Preparing students for which real world?

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This blog entry is in regards of my colleague's interesting status update on Facebook that i came across which questioned whether if the Malaysian curriculum preparing students for the real world? And if yes, which real world?

I was particularly intrigued by the question "which real world?" It was not further elaborated in that status update but from what i understand (and my familiarity of my colleague), this question is focusing on how much are we preparing our students to think from a global perspective and to deal with the REAL real world? And based on my observation on the curriculum and the syllabus, am i wrong to think that it seemed as if we're preparing Malaysian students to be good Malaysian citizens (which I'm not denying how important this is), but not as a member of the global community? This doubt of mine came about when i realized there's not much content in the textbook that touches on global issues, world histories and.. worldly stuffs. I'll get to that in a second.

Yes, i know it's the responsibility of the teacher to bring such matters into classes on their own initiatives and i really respect the teachers who did. But in regards to our teaching material, - let's focus on the textbook for this matter - are the contents enough to have ALL teachers thinking "i should have my students thinking about 9/11 incident, or oppression of a culture or a community to develop critical views of real world problems"? To put this in a view, I seemed to realize that we are teaching our students more on writing complaint letters about the lack of trash cans in a local park. Dont get me wrong. Writing complaint letters is quite "real world" but if we provide the context of students writing to be as littlest as lack of rubbish bins, what of other "real world" issues like; debating a stand, make a politically correct statement or changing the opinion of the masses?

Before you ask "dont you think it's a little too early to be teaching kids about terrorism?", well, i question myself that alot as well. But my answer to that question lies with a google search of "ESL lesson plan ideas for high school teaching". A grade 9 lesson plan requires the students to prepare a presentation based on their research of a cultural history and common misconceptions of that culture. Another lesson plan had students preparing an informational essay on historic events that changed the world and based on the essay rubric, they are to explain more of the incident, talk about how the event changed the world, and what they think of the event and how THE WORLD should learn from it based on their own opinion. Yes, these two lesson plans sound like university grade essay writing task but based on the sample of students' work; while they are not as in-depth as a university student's work should be, they showed much thoughts being put in. For the first LP, a group of students wrote on Muslim community and the misconception of Muslims being all Arabs and violent. The second LP had a student writing about Hiroshima bombing and how it stopped the WWII even if it's such "a 'terrorist' thing to do". If those students can think about all that, why do we think our Malaysian students arent capable of that?

In all, I personally see the English language as a medium for students to connect with the outside world and if we dont start debating on how much of social studies are we bringing in to the students, i honestly think our students will see English as a subject, not as a language, and a school as a place to get an exam cert not as a place to prepare them for the future.

And before i end this blogpost, here's a picture of my students that have nothing to do with the topic :D
Delaqroux Out

How many more jumps?

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It's 3am and i am still playing around with my new adorable phone and also doing random stuffs on facebook and blogger. So another tranquil night, another self-reflection session. Why not, right?

I recall one time ago when i watched a motivational talk on TV and the speaker told the viewers a secret to happy living, which is simply; stay away from anything that hurts you (Gosh.. can a motivator get any more smug-y than that? I hate motivators). Also, there was this one dick.. i mean, motivator giving some motivational speech awhile ago during one of those insignificant personality development courses i attended which cited the infamous.. something theory. Cant remember what exactly is that theory but it's pretty much built on the foundation of "what may go wrong will go wrong". Again, basically, it's the same "stay away from things that can hurt you if you want a happy life".

That made me think; is there such thing as a pain-free happy life?

Yeah, some other dude said something about "no pain, no gain" right? So what's a little prick everynow and then before you really get to enjoy the good stuffs in life. But then again, i kept losing myself in real complicated situations that i'm starting to think that there is no happy life, there is no pain-free life, and there are simply too many inevitable things that will constantly hurt you. I'm not putting this in a very pessimistic perspective mind you. It's just that, in layman's language, i've been through a whole lot of crappy stuff that i'm actually believing that there's no such thing as a pain-free way or a happy way out. It's just life. Short, sophisticated and shitty. It's like you're getting to the top floor of a building, you give up half way, you climb out the window and you jump down, only to find yourself still alive once you hit the ground, having to restart all over. There's no pain free way and there's no quick exits either. It's just a whole long shitty climb up and a stretch of endurance test.

