21st Century Curriculum: Forward or Backwards?
With just another 2 weeks left till school reopens, we were introduced to our new form teacher and mentor via a WhatsApp message. The 4 Angsana of 2016 has been "promoted" to 5 Angsana in 2017, guided by Pn Sharon Kaur who is our class teacher and our mentor, En Halim.
Our class timetable was then forwarded to our class group, and there were several glaring details we noticed about it at first glance. First, we have an extra hour of science electives we chose from, it was raised to a total of 3 hours per week rather than the initial 2 hours. Modern mathematics and additional mathematics were also increased by an extra 1 hour per week. We thought maybe it was just extra intensives that were used to prepare us for SPM, so we didn't really bother much about it. Then we noticed, school ends remarkably late on every Monday till Wednesday.
On Mondays, we will only be dismissed at 3pm, 2.30pm on Tuesdays and 3.00pm on Wednesdays. Some other classes will only be dismissed at 3,30pm due to extra electives. This hectic schedule really got me thinking, is it even productive for students to begin with? I guess it's hard for people who sits in their office 24/7 to understand it from the perspective of students and teachers, so let me break it down.
As students/teachers, we all live in different places. Some closer to school, others relatively further. Take myself for example, I live in Klang and I have to wake up at 5,30am every morning. Surely it isn't only myself, there are thousands of students out there who wakes up a this range of time in order to prepare for school. Then in school, we're greeted by long hours of studying and cramming until we finally get to have a break during recess which would be about 10am - 11am depending on which form you're in. And after recess, we're greeted by more hours of studying and classroom work. In all honesty, that half an hour of break we get every day isn't even enough to fill our stomachs and rest sufficiently. We often feel hungry and exhausted at the last few periods of class, but still are forced to go on with studying.
As Malaysian students, we try to do the best we can, And that means either of two things - tuition and/or co-curricular activities (CCA). Often times these activities take place after school, and that would mean more energy consuming activities even after a long day at school. Often times the government pressures us to be balanced as a student, to be equally excellent at academics and CCA, but do they really understand the psyche of students and our limited capacities? Let's look more into it.
Imagine this scenario, you are a student who wakes up at 5.30am to get ready for school, From 7.30am onwards you start studying, all the way until 10,30am for a half an hour break until 11am, that's 3 hours of studying. From 11am, you continue with class sessions until at least 3pm, that's 4 whole long hours of studying right after a half an hour break. At this point, you'e probably already tired because that break time was just not sufficient at all. At 3pm, you're given 1 hour of lunch time which I'd say is a fair deal. But what happens after lunch time is disastrous. From 4pm onwards until 6pm is when CCA happens, with all sorts of activities like house practices and clubs, it's physically and mentally draining. At 6pm, you'll feel so worn out that the only thing you have in your mind is either food or sleep. And if that isn't enough, you'll be greeted with tuition classes designated to help you perform better in subjects you're weak at. Often times tuition starts right after CCA or if you're lucky enough then at 7.30pm, which means you'll have an hour and half of dinner and rest. And tuition classes are often times 2 hours and 30 mins long, which means classes ends at 10pm at night. If that isn't torturous enough, we're forced to study, revise and complete our homework on a daily basis which we'll only complete after an hour or 2, sometimes even longer depending on the amount of work. It's not uncommon to sleep later than 12am, sometimes we're forced to burn the midnight oil until 2am/3am just to revise for upcoming exams or maybe we had a lot of work to complete.Guess what, we'll sleep for 3 -5 hours and we'll be greeted by another long and hectic day as such.
This cycle often goes on on a daily basis. At the end of the week, we'll be exhausted and dry to our bones. Unfortunately that's not the end of it yet. If we're representing our school, state or maybe even country in a sport or activity, often times training and practices takes place on weekends. Intensives, tournaments, training and practices take up our free time and we're left with just a few hours to spare - for some rest, homework if we can and that's it. We sleep it off on Sunday night and the hell-like schedule begins on Monday again.
So to you readers out there, I urge you to really think about it from a micro-perspective of the individuals experiencing such policies. Because essentially, we're human and not machines; and even machines break under pressure, what more humans who are merely covered in flesh? This is a cry from the young of Malaysia: please do not take us for robots, we are much more than your torturous policies pushes us to be.
Sunday, 26 March 2017
Chapter 10: 4th December 2016
Unprogressive Progressiveness
Being a high school debater, one common goal we had was to be accepted into the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC) Team Malaysia. In order to be part of WSDC Malaysia, a selections is carried out annually to handpick the top 15 debaters throughout the country.
Back in 2014 I was chosen to be part of Malaysia'a first ever developmental squad, and I couldn't wait to see if I can achieve a greater success in 2016. We trained hard - practices, factsheets, video-session etc just to prepare for selections in hope of success. The selections weekend finally came and we were all pumped up. First day was a written test and 3 rounds of debates, followed by another 3 rounds on the second day. On the third day, I was on the top 10 list on debaters who were there, and was placed in room 2 for another 2 rounds of debates as a deciding factor.
