Founder’s Thoughts
Reflections from ChildFirst’s founder, organised around the Dream Outcome’s four layers: Self, School, Society, and Future.
I was a mediocre student
I was a mediocre student in primary school. I improved in secondary school. Got into college and finally started to do well. Eventually got into Harvard for my PhD in physics. Along the way I noticed something.
Human Intelligence before AI
We're teaching toddlers to use AI. We should be teaching them to be irreplaceable by it. Every other Singapore parent I meet now is asking the same question…
Biological deadline for learning Chinese
There is a biological deadline for Chinese fluency. It closes earlier than most Singapore parents think. Babies are born able to hear every sound of every language in the world.
If you can't explain it to a six-year-old ...
"If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, you don't really understand it yourself." That was Richard Feynman, the Nobel-laureate physicist. I learned the same lesson, harder, from Professor Nicholas Bloembergen, my PhD thesis advisor at Harvard.
What I could not do at 21
When I was 21 and at Harvard, my aunt sent me home with a frozen chicken to roast in my dorm. I called my mother for instructions. Wash it, season it, put it in the oven. I cooked rice. I sat down to eat.
What your child’s brain is quietly pruning
Watch a Japanese person say “letter.” It comes out “ratter.” This is what quiet pruning sounds like...
Three things AI won't replace
Everyone is asking what AI will replace. Perhaps the more important question is: What should our children learn that AI never can? After decades in early childhood education, I believe the answer begins much earlier than most people think...
Preserving children's creativity in the age of AI
"If your child’s education only trains them to find the single 'correct' answer, they are being prepared for a world that no longer exists." The mechanical logic we traditionally grade in schools is exactly what AI now executes faster and more reliably than any human ever will. True human value has shifted to divergent thinking—the ability to ask the question no one else has thought of yet. Here is how our preschoolers are leveraging generative AI to supercharge their creativity instead of letting it erode.
The Dream Outcome
"Preparing your child for the automated future does not mean abandoning the practical reality of the PSLE." You don't have to choose between raising a tech-forward innovator and ensuring they can confidently conquer the Primary 1 Mandarin mountain. Read below to see how a powerful preschool foundation seamlessly builds advanced future skills directly on top of local academic rigor.
Why We Teach Design Thinking and Entrepreneurship to Pre-schoolers
Why traditional rote learning fails children in an automated economy. Discover how early childhood design thinking prepares the next generation to ask the original questions AI cannot answer.
Artificial Intelligence and Real Stupidity
What happens when intelligence becomes abundant, but wisdom does not? AI may soon outperform humans in many forms of intelligence. But knowing what we can do is not the same as knowing what we should do. This is why the future of education may be less about creating smarter children—and more about helping them develop the wisdom to use intelligence well.