. So when American news outlets to learning opens many doors that peppered Mr. Lee Kuan Yew‘s obi- would‘ve otherwise remained closed. The next ten months ended up being tuary with comments about the coun- So whether it‘s down the hall, down the best of my life. I threw myself try‘s ban on chewing gum and lack of the street, across the country or into exploring Singapore‘s nooks and civil liberties, I felt defensive. Previ- across the planet, seek out your own crannies, and it amazed me to get ously, I perhaps would‘ve also global education and just go—even if along so well with friends who‘d scoffed at governments which didn‘t you need your comfort clothes to get grown up worlds away from me. And mirror my own. But from living there. yet those months, which opened my abroad, I‘d seen that there was no . .