The organizing committee old us results will be announced at the end of that day, and those who were selected will be contacted by phone. I felt confident of my performance, feedback from judges were positive and I felt that I had a strong chance of making the team. I went out for dinner with my friends that night while we awaited for the results to be released.
Long story short, I wasn't selected to be part of the team. However, the results weren't based on merit and effort. We found out that the results were based on a policy that prioritizes Bumiputera and diversity of institutions. Which meant that Bumiputeras from a variety of institutions will be prioritized over their non-Bumiputera counterparts.
It was a sad situation, and a very disappointing one too. A circuit that argues so much for progressiveness and equality, now abide by policies that undermines the narratives we argue for; it's just such a sad scene.
Being a high school debater, one common goal we had was to be accepted into the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC) Team Malaysia. In order to be part of WSDC Malaysia, a selections is carried out annually to handpick the top 15 debaters throughout the country.
Back in 2014 I was chosen to be part of Malaysia'a first ever developmental squad, and I couldn't wait to see if I can achieve a greater success in 2016. We trained hard - practices, factsheets, video-session etc just to prepare for selections in hope of success. The selections weekend finally came and we were all pumped up. First day was a written test and 3 rounds of debates, followed by another 3 rounds on the second day. On the third day, I was on the top 10 list on debaters who were there, and was placed in room 2 for another 2 rounds of debates as a deciding factor.
The organizing committee old us results will be announced at the end of that day, and those who were selected will be contacted by phone. I felt confident of my performance, feedback from judges were positive and I felt that I had a strong chance of making the team. I went out for dinner with my friends that night while we awaited for the results to be released.
Long story short, I wasn't selected to be part of the team. However, the results weren't based on merit and effort. We found out that the results were based on a policy that prioritizes Bumiputera and diversity of institutions. Which meant that Bumiputeras from a variety of institutions will be prioritized over their non-Bumiputera counterparts.
It was a sad situation, and a very disappointing one too. A circuit that argues so much for progressiveness and equality, now abide by policies that undermines the narratives we argue for; it's just such a sad scene.
Sunday, 25 September 2016
Chapter 9: The Prodigal Son.
- Once upon a time, there lived a wealthy farmer.
- He had a family of two sons.
- They were living together merrily.
- Years went by, the younger son became restless as he was unhappy with his lot.
- He went to his father and requested for his share of the property.
- The father tried to dissuade and advise his son, but the son wouldn't listen to his father whom he regarded as old and ignorant.
- Thus, the faher splitted the property into three parts and gave his son a third of it.
- The young and ignorant lad sold his share of the property and migrated to another country.
- He led a luxurious life and spent a lot of money on gambling.
- Unfortunately, he eventually became bankrupt and became a pauper.
Sunday, 10 July 2016
Chapter 8: Wow
In the 21st century, full or modern technology saturated with and obsessed with the usage of social media, the term "wow" is associated with the popular meme of "doge": featuring a corgi with a hilarious yet sarcastic face.
WOW
MUCH COOL
SWAG
SUCH RELEVANCE
\THANK YOU!
Chapter 7: Arch of Colours (Factual)
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun.
Rainbows can be full circles; however, the average observer sees only an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground, and centered on a line from the sun to the observer's eye.
In a primary rainbow, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it.
In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc.
Rainbows are most often associated with happiness and positive vibes, i.e after a conflict or a storm due to the harmony in colours which symbolizes harmony in a particular situation.
So remember whenever you see a rainbow, know that there is always hope and pray for a better tomorrow!
PEACE OUT!
Sunday, 15 May 2016
Chapter 6: Innovation In The Future
For the side that is defending the use of artificial intelligence, it is crucial to illustrate the future where artificial intelligence is being used widely in society and how much we stand to benefit from that new civilization. There are five crucial benefits that should be analyzed:
- Wealth of knowledge:Artificial intelligence has a far greater capacity to store a large wealth of information and to a great degree of specificity. Although human beings can also store knowledge to great degree, their ability to retrieve it and their ability to remember mundane details like statistics is severely limited. This is because humans are constantly storing more and more information from around them even when it is useless or of no value to them. But with artificial intelligence, we can deliberately equip them with the specific knowledge that they need to function effectively. Additionally, the process of learning this knowledge is instantaneous due to modern technology. Information can be uploaded into their programming at a click of a button unlike human beings who will take up much time and effort to learn any particular knowledge.
- Preventing emotional hindrance and human errors:The ability for humans to function effectively is entirely contingent on their state of mind. Those who are suffering from an emotional event such as going through conflict in the familial or romantic relationships will find that they are unable to focus at work and are easily distracted. This is because their mind is occupied with the personal conflict that they are currently undergoing. For this reason, many companies have to let their employees take leave if they are currently undergoing some level of emotional turbulence such as a family member passing away. If they continue working whilst under that emotional state of mind, they are greatly prone to committing human errors. Unlike artificial intelligence which can be programmed to function at 100% optimum capacity, it is impossible for them to be distracted or distressed during the course of their work. When they do malfunction, they require some ritual maintenance before they can then continue to function at optimum rate again. It is unclear and uncertain on what period of time it takes for a human being to gain back their optimum efficiency.
