History

I asked a bunch of my Form 5 students regarding the history of our nation.... stuff like the Straits Settlement, Federated and Unfederated Malay States. And I think our education system has failed them. When I saw baffled looks on their faces, I asked whether they knew what I was talking about. Many shook their heads. Some even admitted that they had no idea what Negeri-Negeri Selat stood for.

History is a compulsory subject in Malaysian schools. The students were supposed to have learned about the history of the various states in Malaysia and how the British started the colonization of Malaya with the Straits Settlements and then the Federated Malay States. Unfortunately, after 4 years of learning History, it feels like many have failed to learn anything.

de Tocquiville once said that history is a gallery of pictures where there are few originals. In failing to instill an understanding of our history as well as others' history, we also lose a great opportunity to develop thinking skills in our young. In viewing history's gallery of pictures, we learn the folly of those who come before us. We also learn to see that the ink that records history can be very fluid. Prejudice is fluid, like many things in our lives. Learning history is supposed to give our young the opportunity to learn to think and identify the fluid prejudices. But unfortunately, we have failed to do just that in many of them cos many are leaving school clueless about our nationhood.

In the first place, I think our interpretation of nationhood is already skewed. We teach our kids that ketuanan is okay. Did we not oppose apartheid in South Africa? Or was it just for show? It's not affirmative action to right an imbalance but lordship which seems to be promoted... a return to the feudal ways?? We do not teach our young to question the practices of our leaders. We imply that we should defend certain institutions to the death even though those institutions might be bleeding us dry. History equals subtle propaganda? What I learn from history is everything is a tool to perpetuate power... from religious institutions to laws. Man made so that man can retain influence.

While there are some questionable historical perspectives in our textbooks like the use of the Ketuanan Melayu terminology in the Form 5 textbook or the issue of slavery which got Birch killed in Perak and some others, the inability of our students to recall or understand the history of our nation also indicates that the effort to plant certain ideas in the heads of our young is also not working out very well. Our delivery system is just not working very well. So, either way... we're not making much headway. Ironic, isn't it?

No PMR...

I think we really need to rethink this no PMR thing for our 15 year olds. The whole idea sounded appealing when it was first mooted... no exams so that students will not be too exam oriented. Well, going into the second year of its implementation, I have my reservations and wonder too whether it's really the best thing for our kids.

First there is the problem of credibility. How credible actually are the school based assessments? On paper they look very nice, with students placed in bands according to their abilities. But in reality, the assessments aren't all that accurate. Classroom size is still too big and teachers are still too burdened with many unnecessary duties which simply take their attention away from their core duties. Co-curricular activities and other extra duties draw their attention away. A subject teacher should just teach and do just that. And excessive and long meetings too drain their energy.

The present ranking of the schools too have caused a rat race of sorts. Points are awarded for co-curricular excellence and it's only normal that school heads want to see their schools climb up the ranking. I've seen how students missed classes for weeks because they needed to practise for upcoming competitions. I've heard how administrators shush the complaints of teachers who bring out such matters. I've observed the degradation of the teaching environment through 'noise pollution' from school bands affect the learning of the school population... And after weeks of missing classes, the kids lose their focus in their academics. These days, I think parents have to be really watchful of their kids who join co-curricular activities which demand lots of their kids time. It's easy for them to get lost in their own raging hormones as well as the fun moments.

Co-curricular activities are good. But it's so easy to get lost in action these days. Teachers are less bothered to watch out for the kids. Everyone feels that the tuitions that the kids are taking will see to it that they are okay academically. The thing is, I think tuitions have become their Waterloo of sorts sometimes. The knowledge that they have tuition has also caused the kids to become complacent. Many students don't pay attention in class these days. One of the things I noticed when I went to my new school is how much they talked and talked and keeping them quiet took a lot of effort. When I look around, I noticed that it's the norm. The students are generally poor listeners and they are bored too.

The good classes are bored because many of their teachers feel that they aren't making much difference or getting their attention. The average classes get buried in their over confidence that the tuitions they are taking will see them through. In the end, the education system becomes stuck in a quagmire of our own doing.

Many teachers resort to giving the assessments to their students to be taken home to complete. Some kids take home stacks to be done. And then they are those who just give answers straight on the board for the students to copy. I am sure if one were to really dig around, one would many other methods of getting the assessments done. I am not sure whether such practices are in the minority. Given that teachers are tied to a syllabus it's also hard for them to find the time to carry out the assessments too.

Anyway, what I feel is many are going to find out that kids will be learning much less. It should be the other way round because the the freedom from the stress of examination is supposed to make learning so much more relaxed. Ah... just one more way how our first class education system works!

Perception...

Time flies and moves on regardless of everthing.... but then again it's just our perception that seems to give it a speed... whether or not, it flies or crawls. When one is busy and occupied, then it flies. It crawls especially when we are lonely or have very little to do....

