The Depressed Face on Kumon Lives Up to the Hype

I hate when people lie for the sake of marketing. Luckily, Kumon doesn't do that. The depressed face on the logo clearly resembles what the service stands for: a jail for kids, like me.

I had to finish my senten—Oops, I meant math questions. After completing my problems, I walked up to the teacher, my paper clenched in my hands. One mistake meant going back to that dreadful table with harsh white lighting.

At least this teacher gave me mechanical pencils as a reward for my hard work.

Turns out, I wasn't the only elementary school kid attending Kumon. A survey found that over 70% of children in Singapore have some sort of private tutoring. This led me to question whether Singaporean society has become too obsessed with the idea of intelligence.

The idea of intelligence, or being book-smart, has been deeply entrenched in society throughout the nation's history.

Lee Kuan Yew, the former prime minister of Singapore, believed that educated Singaporeans produced smarter children, and in 1984, the Graduate Mothers Scheme was created. Priority was given during primary school registration to children of university-educated moms who had 3 or more children. These mothers would gain more tax deductions.

While the policy was repealed a year later, it demonstrates how the idea of intelligence has been so deeply embedded in Singaporean society to the point where policies were established under the belief that "intelligence" can be inherited–to the point of eugenist ideals.

Now, the obsession surrounding intelligence looks like enrolling children in the 1.4 billion dollar private tutoring industry and preparing for the rigorous PSLEs.

As young students, we were told to get good grades, go to a good university, and get a good STEM career.

It was never, "get good grades, go to a good university, and become an artist, actor, or historian."

It makes sense that an adult would tell their child to become one of the three: a doctor, engineer, or lawyer, the Holy Trinity of Jobs. They just want us to be safe.

But at what cost? The culture surrounding the obsession of intelligence has led to the obsession surrounding one specific type of intelligence: being good at STEM.

Singapore and other nations worldwide are seeing a decline in humanities students, with NUS Faculty of the Arts and Social Sciences reporting 6,400 undergraduates in 2019 to only 4000 undergraduates in 2025. 

It is through the arts that we can explore more of history. It is through the arts that we can learn to express ourselves in different ways. The arts and humanities may not lead to the highest paying career, but it can lead to a better ability to understand people's stories and express one's own. In a divided world, this is what we need more of.

It was never, "get good grades, go to a good university, and become an artist, actor, or historian."

This isn't to say that Singapore's culture surrounding education is "bad", but instead, it's to convey that there are gaps in the system and that unfortunately, our obsession with intelligence has led to a decline in the arts and humanities. As a student who values the arts and humanities, I can only hope that this culture will change to prioritize these subjects.