The greatest discovery of my generation (about 1900) is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.William James
'Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.'
Attitudes-Based Learning (or ABL, for short) is a program initiated in
year 2000 to inculcate positive attitudes and characters in children and teens in Singapore.
During that period of time, there were many incidents around world that deserved our utmost attention. The rise of terrorism around world was televised around world and increasing number of children and teens suffering due to drugs, physical and sexual abuse was alarming. The increase in school-related violence and incidents were reported widely, from America to Japan. Not to mention, several incidents involving teens going on a school killing spree in America.
One of most bizarre incidents involved a seven-year-old boy who pulled out a gun and shot dead a girl in class (in front of his Grade 1 teacher and classmates near Flint, Michigan). Associated Press, Mar 1, 2000
With so much violence and terror in our world involving children (directly or indirectly), there was a pressing need to encourage more character building education in our societies, to bring forth positive attitudes and moral values for our young.
Hence, development of program, Attitudes-Based Learning (ABL) was given birth in Singapore to play a positive role in remedying ills of our society.
In its infancy, ABL was perceived as a credible cornerstone to foster a conscious character building education in Singapore schools. But unfortunately, there was not much done to push idea forward due to lack of interest and financial backing in year 2000. Though for a brief period, ABL made its print debut in first Asia’s children’s creative thinking magazine, ONE, in Singapore and Malaysia through stories that emphasized positive attitudes like kindness, determination and how one can make a difference in people’s lives.
It was only until year 2003 that ABL was resuscitated into its full glory and intentions. With encouragement and involvement of like-minded individuals who were fervent to build a mentally and emotionally stronger Singapore, ABL was re-engineered to serve as a holistic attitudes- transformation education program for all (though emphasis is still on young children and teens).
In year 2003, new and improved Attitudes-Based Learning program is not just another character building program. ABL was further dissected and analyzed by a small team of researchers. With added refinements to teaching philosophy and methodology, ABL program became more adaptive and holistic. This has greatly increased effectiveness of achieving mission and desired outcomes of ABL program.
It was also realized that ABL should cater for pre-schoolers, as there was insufficient providers of character building education programs for this particular age group in Singapore and Asia. With ABL being a program that infuses dimension of self-reflection to build better self-esteem and awareness, we were confident that through interesting and thought-provoking activities (based on Harvard’s Professor Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences concept), ABL would be immensely successful in encouraging positive attitudes amongst our pre-schoolers.
