ABSTRACT
Young people are commonly viewed by their elders as both the hope for, and threat to, the future and survival of society. This is certainly true of Singapore’s patrician rulers. The mission of the city-state’s education service is ‘to mould the future of the nation, by moulding the people who determine the future of Singapore’. Minister of Education Heng Swee Keat (2012: para. 9) has emphasized that ‘our circumstances force us to take education very seriously because it is critical to our survival and success. Education shapes the future of our nation.’ This chapter focuses on a group of students identified as scholastically ‘talented’ from a young age, and therefore chosen to be groomed as future leaders. The governing People’s Action Party (PAP) subscribes to an elitist ideology; they believe that the running of the country should be entrusted to leaders selected for their intellectual and moral excellence (Sim, 2012). The duty of these national guardians is to compensate ‘in ideas and organization [for] what Singapore lacks so manifestly in size and population’ (Latif, 1997, n.p.).
