Wow. I’ve no right to question the reasoning behind Ms. Lin’s decision to reject a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - one of the top, if not the top engineering university in the world - scholarship to teach physics and maths in a secondary school, but I’d like to raise a few points for those who might consider a similar move in the future.

IMHO, unless the scholarship given was not a full one, there’s really little reason why one could not have finished one’s Master’s degree first before returning to teach. There are few disadvantages, and an exceedingly large number of advantages from doing so. Besides attaining valuable academic knowledge, one would gain first-hand experience as to how the best professors teach.

Let’s also not forget that a quality Master’s would allow you to go further in your teaching career. As most Singaporean students - especially Junior College students - would have noticed, it is not surprising to see Singaporean teachers holding Master’s degrees from top universities (including Harvard BTW). Competition for teaching positions at the best schools can thus be pretty tough.

Of course, my points so far have been rather uhmmm… materialistic in nature. You might argue that if one loves teaching enough, why wait any longer? Indeed, a Master’s degree isn’t a prerequisite to teach, even at the Junior College level. I can’t really argue with this, but if you are thinking that your passion for teaching might waver after completing a Master’s in the US of A (imagine the career opportunities available after an MIT Master’s), then you probably aren’t as passionate about teaching as you think you are. Those really passionate about doing their best (at anything at all, including teaching) can surely wait until they get their foundations perfect (this is highly subjective, of course).

Well, that’s my 2 cents at least. Hopefully, it was more enlightening than offensive.