This was written to Dr. Theva, a fortnightly columnist in Star Education. It's regarding the education system in Malaysia and how I was a misfit in the system trying to make the most of it. Happy Reading.
Dear Dr Theva,
I believe that Necessity is the Mother of Invention. When I read your article in the Star Education (11th July 2010), everything seems to click in my mind why things have been easy, interesting yet tough for me through my school days.It was only recently i realised i am mega creative. That was after i did a dermatoglyphic test which indicated my Creativity Quotient is ranked above average. For years, i have been wondering why am i a Jack(in this case Jill) of all trades and Master (Mistress for me) of none.My friends called me 'Information'. Coz i am like a book of knowledge(from cars to DIY to IT stuffs and child development) and i seems to have this feeling that there is so much to learn in this world yet there is so little time. I sucked at repetitive work. Bad at memorising facts but when it comes to projects and assignments and new ideas to try out, I will be the first in the line to give it a shot.
Why am i writing to you about this? I saw your credentials and believe you have a louder voice than me to shout out to our government to make the necessary changes to our Education System. I have talked to parents, teachers, friends etc and almost all just shrugged their shoulders and resigned to fate that they can't change the system, they have to change themselves. I refused to do that.
Our system is like fitting every child into a square hole regardless of whether the child is meant to be a oblong shape or a triangle one. I am lucky i am quite brilliant. In school, i did just sufficient work to stay at the top of my class and the rest of my time, i did so much to fill my inquisitive and creative mind. I was involved in many sports from netball, rounders, hockey, volleyball etc to being a head prefect and a head librarian. I did them because i felt i had a better purpose coming to school then just sitting for exams. I just felt than i should know more this year compared to the last year and i don't mean getting better marks this year compared to the previous year. And this was in my primary school.
In my secondary school, i get the chance to organise talentime, do community projects, get involved in drama production, organise campfire and combined meet, did CPR and learning how to bandage an injured limb, head prefect again, almost picketed in class and the list just went on and on. It was like my school allowed me to be flexible, to fit my oblong shape into a square hole. We were all very lucky coz our school didn't excel in exams, but we did well in extra curricular activities. Also the composition of the students were well balanced. Chinese, Malay, Indian, Portuguese, like a melting pot of mini Malaysia. Our principal is a Canossian sister and she did a great job in making sure character building plays an important role in school. Many of us were talented in our own ways, that was why we had talentime every year. WE were able to develop at a relatively slower pace compared with other prominent schools.
Even with all that, unfortunately i didn't flourish after school, coz i later realised that I was too well protected by my parents. Though i had the necessary skills and brilliance, they were afraid to take risks and because of that, i lack life skills, streetsmart skills needed to survive in the working world. Because i didn't get to try out the various opportunities out there before i enter Uni, and because i was above average in all my endeavours, I didn't realise what was my greatest potential. My creativity was left buried till only later in my life surfaced and make me see the errors of my education.
Children today are living in a digital world, like you mentioned. On top of that, due to the hormoned induced diet they have been consuming all their life, they matured way much faster than you and I did. To them, it's no longer follow the rules and stick to the path. They view living life as playing a computer game. You need to play many games till you get better and manage to find all the tricks set in the game. They need to have hands on experience of what life is all about before they mellow and realise what's good for them. They need to have a purpose in learning. They need to know why are they doing this in the first place before putting their heart and soul into making it successful. I am taking about children who are natural born leaders who are creative, inquisitive, not into rote learning and memorising facts.
We need to have an education system where choices can be made. If UPSR is still on, then let the children and parents have a choice whether they want to sit for the exam. If they choose not to , then they can have a choice where their child can be in a stream where exams stands only a certain percentage and the rest are measured in coursework. Let them build a portfolio of the work they have done be it a website, handiprojects etc. Let them have a chance to present their work in the public, school or in a setting where they get to learn that when they start a project, they do it from the start till the end. Parents can advise but not help them do it. They plan at home and then do it in class.
I teach English but i admit, i am not teaching the Queen's English. I write whatever that comes into my mind coz when the creative juices flow, I just can't stop it. It's like my brain purging. My students, coz they are in SJKC schools, had to do a lot of grammar, comprehension the usual works. But i used the Cambridge books coz there is an abundance of knowledge and information they can gather from the books. We talked about languages in the Amazon, Gorilla in mist story, sumo wrestlers, life in the 1900, high school students having their own band, students getting to be newscasters and DJs etc.
When time permits which is usually during the school holidays, we do projects and write about them. So far we made solar ovens, did the coke and mentos experiments, cooking an egg in an aluminium foil in an oven, making questionaires etc. Oh yeah, my students are from Standard One till Four and all get to do the same projects. We get to talk a lot in class too.And after class, they get to play at my house before their parents pick them up, and we try to use as much English as possible.I have many varieties of books and they love Asterix and Obelix, they will never find them in their school library coz the books are mainly Chinese books.So in my two hour weekly class, we get to do science, maths (taught fractions once), history and Geography, Bible studies too (we talked about some stories in the bible as well for moral issues). The children love their English lessons. That way it keeps the passion of wanting-to-know-more-things-in-English going for them. My class size is small, about five in each class.
The gist of my story is:
1) we need to do away with classifying lessons into subjects.
2) we need to focus on knowledge, not language. When the thirst of knowledge is felt, the children will want to know the language to get the thirst quenched.
3) Maintain the traditional way of learning but introduce a parallel system like i have mentioned and let willing parents try this out. Many home schoolers are using this method but a lot of time and money are poured into by these parents. Many like minded parents faced financial contraints implementing this but if the system is up and running in government school, more takers will be willing to give it a try.
4) More project and researched based evaluation coz this will guage the child's understanding in applying what he has learnt and he is able to use his creativity to find solutions to problems.
5) DO not rush the child into learning too much at a rate faster than his own pace. Right now, we are doing form three work in Standard five. Check out the Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia syllabus in school. They are creativity killers.
This way, the left brained child get to do the kind of education he wants ie mugging and logic and rote learning. The right brain child get to tap his creative potential. And not forgetting, the sporting types get to excel too. Get student to organise events in school even though they are in primary school. If they can organise their own parties, why can't they organise a competition and talentime and exhibition etc. We have spoonfed them too much. Nowadays, it's the teachers who are doing all the organising. The children don't get to get their hands involved except to participate as participants and audience.
If i have the money and opportunity to set up such a school, I will do it. It will be the first school where students are more involved in the running of the school the way they want it. Teachers are mere facilitators. Since children during their hormonal raging stage tend to fight, by all means have a fighting competition, with protective gears and all...... If they want to have a tortoise racing competition, let them have it. They are learning how to organise and manage an event.
That's why i miss my school, Dr. Theva.I have done enough of brain purging. Thank you so much for reading my most humble piece. I would be greatly honoured if you could provide me some feedback regarding my suggestions. Hope all's well with you, Dr. Theva.
Take care and God bless.
Regards,
Karen Lee Huey Shyan
Mother of two 8 and 6 year old boys.
A home maker and a part time teacher.
