NARENnews Archive

2010 NAREN Singapore Conference

Dr. Anthony Dallmann-Jones, NAREN Director, was invited to speak on November 10-11, 2010 at the International Council on At-Risk Education (ICARE) Conference. This first ever global conference on at-risk education was held at the Fortura Riverside Hotel in Singapore and had as its aim: "Sharing mutual concerns in the educating of at-risk youth".

The conference was attended by 300 educators at all levels, youth workers, social workers, counselors, and school psychologists from five different countries — Israel, Australia, Hong Kong, United States and Singapore. Also presenting were professors from Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel, along with two youth workers from Singapore.

Dr. Dallmann-Jones, author of the book, Shadow Children — Understanding Education's #1 Issue, spoke on that topic and on a book he edited this year, Educating for Human Greatness. Commenting on the conference, Dr. Dallmann-Jones says, "There are very few differences in at-risk kids or effective programming for them whether from the US or Singapore or Israel. All kids need love and good upbringing or they carry their unfinished business to school and that creates learning difficulties for everyone." Dr. Dallmann-Jones toured two schools while in Singapore that were set up specifically for at-risk youth. One thing he noticed at both was how the faculty focused on what strengths and talents the students had in building their remedial programs. "They are definitely into asset building in their curriculum. It is a lesson to us all in alternative learning that what we focus on expands, so it behooves us to pay more attention to assets than deficiencies."

About the country of Singapore, Dr. Dallmann-Jones says: "The modern architecture is amazing. Singapore was the first country to recover from the recession and it is apparent. Singaporeans jokingly say their national bird is the crane — then they point to the ones that are everywhere being used to raise up their skyscrapers. There are no slums in Singapore, and their country is very clean. No graffiti anywhere. And, yes, it is true, chewing gum is outlawed. About the people: "Respect is a big concept in their schools and in their country. Children were so polite and helpful in the schools to us when we visited. We met some of them again at the conference as they performed dances to open the conference, as well as about 30 volunteered to help as staff at the conference. They stuck around after the conference and we joked and had our pictures taken with them. I wish I could have brought a bunch of them home."

Director Dallmann-Jones is in the middle of the back row, partially hidden.
He is the only one, he says, doing the school sign backwards.
"They sometimes have gangs recruiting kids so the school and
kids came up with their own school sign... a diamond."
Click for larger view!

A conference panel discussion with Dr. Frank Kros,
NAREN Board Member, who also spoke at the conference,
with Dr. Dallmann-Jones, and Dr. John Tan, conference director.
Click for larger view!

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