Corrections..

I have been at wits end trying to get my students to write comprehensible sentences.. yup! Their English is so bad that despite 7 years in school, majority of them can't even string together a few simple sentences to form a paragraph. And that is the best class in the form! Where have all the years been lost?

I'm fussy and I make sure that my students do their corrections after each exercise. Lately I've begun noticing that among my lower form students, corrections are just mere exercises for them. It doesn't seem to do much good. So, I made a mental note to carry out a little study of my own. Out of 10 books with corrections, 8 of the supposedly corrected work still contained errors... some, the same errors.

So, I started hauling them up one by one; all boys! The chronic cases (and there are many) were made to do their corrections in front of the classroom; where I could see and monitor. But it is very tiring. I went through each book after completion.... in detail. I warned my students that from then, any wrong corrections would earn them more writing of the same. What did I hope to achieve? For them to develop an attitude of taking note of their mistakes. But it may be an act of futility. Sometimes after a lesson like this, I ask myself why I'm still flogging dead horses.

Lesson for me today... I've realised that majority of my kids don't pay attention to their own mistakes. Learning doesn't take place as a result. They complete the work because they had to, not because they want to. When I first started with this class, I went by trust and found out that many were not passing up their books after a while. Then I came down hard... each book not handed in would earn an 'honoured seat' on the floor... compliance went up. Work, at least, got done. A little learning takes place.... what next?

We are all so screwed up by a system that does not instill a love for knowledge. Learning becomes a chore... and also a bore. Take Pendidikan Moral for example... I cannot see the sense in memorizing all those 36 nilai-nilai murni. It's not going to make the students any better. English is so far gone that I think we've our own Malaysian pidgin version. BM is so high standard that I wonder whether they want to turn the kids into linguists. Sejarah contains so many perceived biasness that it feels like a propaganda tool. It's hard to undo 6 years of 'damage' and worse still we inflict another 5 years of such empty academic pursuits.

Was reading about this group of people who homeschool their kids. One kid said something to this extent.... "sometimes we didn't realize that we were learning."... It must have been fun for this kid to learn. That we have failed to do, especially for the younger ones.

My own girl is 'languishing' in primary school. We put her in a Chinese school cos we see no other better options.... or call it kiasu-ness, maybe. She is struggling with her Mandarin and BM. But she enjoys reading, playing and exploring with her toys... she has an inquisitive mind. But her daily routine is so rigidly controlled by the amount of her homework. I used to tell a friend that we did not want to send her to multiple nurseries / kindergartens in her pre-school years cos we felt that her childhood would end the day she started formal schooling. So far, I think we're not that far off.

But we have to make sure she plods on.... I wish our edu system is more flexible especially for the young ones, when they can be convinced that learning is fun. Seeing my students in their current state makes me more convinced that being so exam oriented is not making them any better. So the plan for more school based assessments is maybe a good move... Anyway, exams are no guarantee for success....

Next... to change the mindset and quality of the teachers....