The whole trip has been an eye opener for me. One major reason is because I have never been to most of the places in this trail and do not even know about the existence of some of them. Amongst the many first I have done is setting foot into a Burmese Buddhist temple and a mosque. If we put in effort to find, they are interesting places and things in Singapore worth looking out for!
Below is my 2 cents worth on Heritage places in Singapore (Most of these places we went to are historical monuments)
Singapore has been modernizing rapidly since the days of our independence whereby we seek to make our mark and be heard in a global setting. In the process of modernizing, many historical buildings that were built by our forefathers are now gone, with the reason given by the government that “it is a painful decision to make, but after much consideration, the building has to be demolished.” Even if buildings are being designated by the Preservation of Monuments Board (PMB) to be preserved, many were ‘preserved’ to a large extent for their extrinsic monetary value rather than their intrinsic historical value. There also seem to be a lack of widespread interest to appreciate our historical heritage. Take for example historical buildings like CHIJMES and the Chinatown area in Singapore. These places have become more of “places of interest” where tourist will go to spend their money while looking at “some” aspect of our history. These would also have been places students go to only because schools make it compulsory for them to.
The point I wish to bring out is while it is relieving to hear and know that the government makes an effort to preserve the heritage that our forefathers have left us, what is their hidden agenda? Is it for economic purposes whereby buildings are renovated and not rebuilt to cut down on cost and the same time add some architectural touches? Or is it for tourists to come to see and spend money?
Singapore is a relatively young nation having been founded a hundred and ninety one years ago by Sir Stamford Raffles and gained her independence forty five years ago. The number of historical monuments is insignificant if we compare it to the likes of many other bigger countries. This is one reason why I think we should do even more to preserve our historical heritage. If land is scarce is a reason why we have rigorous criteria for choosing heritage to be preserved, won’t there come a day whereby places like Thian Hock Keng Temple, Sultan Mosque, St. Andrew’s Church have to go because of space constraint?
This trip has also allowed me to bond with some of the people in the History class, something which we do not have much opportunity to do so with our different timetable and work commitment during school days. Although the weather was hot and we did complain a bit, I believe that all of us have truly enjoyed this trip, learned new things and discovered a side of Singapore that seems so foreign to us.
I strongly believe in the application of field trip in teaching a subject such as History. By personally going to historical places to explore and engage in new discovery, evaluating and analyzing, I get to experience things first hand and this leaves me a greater impact and I would most probably remember it for a longer period of time then if I had been simply given some facts to memorize about historical places in Balestier. Given an opportunity, I do hope to bring my students around Singapore and even overseas to engage in field trips to promote an interest in discovering and learning History, something which I hold dear to and would like to share it with them. Perhaps NIE may even like to explore doing more of such local and overseas field trip to promote interest and create greater meaningful learning that will last a long time to come.
