You may say I over-reacted and there's nothing wrong with using benchmarks to improve the performance of our medical care system - or an academic institute all the same.
Alas, you could be right, but let me tell you a conversation (between two women) I overheard recently:
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"My daughter is always the cause of my depression," a woman with heavy make-up sighed, "You know, she is having private classes on violin, swimming, calligraphy, and Japanese. Oh, I'm not asking for very exotic talents! But, everyone would believe I am slaughtering a chicken when she practices violin at home, and the only Japanese that she could say is sayonara!"
"Oh, don't compare with her classmates," the other woman tried to sooth her friend.
"But I have to - that's benchmarking!" The first woman explained - I began to realize she might be working in a public hospital, and she went on, “I have to find out in what areas my girl is weak so that she can work harder and improve.”
“That sounds logical – but, isn’t it more fruitful to quit the classes that your daughter is not good at, and focus her effort on those she really has the talent? As a girl, I don’t want to be all-rounded – a synonym of humdrum and lack of character – I want to outshine the others in one area that I excel and enjoy!”
“Very true. Even from the point of view of the society, it is preferable to have individual person, or hospital or whatever, to be different and each have their own edge.” I could not help and said to myself.
1 comment:
Whenever I think of this kind of "benchmarks" and our (al)mighty senior academicians are wholeheartedly in pursuit of them, I always develop an intrusive mental picture of beheaded 小學雞 wandering in the field.
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