If a system of government works and is effective, why do we still feel unhappy about it? Maybe, no matter how it is, Man is made to be dissatisfied and it is this state of disequilibrium that pushes him in new and better directions.
It had been an interesting week with the leadership clearly using the words 'selective','pragmatic', 'social cohesion' and 'social equity' in the same report.
Now, we have always been constantly reminded how pragmatic this society is. I mean how many times can a people be told they cannot survive without working to death (why retire? working's fun and keeps you independent on yourself)because they are small?
I am touched that we, the people, had been given the recognition that we have truly matured to embrace the 'selectiveness' of this system. Now we know where we truly stand by just looking at these markers that had been set up for us.
On another note, who needs entertainment news when you have politics in its purest form flexing its arms? It truly lives up to the Machiavellian spirit of accosting your enemies at its swiftest and deepest, leaving us satisfied and stupefied.
While the weak opponent was falling all over the place and as usual hanging his head in shame (again we not only keep saying sorry, we feel sorry for ourselves) the other managed to put a cloud over the mistake that had put this county in one of the highest state of alert since our parents' times, by swaying the propaganda to his victim's court.
Recently (with all the furore that ended with we'll talk and solve this now sounding like all talk and no action, another common trait associated (rightly?) with my community) the victor emerged with a coup of sorts that avoided all the drama and did all the work to provide a pragmatic solution.
Ah now, who cares about social liberty when you can have what works, and is fast to boot?
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
National Spirit
My spirit of nationalism is not something I had ever consciously thought about. Growing up in the eighties the issue of who I am in relation to the island I live in did not exist. That my friends spoke a different language at home and were of a different colour did not occur to me to be anything that made it necessary that we consciously work towards understanding each other. To me, I was no different from my classmates of other races.
We ate, played, hung out and even stayed over at each other's homes. By virtue of being the only or one of a few in the cliques I was in, I even picked up a decent amount of my friends' language that I am able to understand and reply to basic conversation. However, nothing made me feel more unwelcome in my own land than when I entered the workforce, the real world. If I was accepted for my race, I was not accepted for my faith. Either way I never felt really accepted. I was always 'the other'.
On reflection, after more than a decade out of the education system, I believe the homogenous school environment creates a false construct that falls apart in the real world. We have all been literally dressed into our prescribed roles that we grew to believe as reality. After 9/11, the marginalisation grew even worse, with society scrutinizing our every move and fellow Muslims fervently apologetic for actions hardly of their doing. In the midst of all this, my country has been welcoming various nationalities to work and live here that I now not only have many native Chinese neighbours but a few from India, Myanmar and even Japan in my public housing .
Initially. I saw this as a further threat to the already marginal opportunities of my community. However, whether real or portrayed, I sense in my daily interactions, in the media and in the generally accepted school of thought that finally society has woken up to the need to be inclusive and not only tolerant of but to celebrate our differences. Five years from now, I would like to look back and honestly say that I, a native, feel that I am a part of this country. A sentiment, at least based on what is in the media, that immigrants already feel.
We ate, played, hung out and even stayed over at each other's homes. By virtue of being the only or one of a few in the cliques I was in, I even picked up a decent amount of my friends' language that I am able to understand and reply to basic conversation. However, nothing made me feel more unwelcome in my own land than when I entered the workforce, the real world. If I was accepted for my race, I was not accepted for my faith. Either way I never felt really accepted. I was always 'the other'.
On reflection, after more than a decade out of the education system, I believe the homogenous school environment creates a false construct that falls apart in the real world. We have all been literally dressed into our prescribed roles that we grew to believe as reality. After 9/11, the marginalisation grew even worse, with society scrutinizing our every move and fellow Muslims fervently apologetic for actions hardly of their doing. In the midst of all this, my country has been welcoming various nationalities to work and live here that I now not only have many native Chinese neighbours but a few from India, Myanmar and even Japan in my public housing .
Initially. I saw this as a further threat to the already marginal opportunities of my community. However, whether real or portrayed, I sense in my daily interactions, in the media and in the generally accepted school of thought that finally society has woken up to the need to be inclusive and not only tolerant of but to celebrate our differences. Five years from now, I would like to look back and honestly say that I, a native, feel that I am a part of this country. A sentiment, at least based on what is in the media, that immigrants already feel.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Curriculum Mindshift
I read with interest Tuesday's article in the main local English papers about how parents have turned to tuition centres to conduct tests and exams for their children and thus having exam-centred learning for primary one and two students when exams are soon becoming non-existent at these levels.
