Year

While talking about forgetting our own history, I learnt from the morning paper that over half of the secondary school students failed in Chinese History during the recent DSE mock examination.

No, I'm not going to say anything about their knowledge or examination technique. What really important is how the students were taught - manifested by what questions were being asked:

What happened in 1930?

Why on earth do an ordinary citizen need to know specific happenings of any year? No, hardly any number is worth remembering. Don't make a rush comment that our students could only recite facts but never understand and criticize. That's the result of our own system.

PS. I must admit there are exceptional years that we may wish to remember. For example, the one that we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, or the one with an exceptionally long May.