Speaking of falling flat and still not dying, i have found myself doing things that will hurt myself plenty of times in my life. I made choices that seem promising, only to find out there's none of that sort. Afterwards, i found myself terribly hurt, i gave up, i tried to 'kill myself'. The result to that is just me falling flat on the ground again, still alive, and having to start all over again. Finally, i made another near-similar choice of self pain infliction once again and the cycle recontinues. I dunno. Sometimes, i think this pain i'm having might actually take me to a better place where nobody else ever manage to reach. Sometimes, i think i'm just a stupid risk taker that's going no where. At other times, i think it's not that the bad choices i made that it's causing me the pain, it's the whole word that's effing up with me. Hell, the choice might not even be a bad one in the first place at all.

Til then, this is just me randomly rambling about part of my life which is significant yet them details mustnt be told to anyone that i have to type in an all emo metaphorical language. wtf.
Delaqroux Out.

Of Beggars and Preachers

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While i was typing the blogpost title above, something struck me. Should i use capital for the nouns in my blogpost title? Did i ever use capital for nouns in my blogpost title before? Hmmm... Anyways, back to the topic.

Just a few hours ago, i was having my dinner when an old guy dropped by my table and he started asking for donations. As usual, they're those unfortunate people who are not exactly as wealthy in supporting their own expense and they drop in restaurants to restaurants, table by table, asking for you to be generous. (Yes, i'm avoiding the use of the word Beggar here coz i think it sounds a lil too harsh.) Of course, there's always the people who drop by your table, selling some stuff that, apparently, are of no use to you. And then, there are those people who uses elements of sympathy or whatever to get you to be generous. Now, as useless as the items offered by the former, i dont really mind them. At least, they're using some effort to get the money they need. Heck, sometimes, i dont mind buying those stuffs they offered coz they're pretty useful... *hides shiny LED bouncing ball and wooden key-chain the shape of a heart* ..like a packet of tissue papers.

But, what really grinds my gears (Family Guy reference.. wtf) is the latter who... how should i put it delicately... friggin cheats to get your money from you. Now here's what happened; the old guy who dropped by my table was wearing jubah and turban, carrying a recycable bag and a walking stick. He didnt really held out his hand and ask for donations. Instead, he gave me a greet. Acceptable. But what he did next was TOTALLY not acceptable. He started preaching about God and doing goodness and stuffs. I wasnt able to really hear him as the place was a lil noisy though. However, I manage to hear him uttering how i should start doing goodness because God knows when i will die. Okay. Then he started pointing upwards and start uttering some arabic phrases (probably from Quran i guess) and said something about, God knows what i do and didnt do and more stuffs. Also, he said something about he is a humble servant of God and his arrival might be God's reminder for me to do good things. All while closing his eyes, talking in smug tone, and pointing occasionaly skywards. So, yeah, why is that unacceptable? Read on.

Due to the fact that i couldnt really hear him with all the noise in the restaurant, i was freaked out for a moment. What exactly is this old man talking about? Is he asking for donations or he's just dropping by to preach something and only that? Should i take out my wallet and give him something, or should i continue listening? (Note that i didnt opt to ignore him entirely. That's something). So, being in such state of confusion, i took out my wallet. Then i thought, "wait, why am i taking out my wallet? Is he hypnotizing me or something?". Then, i just decided to just take out my cash. If he is just using all those talks to just get me to give him some cash, then he should be giving me some attention by now. If he's generously preaching, then i suppose he would reject the cash. Surprisingly, he did not held out his hand to take the cash or pay any attention to it, but continues talking. That was when i thought it's a nice change to have people who are actually devoted to God to shamelessly preach reminders on people without any hidden agendas. Perhaps, we do need some reminder every now and then.

My next move however, proved everything wrong. Yes, we do need reminders every now and then. That in some people, God is just another tool to get what you want. Pessimistic as that sounds but this old guy who has been preaching for the last 8 minutes is just that, someone who claims God wants you to give him cash. What. the. fuck.

My next move was asking him "Pakcik kutip derma ke?" (my question might have not exactly be like that but it's exactly the same gist). Apparently, people, there's a distinct difference between derma and sedekah. Derma is when you collect money for someone or a charity organization. Sedekah is when you give the money to the person needing it in front of you at no catch. If the guy is collecting derma, then he will say yes. Maybe he's been preaching on behalf of some mosque that is really in need of funding. If the guy is a con, he will also say yes. However, IF the guy's a real preacher, he will say no. This guy said..... *drumroll* no. In fact, this was his answer (something like this); "WTF man! No, i'm not collecting derma, i'm in need of sedekah! Werent you listening to what i said?" Yes, aside the "WTF man!", everything else is exactly what he said. I tried to explain myself but he cut me off and started preaching more things about doubting a person who's in need. And he said something like, he's looking for a sincere giver, if i'm doubting him then my gift for him is not sincere, thus, God shall not be amused. He said that whether if he's lying or not, that's his issue with God. the question now is whether am i sincere with what i'm giving him or not? Well, friggin obviously i'm not.