Such a change in the system shows a strong commitment by the government to implement more developmentally appropriate teaching and evaluation methods which at the general level of reflection in my limited knowledge of the field of education has been scientifically proven.
This brings to mind the complexity of curriculum innovation in relation to the community outside the school. You may get the go-ahead at the policy, administrative and teaching levels but you still need to convince parents and other role players.
Tuition centres, as commercial entities, can be a good indicator of what parents really think their children should get from their schooling. At this point, that seems to be , ironically, a scientific way of measuring their child's competitiveness. As pointed out by one of the interviewees in the article, students eventually after all have to sit for high-stakes examinations.
What I hope though is that this will not cause a turnaround in the government's policies towards implementing holistic changes in the system. It does have a trend
over the years of trying out new programs like SAIL, the initial SEED program, the 'freer' English syllabus in the 80s and eventually regaining control of the 'freedom' given in content and method to implement state level programs.
The difference I hope is that like other 'process' as opposed to these 'content' changes, the elimination of examinations at the foundation levels will, like the implementation of independent schools and 'alternative' schools and examinations like NUS High, SOTA and the IB, will see the light of day and not be buried under public pressure.
Maybe one way to do so is to convince the government of the economic benefits of a more holistic method of education (which I think they are already slowly warming up to as seen in the implemented changes)....that's a question the academics will have to answer. Although we can look at the Scandinavian countries and the United States, we can also question why we cannot follow Germany.
Then there's always the question of context. Education is seen as the labour producing machine of a country and we are always being told that we cannot afford to be anything but the best to survive as a small nation (although at this moment I wonder at this because we seem to be trying to fill our population to the seams with people of whatever educational level to satisfy the population ratio but that is another story) hence we must optimise every cohort that goes through the system.
As for me, I'm convinced that mass schooling in general is problematic and ,as can be seen in the 1001 policy changes, a reactive generator to the economic changes. In the end we have recreated society as it was before mass education and industrialisation in another form.
Now back to my domestic chores...
Such a change in the system shows a strong commitment by the government to implement more developmentally appropriate teaching and evaluation methods which at the general level of reflection in my limited knowledge of the field of education has been scientifically proven.
This brings to mind the complexity of curriculum innovation in relation to the community outside the school. You may get the go-ahead at the policy, administrative and teaching levels but you still need to convince parents and other role players.
Tuition centres, as commercial entities, can be a good indicator of what parents really think their children should get from their schooling. At this point, that seems to be , ironically, a scientific way of measuring their child's competitiveness. As pointed out by one of the interviewees in the article, students eventually after all have to sit for high-stakes examinations.
What I hope though is that this will not cause a turnaround in the government's policies towards implementing holistic changes in the system. It does have a trend
over the years of trying out new programs like SAIL, the initial SEED program, the 'freer' English syllabus in the 80s and eventually regaining control of the 'freedom' given in content and method to implement state level programs.
The difference I hope is that like other 'process' as opposed to these 'content' changes, the elimination of examinations at the foundation levels will, like the implementation of independent schools and 'alternative' schools and examinations like NUS High, SOTA and the IB, will see the light of day and not be buried under public pressure.
Maybe one way to do so is to convince the government of the economic benefits of a more holistic method of education (which I think they are already slowly warming up to as seen in the implemented changes)....that's a question the academics will have to answer. Although we can look at the Scandinavian countries and the United States, we can also question why we cannot follow Germany.
Then there's always the question of context. Education is seen as the labour producing machine of a country and we are always being told that we cannot afford to be anything but the best to survive as a small nation (although at this moment I wonder at this because we seem to be trying to fill our population to the seams with people of whatever educational level to satisfy the population ratio but that is another story) hence we must optimise every cohort that goes through the system.
As for me, I'm convinced that mass schooling in general is problematic and ,as can be seen in the 1001 policy changes, a reactive generator to the economic changes. In the end we have recreated society as it was before mass education and industrialisation in another form.
Now back to my domestic chores...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
One of the hardest act that one can do is to forgive; for to have to forgive must mean one has been wronged. God reminds us that even He forgives but that Man has too much pride. However, pride can only be one side in the story of forgiving, for to be too proud to forgive one must feel a sense of being better and the one in the right. The question of who is really right then is secondary.
We then come to the question of justice. In consideration of events that have taken place, what occurred according to its place in the accepted norms of this life to give each man what is rightful to him? If one's rights has been trespassed, should not one have every right not to forgive?
Yes.
