Good bye Form Four Literature...

Next year we start with new lit stuff for Forms 1 and 4.. I shall miss these familiar poems.

1. Sonnet 18 - I don't agree with Mr Shakespeare. Beauty is fleeting. Anyway, if 2012 happens, no amount of immortalizing in any forms will make any difference.
   
2. Si Tenggang's Homecoming - my favourite line in this poem has to be this; "Travel makes me a seeker who does not take what is given without sincerity; or that demands payments from belief."
   
3. There's Been A Death In The Opposite House - no one escapes that. Even a little boy has to witness it but death comes with its own 'festivities' too.
   
4. Monsoon History - it reminds me of the good old days when the pace was slower and we had time to pause and look at the snails and flowers. I remember spending a long time, watching snails make their way in my little garden back home when I was young. I wonder whether kids still do that. Mine watches snails in the aquarium... and I think she sees more snails on screen and pictures.
   
5. The Road Not Taken - all of us have that road(s) not taken in our lives. My favourite in class cos I can 'story-story' so much with it.
6. If by Rudyard Kipling - this is all the ifs in one's life but too deep for most of them. I usually end up really tired from trying to translate it into BM for them to understand better. Majority of my students are just not ready to handle this slightly 'higher' level of thinking.
   

There are the Short Stories (The Lotus Eater, The Necklace, The Drover's Wife, The Sound Machine, Looking For A Rain God)... I shall miss them too I guess cos we see ourselves in each of the stories. But it's time to change cos I think they've run out of questions to set. They seem to have opted for something more local and contemporary but this time around, the MOE is quite slip shod as we've not been sent for any refresher's course. So, next year we start on our own, raba-raba dalam gelap ourselves. So very typical of the way things are done. Holiday assignments... to read up the Lower Form lit... Rumpelstitskin is in in drama Form I hear... At 13 and still doing fairy tales.... I dunno. Maybe 'To Kill A Mockingbird' or something along that line would be more suitable. Menjana minda kritikal in teenagers via children's fairy tales?

And holidays coming up... no enthusiasm like last year's. The skies are gray, the river water is up, water, water everywhere and my boy is sitting for his exam. Plus my faith in people got really dented this half of the year.... but like the lit thingy probably there is a life span.

But still hols are still hols! 8) And it's still a cause for celebration!