Finally, after assuring him that i am 'fucking sincere', i gave him the cash, he thanked me and went off to the next table and started preaching again. Yeah, so that's how the story ended. There were times when people asked me for donations and i wondered if that person is really using the money for any good later on. This time around, i dont care if he's using the money for good or not, i just want him to get struck by lightning right there, right now. What he did was basically using God's name to get him the money. Maybe he is using the money for a prayer mat or a new Quran but i dont think that money would ever be halal. It is a form of sedekah, i know, but using God's name for that? I dont recall God saying anything about quoting any holy scripture to get money so you can do good with it, nor preach about him to get yourself some money. Have God ever told me to give people money sincerely and generously? Yes. Have God ever told people to ask for money in His name?

Okay, i'm not being a religious smug here but what he did really ticked me off. If you disagree with my point up there and you believe that it's alright to bring God along when you're asking for donations, then i believe you have to agree with the next old lady who came to me afterwards, bringing in a small little girl with her and letting the girl ask people for donations. Both the old guy and the old lady did the same thing. I believe both is just as wrong.

Delaqroux Out.

How Creative is Creative?

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How do we measure creativity? Okay, so that was random wasnt it? Well, this is the thing that i've been pondering since day one of my enrolment to Macq Uni's ENGL201: Intro to Creative Writing class. We have weekly seminars in which, from what it says in the unit outline, i figured it's gonna be fun coz we'll be doing writing workshops every week (workshops are practically sessions where you have people reading out their writing for the week and other people give their feedbacks on them). But after a couple of workshop sessions, i've come up with this question; how do you measure creativity?

There was this Australian girl in my classroom who came up with this writing about her 'other' self. People liked it. I thought it was boring. I mean seriously; "who is that in my room?", "why is she crying?", "how come she looks so familiar?". Well, friggin OBVIOUSLY, she's you in mirror. I figured that out on the first 10 seconds of her reading (though, of course, i didnt say anything). Everyone else claimed that, after she finished reading, that it was the best writing ever. One guy, not sure whether he was trying to hit on the girl or what, straight ahead claimed that he had no idea that the writer was talking about her own reflection. Wait, i figured that out before the first paragraph even manage to come to an end. So, we're having conflicting opinions here. Everyone, including the lecturer thought it was creative. I thought it was predictable. I dont want to call a writing in which i can predict what will be going on after reading the first line as being uncreative so i just kept my opinion to my own self and, like others, claimed that it was a good writing. It was a good writing after all. Just slightly too predictable for me. But, yeah, let's skip ahead to a couple weeks of workshops.

There was this another girl who shared a really emotional poem. And then there was this another short poem about self-discovery which was never found. And then they were a few more others of almost the same kind of mood. Everybody loves them though i am starting to fast lose my interest in listening to their works. I dont know why but people tend to associate creative writing as some kind of sad self-loathing pieces of writing work. Poems have to be sad and emotional and one liners. Essays have to be about not being able to uncover your inner self. Writings are about being self-loathing and talking about things that you cannot get or be. Seriously, what the hell? Finally, there was this one lady who is not of Australian origin who wrote a poem about her family in rhymes. The fact that her English wasnt that good didnt stop me from thinking that her poem is nice. Something happy and positive for a change. I mean, it's about her family; her husband and son and herself - what is there not to like? I find that she enjoyed doing it. I thought she really put herself in the poem. Well, everybody hates it. The lecturer said the rhymes were out of place and some lines were unnecessary. Everybody else hardly commented anything on it. During the feedback session, everyone just pretend they're not in the class. Seriously.