However,it's better for you, your soul and your redemption in the hereafter that you should.And, we know, despite whatever our mind and heart tells us ( which means that your mind is going against your mind, that is to assume that knowing occurs only in the mind)that this is true.
Yet the fact that God asks us to forgive means that we are capable of forgiving. Hence why do we find it so hard to do so? In fact, in putting forth this question, why do we find it hard to do what other God-blessed noble acts there can be? Which part of us makes the decision on whether we should forgive and do we base this on emotion or what is the best for our salvation in this world and/or the hereafter?
I cannot but realise how intriguing the emotional/rational relationship is and how it manifests itself in our life. In the end, if its what you do that matters and will be accounted for,then what you felt and thought are only means.
It follows on that any actions that we carry out brings consequences to those around us and hence our actions are never truly free. How then can we use personal emotions as the only scale to weigh in our reactions to any injustice that might have been borne unto us?
At the end of it all we can only find solace in the fact that God judges us only on what we do.
We then come to the question of justice. In consideration of events that have taken place, what occurred according to its place in the accepted norms of this life to give each man what is rightful to him? If one's rights has been trespassed, should not one have every right not to forgive?
Yes.
However,it's better for you, your soul and your redemption in the hereafter that you should.And, we know, despite whatever our mind and heart tells us ( which means that your mind is going against your mind, that is to assume that knowing occurs only in the mind)that this is true.
Yet the fact that God asks us to forgive means that we are capable of forgiving. Hence why do we find it so hard to do so? In fact, in putting forth this question, why do we find it hard to do what other God-blessed noble acts there can be? Which part of us makes the decision on whether we should forgive and do we base this on emotion or what is the best for our salvation in this world and/or the hereafter?
I cannot but realise how intriguing the emotional/rational relationship is and how it manifests itself in our life. In the end, if its what you do that matters and will be accounted for,then what you felt and thought are only means.
It follows on that any actions that we carry out brings consequences to those around us and hence our actions are never truly free. How then can we use personal emotions as the only scale to weigh in our reactions to any injustice that might have been borne unto us?
At the end of it all we can only find solace in the fact that God judges us only on what we do.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Reflections
Can one ever be an outside observer of this life and be a part of it at the same time? Well, you can argue that cognitively one can for therein lies the role of metacognition where one thinks of one's thoughts. Maybe if we all metacognize, the world will be a more rational place. Then again, what would be the standards one measures by and how is your view fairer than mine? In the end too when one detaches oneself from life personal, one detaches from the baggage of emotion; which is it not the reason why life is more bearable sometimes is it not? Why does a mother want to go through childbirth again, knowing the pain of having done so before and really why does one sacrifice one's dreams to be with one's partner if there is not the notion of love and in the severest 'rationalisation' ; romance? The fact of the matter is we are all put here by God to go through the same motions in different ways. If life is so, why is each experience still novel that we may need to struggle through them when many others have gone through the same and thus are models of how we should act as are the guidance one finds in the Quran? Is God trying to tell us that what is most important is doing the right thing and that we should get over this humdrum and drama of life? After all whatever will happen is going to happen and the question is how will you handle it that you will not only end well but go through it well? I guess the point is that it is hardly about you and eveything about you.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
One of the reasons that keeps me homeschooling is the opportunity for my children to not be confined to the text and workbook culture that is the bane of traditional schools. This does not mean that I think that this practice should be abandoned, we in fact do use them at home, but it should not be the core resource of learning.
At the same time that it benefits mainly those who are more inclined to words, it also deprives others who think in pictures or music or the physical movements of their body; their other senses. It also confines thought to literal interpretations when it could instead be more richly experienced in other forms.
In his book, "Cognition and Curriculum Reconsidered", Eisner calls for schools to provide that varied experience in learning by using different forms of representations in recognition of the different ways in which students think and express themselves. This in turn follows that students should also be given the opportunity to be evaluated beyond pen and paper tests.
I believe that this is a culture that has been held on to for a long time by homeschoolers and something that we should cherish and nourish always. while this is much a lost cause in most schools, on a positive note, I am glad that the current educational system does allow for direct school admissions based on non-academic areas.
However, I do still see the emphasis on academic evaluations as although these students may come in on their strengths in non-academic areas, their learning experiene is still mainly in the traditional vein and in the end, they are still being evaluated on standardised examinations.
Eisner's point in his book is for learning to be made more accessible to people of various learning styles, if I may say so, that history for example is not merely a liturgy of words and dates but something alive like the languages and rituals that continue to exist today and the architecture of historical sites that we continue to be in awe of.