Have not been writing. The procrastinating bug has been making itself very at home plus there seems very little time these days. And there are still so many things I want to do. And time is running short... well, I guess that's also another perception. And I find myself thinking even more, wondering about ..... many things. Perception is coloured there too...

Being remembered... . Was looking at my FaceBook just a couple of days ago and I notice that it has very much taken over how we live our lives. So much of our lives are on it now, put up for our friends (and friends of friends) to see. But sometimes I wonder too how much of the things on it are just facades. In the old days, we used to have this idiom - "Keeping Up With the Jones". I wonder too whether FaceBook has caused us to try to keep up with more people. And I wonder too whether the rat race has gotten bigger and wider! One gets peeps into everyone else's life. Again... are they more for facades???

We remember people who want to be remembered too. FaceBook kinda reminds me that. It has also taken over the need to remember things like birthdays for us. It serves as our reminder. It reminds us of the things we say. It's pervasive. It makes it hard to forget because it is displayed for as along the storage is there... What I think is nice... to be remembered despite not being put up on FaceBook. Today if I were to put up my birthday on FaceBook, I'd probably get loads of wishes. But if I'm off... the few wishes that I receive would probably mean that I'm in their heart and thoughts. Which counts? Some might say numbers mean more....

One more thing on perception... An article I read yesterday... If a guy's room is messy, he will praised because he will be deemed not bothered by mundane things. He will be praised for being focussed on his task, job... that sort of man-and-his-responsibilities kind of thing.... and not on frivolous matters like clearing up. Now if it's a gal that has a messy room, she is deemed to be 'lam-nua' (lazy). She is judged for her inability to keep a room clean. Interesting, isn't it, how we view things? The same messy-ness, different gender and we get different perceptions. Regardless of the great leaps in women's emancipation in the last few decades, gender perceptions are hard to change.

Been 3 months too of change for me where work place is concerned. Teaching is more fun and though there is difference in the work culture, human nature remains the same. If it were any different, I supposed I'd be an alien on another planet. But then again, that might just be another perception.

9 Tuitions A Week

That was what one of my Form Four Student said to me earlier this year when I asked them how many tuitions they were taking! And I think it's a crazy number! These kids take around 11 subjects and they are taking tuitions for practically every subject. Out of a class of about 40 students, there was only one brave soul who was  not taking any tuitions.

What does this show? That we are super competitive? That they have such little faith in the school teachers? Or is it because tuitions will motivate and push them more? I don't really know for sure. What I see is almost everyone jumping onto the bandwagon of tuitions.... each trying to outdo the other. Each claiming that they can't survive their SPM without tuitions...

Seven days in a week... 9 tuitions. Five days of school which ends at 2.00 p.m. In some schools extra classes prolong school hours till 3.30 p.m. or even later. And 9 tuitions! I guess that leaves very few hours at home... Kids seem to lead busier lives than adults these days. Yet I wonder whether they are any better off with all these extra cramming sessions...

I teach English. Yet I find that most of the students can't write critically. Many lack motivation to study on their own. Critical thinking skills are a rarity. What are aplenty? Ability to regurgitate, requests for notes.. Learning is via memorizing facts... which I feel is not helpful these days. Need information? There's Google.

My gal comes home with Maths questions on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division - big numbers. And she spends her time working out the calculations on paper. This in an age where we have calculators to do those menial tasks for us. Problem solving questions are far and few. And when you come come across such questions, they are usually very simple. By and large, our the minds of our young have actually bee very dumbed down.

Students' world view are very narrow. Text books are outdated. Instead of sparking their imagination with new frontiers, we continue to limit their horizon with minuscule local issues. This in an age where our world behaves like a global village. Talk to our kids and you find many of them ignorant of many things. They remain cocooned in this little kampung of ours....  remaining very much the jaguh kampung that all of us are familiar with.

Our children lack the independence and the ability to learn on their own. I wonder too whether we'll be able to inculcate into them the need to be lifelong learners, for which a high degree of independence is required. Cos majority of the kids I see today tell me that they need tuition in order to do well....

Changes

What actually defines us? Is it our work? Family? Friends? Faith?..... Of late I've wondered quite a bit about that.

Having changed my work environment, I've had to go through a period of adjustments and it's still ongoing. I traded the known for the unknown, the familiar for the unfamiliar. And I didn't realise that the one moment of conviction actually unsettled quite a bit in me... and so here I am, at this mid point of my life, in a new working environment. And wondering whether I should have embarked on this change. 

Yet, for once in many years, I actually teach more than babysit. For once too, I seem to be concentrating less on remedial work. I waste far less hours at meetings so far too.... Students are more responsive.... though, they are a 'numbed' lot. Something about our education is all wrong. And I've spent far less time chasing and doing the mundane... well, it might change. I don't know. A lot in the our system is regressing.