Then, during this another workshop, another friend of mine wrote a short story on gender stereotypes in an Indian family. I thought it was brilliant. Others didnt comment on it. The lecturer said that the whole introduction paragraph was unnecessary. She said; go straight to the point so that your readers dont lose interest. She said; there was too much details and the word choices overlaps one another (apparently, you cant say things "illuminous, bright lights" coz illuminious and bright means the same thing). I thought the first paragraph was as necessary as the whole writing itself. So I said; what the hell?! Since when does creative writing has to be constrained by what the readers want or do not want to read em? I thought writing creativelywas about expressing yourself, creating the mood, bringing your message across, writing like you mean it. But cut out a paragraph coz long, winded paragraph about the setting of the storyline will bore the readers out? Since when did i sign up for being a publisher in a teen manuscript publishing company?

Finally, the moment of truth finally came (Double "finally" there. Sorry :p). It was my turn to present something. I chose my best writing; a poem with rhymes in it and it talks about my philosophical idea of questioning people's mentality. To tell you the truth; it sounds abit hippie-ish, but still, i thought it was my best work. I loved it. But i guess those people are as predictable as some write up about yourself in the mirror. Coz they hated it. Their comment was hardly meaningful. The lecturer said i did a stupid move by writing in rhymes coz writing in rhymes are hard and you shouldnt do it. Yes, i know writing in rhymes are hard but i thought i sign up to this course coz i want to improve my writing. If my attempt to try something risky is replied with a comment " dont try risky things", then how am i to improve my writing? After some reflecting, i realized no one else tried writing in rhymes. Their poems are mainly one-liners which doesnt contain any rhyme - just sad tones. So those writing reflect a true attempt in writing creatively but mine doesnt? So those poems are creative and mine isnt? Is that it?

And about lines in creative writings being unnecessary or too beating-around-the-bushes-like, how do creative writings differ than formal writings then? I thought Stephen King wrote his novels with a hell lot of sentences just to describe one thing super-small but that is his style. Shakespeare wrote reference to the Phoebus and Errebhus and Arthemist in his writing and does that mean that guy is just beating around the bush? I heard people complaining about Watchmen and Fight Club to have a really slow pace in its storyline narration - shall we tell the author to speed things up abit so they dont lose their readers' interest? And i know i normally cite this source for all the negative reasons but personally, i thought Stephanie Mayer's Twilight is slow as hell and it was not realistic at all. But people liked it. People liked her style. As a reader, i can comment but i cant change the fact that Twilight is Twilight. No. That is just how those authors' style are! And if you dont want to call them of being creative, then call them boring in front of the thousands of fans who says that their writings are awesome. And if i am going to write my poem starting with the first line "I like candies" and the second line "I like to fuck", and the following lines is the word "quack.... quack.... quack...." then no one should be able to stop me. Coz there is hidden annotation in both of those lines and if you dont get it; then you're the one not being to think beyond the text, arent you? SInce when does creative writing has to be readers-oriented? I am writing my own piece of work here so if being creative means that my reader couldnt understand what i am writing about, so be it!

So here's my final say for the evaluation to my ENGL201 Unit. I hate it.

Play Feed the Head. People call the game shitty. I call that creative.

If God have a Facebook profile

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And this post is made as a response to a friend of mine's shoutout on "If God have a Facebook profile, how many of you will add Him? And how often will you write on His wall?". I thought it's quite an interesting situation to look through and definitely deserve a Delaqroux Inc Update. So yep, here we go.

At a glance, "what if God have a Facebook profile?" may seem to be a good topic to start a really funny stand-up comedy show. I mean, it was already funny when we realized that Barack Obama had a Twitter account. Just imagine the sight of Obama sitting in a really serious conference room shown live on television and we can see his latest update made on Twitter; "dude, being a president sucks.." That would put a whole new perspective on Barack Obama as the president. In one way, we'd take him to be just as close to us as of me having you under my friendlist on Facebook, and being able to see each other's personal updates and shoutouts. On the other, we'd regard this an act of retardness. I mean, why would a US president have his update on Twitter when he should be concentrating on the going-abouts within the conference room? On another way, we may take it as something very comically ironic as of someone all influential and powerful to possess an account in a community site of Facebook and stuff.