Imagine... touching the hearts and mind of students who find reading repulsive and abhors Mathematics by watching the battles of ancient history through movies and listening to stories of ancient mathematicians. I remember being excited about buoyancy through the story of Archimedes in a Physics lesson I did with my eldest child and reading a story of how Pythagoras came up with his famous formula, even if it was made up.
In a sense, I identify with such students, although I do love reading, I found the sciences and mathematics dry and dead in school and turned off learning very early in my learning journey. Although I love the arts, I found them reduced to examinable bites too and instead read a lot on things I was interested in and had nothing to do with school.
In reading writers like Eisner though, I try to not romanticise the ideals that they bring forth for the rhetoric can get to your most innermost crises and cloud your vision that you fail to see the woods for the trees. I agree that more should be done for alternative mediums for learning and evaluation though but need to find out more how this can be done on a massive basis i.e. in schools.
Eisner did suggest the Waldorf schools as a great example the form of education that he visualised. I see a few areas of further exploration: "alternative admission requirements in local schools", "specialised schools- are they creating wider opportunities or strengthening the disciplinary divide", "cognition and representation in the classroom" and "the social class and cultural capital divide- how it can be minimised through a cognitively sensitive curriculum".
I have finished my first reading of Eisner and will be looking at some of the references that he used in the book like Dewey's "Art as Experience" plus Epstein and Singer's research papers as soon as I finish "Human Cognition", a very interesting read, by Bransford.
At the same time that it benefits mainly those who are more inclined to words, it also deprives others who think in pictures or music or the physical movements of their body; their other senses. It also confines thought to literal interpretations when it could instead be more richly experienced in other forms.
In his book, "Cognition and Curriculum Reconsidered", Eisner calls for schools to provide that varied experience in learning by using different forms of representations in recognition of the different ways in which students think and express themselves. This in turn follows that students should also be given the opportunity to be evaluated beyond pen and paper tests.
I believe that this is a culture that has been held on to for a long time by homeschoolers and something that we should cherish and nourish always. while this is much a lost cause in most schools, on a positive note, I am glad that the current educational system does allow for direct school admissions based on non-academic areas.
However, I do still see the emphasis on academic evaluations as although these students may come in on their strengths in non-academic areas, their learning experiene is still mainly in the traditional vein and in the end, they are still being evaluated on standardised examinations.
Eisner's point in his book is for learning to be made more accessible to people of various learning styles, if I may say so, that history for example is not merely a liturgy of words and dates but something alive like the languages and rituals that continue to exist today and the architecture of historical sites that we continue to be in awe of.
Imagine... touching the hearts and mind of students who find reading repulsive and abhors Mathematics by watching the battles of ancient history through movies and listening to stories of ancient mathematicians. I remember being excited about buoyancy through the story of Archimedes in a Physics lesson I did with my eldest child and reading a story of how Pythagoras came up with his famous formula, even if it was made up.
In a sense, I identify with such students, although I do love reading, I found the sciences and mathematics dry and dead in school and turned off learning very early in my learning journey. Although I love the arts, I found them reduced to examinable bites too and instead read a lot on things I was interested in and had nothing to do with school.
In reading writers like Eisner though, I try to not romanticise the ideals that they bring forth for the rhetoric can get to your most innermost crises and cloud your vision that you fail to see the woods for the trees. I agree that more should be done for alternative mediums for learning and evaluation though but need to find out more how this can be done on a massive basis i.e. in schools.
Eisner did suggest the Waldorf schools as a great example the form of education that he visualised. I see a few areas of further exploration: "alternative admission requirements in local schools", "specialised schools- are they creating wider opportunities or strengthening the disciplinary divide", "cognition and representation in the classroom" and "the social class and cultural capital divide- how it can be minimised through a cognitively sensitive curriculum".
I have finished my first reading of Eisner and will be looking at some of the references that he used in the book like Dewey's "Art as Experience" plus Epstein and Singer's research papers as soon as I finish "Human Cognition", a very interesting read, by Bransford.
Monday, May 10, 2010
A Life Unexamined
If a life unexamined is not worth living, then I would like to be a child who has no conscious need to reflect on life but finds joy in the here and now for knowing how painful life's meanings under the surface can be I would rather not reflect on most of what life is. However, that would make mine a life not worth living. Either way, then I can find no avoidance of pain in life. In a recent academic study, which I have forgotten to note by whom, it was discovered than an emotional situation that is not dealt with continues to linger in dementia patients who are, of course unable to deal with their feelings. You might not want to deal with certain issues in your life, but like a ghost from the past, it will continue to linger in your shadows. So, the next time you sit on that sofa, watching your favourite show and you feel that there is something amiss, don't go on that way everyday. Examine your life...
