NUS High School: the academic staff

I have learnt something unusual about the National University of Singapore (NUS) High School. All of its staff are University Professors.

Now, clearly the intention in arranging for all of the staff at the school to be University academics, is that they would bring to bear a deeper knowledge of their subject to the benefit of their students. Gifted students would be less likely to bump into the knowledge ceilings of the staff - or at least, they would not be so readily reachable, as in the case with a typical teacher.

However, there is a problem, that I foresee. Would a staff of academics be well-equipped to teach to school age children? The needs of the children differ from those of student age, in that a different approach may be required to teach them. Academic staff may find it more difficult to relate to school age children than they would to the usual student they are accustomed to.

Yet, I don't yet know the situation in NUS High from experience. It might work very well. The Professors here, in Singapore, may actually be good teachers able to reach children of all ages. I don't know - but I hope so.

It wasn't the case when I went to Cambridge University, in the 1980s. There the academics were very good at their subject, but had neither training nor flair for teaching in general. It was a very rare Cambridge academic who had any interest or ability in teaching. It was almost universal to have lectures presented by academics whose real interest lay elsewhere: their research. The students appeared to be an inconvenience to them.

I was very disappointed in my experience of Cambridge University - and it all came down to the undeniable fact that the staff were specialized academics, not teachers, at heart. At the core of it, they simply didn't want to teach. At least, that is the impression that was left with me, after three years there.

There were exceptions. There were rare wonderful teachers with a passion for communicating their subject to others. Above all of these, in my memory, was Professor Sir Geoffrey Lloyd, a Classicist, working in the History of Science, in particular the Ancient Greeks. He was almost alone, in my experience, in making any effort to communicate directly with his students. He was warm, welcoming, engaging, interesting, and more importantly, interested. If the Professors at NUS High are like Professor Lloyd, it will be a great experience for Ainan and a great asset to Singapore. I hope, however, that they are not like so many other Professors were at Cambridge: uninterested, self-absorbed, poor communicators and, in some cases, frankly lazy.

My feeling is that the Professors at NUS High will take their teaching roles more seriously than those at Cambridge did. That is my hope. Should that not be the case, I will let you know. But, given the importance of education in Singapore, and the relatively high status of teaching, here, compared to its status in the UK, I rather think they will be more motivated to teach well, and more proud of doing so.

Here is a final thought. All of the staff at NUS High are Professors. Students at NUS High may take any number of University modules that they wish. Is that not, in effect, then, a University for kids?

(If you would like to read more about Ainan, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and three months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)