But in terms of another entity which is way beyond influential and powerful to that of Barack Obama is, when looked through it closely, to have a Facebook profile is no laughing matter.
Imagine if God has a Facebook profile? The first question that may struck us all is; "Which God has a Facebook profile?" Yeah, as much as we're all aware (and put into very firm believe) that there is but one Almighty being ruling us all; it is as much as us being fed with the idea that every religion has its own God. To put it through, we all acknowledge there is the one and the only Allah swt for the Muslims, but we do know the existence (either in actualization of an existence of just the ideologic existence of it) of Jesus and the Father for the Christians, Buddha for the Buddhist, Vishnu, Sheva and Brahma for the Hindhus, as well as the 'other' Gods for other religion practicioners. So if the one and only God that all of us have, is to have a Facebook Profile; who's God will it be? And will that put an ultimate dominance over a religion and end to a whole lot of other religions in the world? And will that dominant religion be finally the single solution of unity we're looking for all this while or it's a dark gold oppoturnity to twist things to your selfish bidding now that you ARE within the truth. In other words, will such things end the war between Salahadin and King Richard, or will that spark a greater one now that one side is immensely victorious? Yeah, i guess the first thing we will look to is God's personal information, specifically under "Religious Views: XXX"

As a follow up to that, who will God add under his friendlist? Some religion practicioners do believe that to follow their particular religion is the only single way to be connected with the God they believe in. Yet the idea of being accepted or being rejected by God is something unknown for all of us as there is no way to confirm that (aside from your own religious perspective of faith and believe, obviously - i'm not preaching any atheistic beliefs here). Well, not anymore if God has a Facebook profile and has a friendlist of His own! Who will God be adding then? If the God who is having the Facebook profile is a God of religion A, will He only accept the request from practicioners of religion A and religion A only- as based through the ideas in scriptures of religion A that following religion A is the only way to God's salvation? Or will He be the unbiased God who love all of us who seeks His salvation? If He adds everyone regardless of their religious background (and even of those who doesnt believe at all in His existence), wont that raise the tension of religion A practicioners as they believe that they're only one who should have been able to 'reach' God? And if God of religion A accepts the request from all of us, how do we know if that is an act of unconditional love or that is an act of propaganda; to appeal welcoming to everyone with the intention of getting people to think your way underneath? Will God accept people in His friendlist as who they are, or will He walk the talk of the single way to salvation?

And finally, (though i do still have plenty of focuses to talk about but i guess i'll end this post with this last one) what will God do now that he has a Facebook profile? Well, obviously, the main idea of joining a community site is to get connected, and thus that involve shout-outs, notes, event updates, pictures and videos uploading etc. With such a wide array of letting people know what you did, doing or planning to do, what will you be checking first in God's Facebook profile? Well, from what we all believe in our religion, God has everything planned for us; the beginning of our life, where our life will take us to, and how our life will be ended. So i'm not quite sure about you but i will check God's note for me. Just search for the note tagged with your name and you'll most likely to find everything there is prepared for you there. This seemingly easy task may actually appear to be the complex answer we're searching for all this while. What if you're a religious person now, and checking through your tagged note, you discover that things may not exactly go your way as you would expected it and it will go on that way forever? What if you're a man fighting for an idealistic imagination of a dream only to find out that the dream will remain what it is til the end of your fight? To put it straight; who we are now is a result of what we believe in; and what we believe in remains in the unknown. What if what you are believing is finally put clear-cut out for you? Of course, this is normal in real life scenario where you are a firm believer, you receive a slightly unjust end, and you can still walk out of it, believing that this all within God's plan of work for you. Well, what it that blueprint of a plan is laid out to you? To put in an example, take the "Crazy religious lady" on Youtube.(If you're not aware of her, she's one of the representative of a Christian Church in US where they held a controversial demonstration of "Thank God for Dead American Soldiers" in front of Iraq posted American Soldiers' funeral). The world hates her for what she did, the newcaster claimed her to be blinded by "The Word of God" and claimed that God will not forgive her for this. But, what if, under God's note tagged with that lady's name, the world found out that she will be forgiven in the future? Will we be ready to face this truth even if we do know the fact that God will forgive those who seeks forgiveness, yet we believe what she did is unforgivable? Will you still say it's God's will while already knowing what exactly are God's will through his Facebook profile?

So yeah, i leave you to the thinking. While what i have discussed here may seem a negative view of God having a Facebook profile, of course, i can still visualize a good future of me having God under my friendlist (that is, if He accepts my add request - in which, i believe firmly that He will). After all, God is believed to be wrathful to those who hates him and loving to that who loves him. Well, i'm a God-believing guy who spent plenty of time trying to seek him (not only through religion but everything under his creations), so i guess if we do get to finally meet up, it is like a dream come true reunion. I do want to be under God's Facebook friendlist =)

p/s: and i would really like to ask God; "Are You happy to be portrayed as Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty?" :p