Monday, May 03, 2010
Thoughts on Machiavelli
My husband came home from Idaho on Monday with my Strausses- " Thoughts on Machiavelli" and " Persecution and Writing". I haven't had the chance to read much though and was picking up on the chapter I was reading before I got cut off because of the limited preview on Google books which was on Machiavelli's teachings in "Thoughts on Machiavelli".
I am very intrigued by the thoughts on how religion played such a major role in his writings, or rather why it shouldn't play a major role in life in his case. It is probably because as a Muslim minority in a country where my people used to hold the reins of power and were the majority it really touches me especially when you grow up with the licensed bigotry and sense of haplessness that your community is always reminded of.
Anyway, I'm toying with the idea of writing my mini research project on cognition and curriculum. I have been informed that my grades will not be good enough to write a dissertation due to the higher requirements of my department. Oh well...life goes on.
Although I do get a feeling the my coordinator views writing a dissertation a Herculean task for everyone included and should not be encouraged.
I'm gonna bury myself in Machiavelli now and am looking forward to Dr. Wong's class on Socrates and Confucius next term, maybe now after understanding somewhat how Modernity afflicts us, I can now learn how it afflicts us in its form here.
I am very intrigued by the thoughts on how religion played such a major role in his writings, or rather why it shouldn't play a major role in life in his case. It is probably because as a Muslim minority in a country where my people used to hold the reins of power and were the majority it really touches me especially when you grow up with the licensed bigotry and sense of haplessness that your community is always reminded of.
Anyway, I'm toying with the idea of writing my mini research project on cognition and curriculum. I have been informed that my grades will not be good enough to write a dissertation due to the higher requirements of my department. Oh well...life goes on.
Although I do get a feeling the my coordinator views writing a dissertation a Herculean task for everyone included and should not be encouraged.
I'm gonna bury myself in Machiavelli now and am looking forward to Dr. Wong's class on Socrates and Confucius next term, maybe now after understanding somewhat how Modernity afflicts us, I can now learn how it afflicts us in its form here.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Modernity thy name is my past
A lecturer once told me that to be modern is to look to the future and to be constantly pursuing something new. I must then be a conservative heretic as I'm struggling to hold on to my senses with the ruins of the past that have been bulldozed by the winds of change that has started long before my birth.
While some may say there's no looking back; I turn away from it and it is not easy in this city that embraces modernity in every aspect of life from our economy, lifestyle, the arts and if I may say etc,etc,etc...
One can always argue that we do have heritage sites, Asian values or ethnic traditions that are still very much alive but I think the most pertinent issue for me is one's lifestyle.We are so caught up with creating something new, a better life, more of everything that we can lose sight of living life.
However, the most dangerous thing about modernity is like that REM song- "Losing My Religion" ; in its conflict between faith and government. If political science is about the pursuit of happiness then a modern version of it follows that happiness can be attained without spirituality.
Maybe I'm going to find the answer or the beginning of the journey to my questions of life and my ongoing struggle against reason and faith that has encompassed half my life in this ivory tower; or maybe I will feel life as doomed as it seemed twenty years ago. Sometimes, I just hope that the questions will stop but they never do, so I might as well face my demons...now back to studying the father of modernity, right after I get my daughter to wash her greasy hands...
While some may say there's no looking back; I turn away from it and it is not easy in this city that embraces modernity in every aspect of life from our economy, lifestyle, the arts and if I may say etc,etc,etc...
One can always argue that we do have heritage sites, Asian values or ethnic traditions that are still very much alive but I think the most pertinent issue for me is one's lifestyle.We are so caught up with creating something new, a better life, more of everything that we can lose sight of living life.
However, the most dangerous thing about modernity is like that REM song- "Losing My Religion" ; in its conflict between faith and government. If political science is about the pursuit of happiness then a modern version of it follows that happiness can be attained without spirituality.
Maybe I'm going to find the answer or the beginning of the journey to my questions of life and my ongoing struggle against reason and faith that has encompassed half my life in this ivory tower; or maybe I will feel life as doomed as it seemed twenty years ago. Sometimes, I just hope that the questions will stop but they never do, so I might as well face my demons...now back to studying the father of modernity, right after I get my daughter to wash her greasy hands...
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