- Maximizing ability to function:When it comes to humans, there are physical and humanitarian limits to their ability to function. If they are too physically exhausted, they would no longer be able to function effectively. For the sake of protecting human rights as well, the government mandates maximum working hours to ensure that no employees are being abused by corporations. Thus, there is a clear ceiling to the ability to function. With artificial intelligence, we are able to break through that ceiling and truly maximize the ability to function. They can be made to work overnight and function every day of the week. It has no real need to take constant and prolonged periods of rest and they can still continue to function optimally.
- Create elite human labour for lesser costs:Artificial intelligence is created to simulate the functions of the human mind on all levels. Although in present time we are still trying to develop technology that is comparable to human intelligence, we have been making huge strides such as when Google’s AlphaGo artificial intelligence successfully beat the world’s top Go player this month. Scientists have already forecasted that the future of artificial intelligence is bright and they predict the future to have robot scientists with the brain capacity to supercede human intelligence. In the future, all elite levels of human labour such as doctors, engineers and scientists can be sourced from artificial intelligence. This will be a greater optimization of the workforce as it takes too many years and an immense amount of money to educate one person to the highest level of expertise and expect them to succeed at the most difficult sectors of knowledge known to mankind. We also need to compensate our elite labour with large sums of money in exchange for their expertise and retirement ages restrict us from re-utilizing our brightest minds. With artificial intelligence, we save the time that it takes to groom our human labour, we save the money it takes to have them working and we save the losses that we have to suffer when they have to retire.
Artificial intelligence can self-regulate and further innovate:
The beauty of artificial intelligence is that it functions much in the same way that humans do. The downfall of plain robots used in manufacturing and industrialization is that it has no ability to adapt, no ability to foresee problems and no ability to self-improve. This is no longer the case with artificial intelligence. Its mind simulates human thinking and thus, it will be able to self-regulate its own operations. It doesn’t only function like a menial labour, it functions like a high-level executive. It is able to identify potential problems and troubleshoot before the problem manifests. It is able to utilize its problem-solving skills to real-life situations. It is able to adapt to unforeseeable scenarios and most importantly, it can innovate much in the way that humans do. It can improve its working environment and optimally strive for better conditions.
Chapter 5: Speak Out
"Freedom Writers", as the name suggests, writers who write for the purpose of freedom. This story tells a tale how racism is manufactured, and can be overcome through patience, compromise and love.
4 terms that can be used to describe the situation in the classroom before the students were unified - "discrimination, segregation, prejudice and stereotypes."
Minorites, the likes of African Americans, Asians, Hispanics etc were discriminated on a daily basis. For example, Ms. Gruwell's class. Her students were mostly from racial minority background, and was discriminated at school in a sense that they were deemed not intelligent and was placed in a lower class.
Segregation also happened within the class. Students with the same racial background would group together and form sections within the classroom. Everyone had their own "gang" and was segregated amongst each other.
Prejudism however was also another glaring effect of the toxic situation in America. Prejudism often caused conflicts between groups of different racial identities that it would trigger fights and worst, murder cases. It was toxic to the extent that it would be dangerous for any minority to walk outside alone, because that means they might get killed.
Lastly, stereotypes. This means there is a pre-conceived notion that a certain individual is associated to determined based on an aspect like race. For example, most of the honours class students were white, rich male and females whilst lower classes were students from minority racial backgrounds. This means, Caucasions deem themselves more intellectual and deem others worthless for education.
I admire the spirit Ms. Gruwell has for teaching. Her passion and her determination to help students who were previously toxic against her is something I look up to. If only teacher everywhere could have such a spirit, that they not only teach but inspire others to learn and build a community united, far away from discrimination and prejudism, the world would be a better place.
4 terms that can be used to describe the situation in the classroom before the students were unified - "discrimination, segregation, prejudice and stereotypes."
Minorites, the likes of African Americans, Asians, Hispanics etc were discriminated on a daily basis. For example, Ms. Gruwell's class. Her students were mostly from racial minority background, and was discriminated at school in a sense that they were deemed not intelligent and was placed in a lower class.
Segregation also happened within the class. Students with the same racial background would group together and form sections within the classroom. Everyone had their own "gang" and was segregated amongst each other.
Prejudism however was also another glaring effect of the toxic situation in America. Prejudism often caused conflicts between groups of different racial identities that it would trigger fights and worst, murder cases. It was toxic to the extent that it would be dangerous for any minority to walk outside alone, because that means they might get killed.
Lastly, stereotypes. This means there is a pre-conceived notion that a certain individual is associated to determined based on an aspect like race. For example, most of the honours class students were white, rich male and females whilst lower classes were students from minority racial backgrounds. This means, Caucasions deem themselves more intellectual and deem others worthless for education.
I admire the spirit Ms. Gruwell has for teaching. Her passion and her determination to help students who were previously toxic against her is something I look up to. If only teacher everywhere could have such a spirit, that they not only teach but inspire others to learn and build a community united, far away from discrimination and prejudism, the world would be a better place.
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