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There were two boys, A and B, who always went to school together everyday. One day, B was caught cheating in a test. A knew about it and told the teacher. B was then punished.
Moral Education question : “Which sentence in the paragraph shows that A and B are best friends?”
Student’s answer : “-- A knew about it and told the teacher. -- because A cared for his best friend, that’s why he told their teacher.”
Answer in marking scheme paper : “-- There were two boys, A and B, who always went to school together everyday. –”
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I don’t know from which SPM year that question was from (but maybe it’s a question from school level exam?). I’m not even sure if it really exists or not.
This was the only thing the lecturer talked about that kept me awake for awhile during Linear Algebra class today. Sigh. Why do I have to be sleepy on my favourite day & during my favourite class?
Haha. Anyway… I don’t really remember how the discussion on “Linear Independence” theorems turned into issues about current education system in Malaysia… but that Moral Education question brought back some memories from the past.
I used to think – I even stole my study time just to think about it– about the flaws in the current education system. The fact that one can just memorise to get good grades/marks frustrates me. Part of it is personal. I am not someone who could memorise things easily… but that’s not because I have poor memory. I just don’t believe in it. I don’t believe that someone can be knowledgeable and possess wisdom just by memorising. It’s a bit insulting to the beauty of knowledge, don’t you think?
I used to think of it in black and white back then (form 4 & 5, 5-6 yrs ago)… now? Not so much (tiring!). I try to assure myself that everyone is unique thus they have their own unique ways of teaching themselves. Instead, most of the time, I try to comfort myself that I am me, their unique ways don’t work for me & I don’t have to worry if I learn from a different route. And it’s not easy. It’s still hard now because I keep seeing how my methods don’t give out results as good as those “gifted-in-memorising” students.
But just when I start feeling doubtful, my lecturers gave out their opinions on the education system which were similar to mine at random occasions during classes. I was awaken and reminded again of what I believe in. [Yappari. Getting into a university is a good thing. ^_^] Few weeks ago, in French class, my lecturer (a foreigner) talked about how the teachers in her son’s school expect her to send her son to tuition centres (or get a tuition teacher for him). She doesn’t want to do that. And then, there was a heated discussion between her and one of my coursemates (I can see that he is one of them), no shouting was involved but it got me excited… like today. It felt different [good kind of different] hearing those opinions from someone who has different cultural background and different teaching experiences. Somewhat it makes me think “There’s still hope.”
Whoa. Didn’t expect this post to be this long. I’ll stop here… I don’t know if my points came across clearly but to get this thoughts out here again like old times.. Ah. Good times, good times.
