What would Lee Kuan Yew say at your convocation?
Seven insights from a 1967 speech Lee Kuan Yew gave at the University of Singapore Convocation Dinner.
I read this speech over the weekend as I saw the US Ivy League university presidents face a firestorm over their Congress hearings. It made me rethink the purpose of higher education.
- The purpose of education is to lay a foundation. Education 'gives a man that start, in the right direction. It depends so much upon the inculcation of good physical habits, the techniques of learning, and social and personal values.'
- Lee Kuan Yew on lifelong learning, "But, those of you who do not consider life, or are not prepared to allow life to be, one great game of chance, will do well to remember this – that learning never stops."
- On the need to cultivate young talent, regardless of their background. "It is on this group that we must expend our limited and slender resources so that they will provide that yeast, that ferment, that catalyst in our society, which alone will ensure that Singapore shall maintain its pre-eminent place in the societies that exist in Southeast Asia"
- On The Virtues That Will Make Singapore. Character is that indefinable crucible which holds body and mind together. Lee Kuan Yew believed Singaporeans needed self-control, self-discipline, unselfish motivations, integrity of conduct, grit and stamina, and courage in adversityto become a great nation.
- Enlightened Minds will Choose Optimism. When Singapore was booted out of Malaysia, he didn't whine. He exclaimed, " What a great challenge! It is not without its grave anxieties; but also holds great excitement of the possibilities: to mould a nation out of a migrant and, as yet, unrooted community; out of plastic but active digits."
- Embrace Long-Term Thinking. Acing your exams is beta. It does not matter. The most important test in your life is that supreme test, "when the outcome must decide the issue for decades to come.
- The Young Will Take The Future. The boomers will not save us. The moment we graduate is the moment our life challenge has just begun. Take the initiative to shape the world young. The future is what you make of it.