Besides national service, there is scouting, said Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong (above). --PHOTO: ZAOBAO
HOW do you turn today's wired youth - who prefer huddling in front of the computer over roughing it out in the sun - to be tough leaders?
Besides national service, there is scouting, said Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.
He wore a scout's scarf yesterday presented to him by the Singapore Scout Association (SSA) as he spoke to a 1,000-strong dinner audience at the Suntec International Convention Centre to mark the SSA's 100th anniversary.
SM Goh, borrowing a Taiwanese phrase - the 'strawberries generation' - said young people today risk becoming 'fragile like strawberries' if they are too protected.
He worried that young people are spending too much time in front of the TV playing Nintendo Wii or making friends on Facebook.
'It would be ideal if we can combine our children's new soft skills with ruggedness, as the Singapore Armed Forces does with its soldiers,' he said.
Read the full story in The Sunday Times.
itham@sph.com.sg