I've also had flattering moments never experienced before. I shall call them my teaching moments... I'm teaching a subject which was my major but never really got to teach after more than 20 years. And yet sometimes I wonder why I did that when the subject that I have been teaching for the last 20 years is very easy for me now. It's so familiar that I can do it with one eye closed. Yet I am embarking on a new challenge. Why do a subject which required new preparations and mindset? And after having started on it, I find myself asking myself whether I really want that sort of challenge? ... at my age where the easy is what most only age would want. 

And every new place has its own culture too... I find myself missing a lot of the familiar old; friend... the space that I had, familiarity too. I find myself questioning about what is important to me and I have come to realize it's the same old things. Life is still about relationships... everything we have, the things that we achieve... actually they can be quite meaningless when not shared. 

Changes... I find myself not so gung ho actually about changes anymore. It is actually more unsettling than exciting now. I am actually feeling more tired, more hard pressed and at times wondering. Yet I also realised that changes are sometimes necessary. It forces us do some soul searching... It makes us realise what is important. And changes change us too... 

Behind The Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in A Mumbai Undercity ...by Katherine Boo

Finished this book about a week ago. Took me a long time to complete this one. Reading is mostly done on the treadmill for this one. This is one of those books which keeps reminding me how fortunate I am. Set in Mumbai, in an undercity as the title depicts, it's a story that is kinda eye opening in some ways.

Bro and sis were in India around the same time I was reading the book and when they got back, I had firsthand experiences to compare. Sis stayed for a month in Delhi and spent quite a bit of time checking out all the different places. Bro was there on a business trip. He spent time with my sis and also had an eye-opening experience in that he said he saw 2 different worlds in a city...

And as they regaled their experiences, especially sis... there was so much I could identify with because the book had already described them. The slum, Annawadi is set in the shadow of the luxuries of Mumbai, where big glitzy hotels stand. It tells the tales of its inhabitants, the Muslim scavengers; the slum dwellers who make a living out of recycling. Garbage is their life source. It spins a story out of a place with noxious fumes, brackish water and fetid garbage; scenes which I think many of us are most unfamiliar with.... a thriving community in that place with its successes, comedies and tragedies.

The story centres around the Hussains, with Abdul their son being the star scavenger. There is drama when Fatima their neighbout tries to kill herself by setting herself on fire. Rat poison seems to be the handy choice for one to commit suicide in other incidents. One also reads about Manju the only slum girl with a college education, efforts to get out of the life she knew. Then there is Kalu, a spunky boy who steals scraps to sell to Abdul. Life is also cheap in the slum. It's easy to turn up dead and no one really bothers. Bodies are sold by doctors to supplement their income. Such is the life in India.

But no matter how much success the slum dwellers may achieve, their ultimate fortune lies in the hands of the rich, as can be seen by how it's tied to the arbitrary goodwill. This is India, where power still lies with the powerful and the poor can only but hope for arbitrary handouts from them.

It's a good read, one which would make any reader appreciate what they have.

February Is Here

It feels like a wink of an eye.... A month of school has just ended and with it the first month of 2013. The month went by way too fast. New school which translates to adjustments. I realise that I don't take to changes too readily these days, though it's still quite manageable. Work load has increased by quite a bit with the change plus I am teaching a 'new' subject too. The pace feels faster and more intense but I supposed it'll be a matter of time before I adjust. There's always a settling in period... Work is more fun though, mainly because I have better sets of students now, kids with whom I can relate to, quite different from my old school. Teaching is actually quite fun again. But it also reminds me how big of a divide between schools can be too.

Chinese New Year is just around the corner. The mood of CNY has not set in yet. Maybe it's my harried life these days. The equilibrium got disturbed... So much I want and so little time. But am looking forward to see family members...

Meaning... of late am asking more. But I wonder too whether the revelations would shed more light on life's meaning. Would success, happiness or even bettering ourselves make life more meaningful? I don't know. Most of us seek those things... Some of us seek meaning by trying to offer something back to humanity. Life is after all unpredictable, even brief. Am reminded of Shakespeare's Life Is A Brief Candle Poem.

Life is short. Life is precious. Dreams... we should try to make them happen despite the fears we might feel. See the world perhaps too. Have not travelled much. For me, I've never felt the urge partly because I am usually quite easily contented. Maybe it's time to start. 8) Grudges. Many of us hang on to old grudges. Most of us have one or two in our closets. But perhaps too sometimes, they're better left where they are. Responsibilities... I guess everyone has them. Love... I guess this is perhaps the most important thing. Life is about relationships. Love for self, the people around us, our work and even the experiences in life... I guess those are what give meaning to our life in the end.

Life is supposed to be simple but these days, I think we make it complicated. February has come and will go too like the February(s) of yesteryears. The weather has turned dry and hot. I miss the rains. The months ahead will bring the usual knowns and unknowns.

Election is probably in the air. Tried going to school for sports practice yesterday. The usual 15 minutes took me more than 1.5 hours.... and I only got half way before giving up and making a U-turn. Apparently there was a gathering at the Stadium and the PM was here... Himpun. We have so many gatherings these days... Himpunan Hijau, Himpun, Bersih, etc, etc....