GEPpers of the world unite! (and miscellaneous elitist musings)

was mildly impressed on Tuesday when I received a letter from MOE’s GE Branch announcing the upcoming 20th anniv of GEP next year. Apparently they’re holding quite a lot of stuff to commemorate 20 years of elitism—a Conference, a magazine, a dinner at Grand Hyatt. Whether the admittedly elitist Gifted money was well-spent or not I can’t say, take a look at me and judge for yourself. =p

They’re also going to set up an alumni. That should be interesting, to meet other gifteds through the ages. But it might not last too long. Now that Raffles is out of the official GEP loop, is GEP still GEP? Or will MOE make Raffles ‘GEPpers’ honorary members of the ‘official’ GEP? Is GEP still necessary nowadays when the Gov is pouring so much cash into every single student anyway? Perhaps, as an elitist grouping it does have its merits (networking, synergy, friendly competition, encouragement in knowing you’re the only mutant freak) just as it has its pitfalls (ivory-towerism, breeding of arrogance, not-so-friendly competition aka backstabbing, a moderate encouraging of narrow-mindedness and the lack of experience in the big wide world, possible breeding ground for cronyism in the future)

Oh well, have no time to write a full-blown essay on GEP, like I did on the PSCian issue. Maybe some other time. Right now, for better or worse, Happy Birthday in advance, GEP! It was fun while it lasted, and certainly helped more than it hobbled--for me, anyway.