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发表于 2007-12-31 20:13:57
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‘Education more than rote-learning and exams’
I write this article not with the intention of pointing an accusatory finger at anyone; I merely wish to state my views on an issue which I feel strongly about.
A week ago, I read a book by a Nobel prize winner in physics, Richard P.Feynman. One entry in his memoirs which I found particularly disturbing was about his experience teaching at the Brazilian Academy of Science.
What Dr Feynman said about the students and the Brazilian education system then was thought-provoking. The students could pass their exams by simply memorising their textbooks and yet not learn anything out of it.
The students were also reluctant to ask questions in class for fear of appearing ignorant. I quote from the book: “It was pitiful! All the work they did, intelligent people, but they got themselves into this funny state of mind, this strange kind of self-propagating ‘education,’ which is meaningless, utterly meaningless.”
As I read the book, a feeling of déjà vu crept over me – Dr Feynman could well be talking about Malaysian students!
It is by now, quite an open secret that the Malaysian system of education places a lot of emphasis on examinations consisting of predictable questions which require nothing more than mindless memorising. The majority of Malaysian students study only their textbooks and are quite myopic to anything else.
I remember going to the school library at the age of 13 and stumbling upon a treasure trove – an entire shelf full of books by literary greats.
I spent hours each day devouring books by John Keats, Elexander Pope, William Shakespeare, Voltaire and Somerset Maugham with much gusto.
After a while I noticed that none of the borrowers’ cards for these books had been stamped before. The books had been untouched since the 60s. Why were all these fabulous books left to rot unnoticed?
It would not be a valid defence to argue that the students were not proficient enough in English. One might as well, on seeing a ward full of lunatics laughing, say, “It is obvious what made them insane, it is over-laughing.”
Our students cannot progress in their English language because they do not read enough and they do not read non-academic books because ‘these are not tested in the exams!”
Students have become so achievement-oriented that they fail to see the pleasure of reading a good book as an end in itself. It saddens me to see supposedly brilliant students having no knowledge of the humanities whatsoever.
Having been a student myself, I find the way my classmates study quite startling. They read a page, roll their eyes skywards (which can be hilarious to see if not for the terribly earnest expressions on their faces), and repeat what they have just read.
They go over this procedure until they can parrot the entire page flawlessly. No one doubts the accuracy of the facts given. If there is indeed a factual mistake in the textbook which goes unnoticed, everyone sinks in the same wretched boat.
Once, upon seeing a fellow student studying for a science exam, I offered to read out the questions so she may answer them orally.
I then read out a question on satellites and how they stay in orbit, changing the sentence structure a little and jumbling up the order of the multiple choice answers as I went along.
The bewildered look this young lady gave me said it all. After this little experiment, I concluded that school examinations are not a real gauge of one’s intellect – it is merely a means of measuring how much time is spent on memorising textbooks and how well this useless information is regurgitated during the exams.
However, it would be wrong to stereotype all students as being information-hoarding robots. Once in a while, an exceptionally bright spark turns up to vex the teacher with complicated questions.
This, of course, angers the well-meaning but hassled teaching, who replies: “It is not necessary for you to learn this at your stage” or “This is not relevant to what you have to study for your exams.”
These two typical answers put a damper on the student’s curiosity and can possibly be interpreted as: “Shut up! Don’t ask me questions that I don’t know the answers to.”
If the intelligent student persists in asking questions in class, he or she is most likely to receive jeers of disapproval form his or her peers. The bright student learns quickly that nobody appreciates a maverick.
He or she then tries to fit in with the rest of the bourgeois, where each person is as directionless as the other.
College students gather an accumulation of notes which are rarely read, and when asked if they understood what has been taught in a lecture, all nod their heads fervently, bovine-like.
They keep up this pretence all through their lives, giving themselves a false semblance of security.
In one extreme case a student learnt an entire chapter by heart, thus doing very well in an impromptu test, but when asked the meaning of a technical
al term around which the question revolved, he could not give its definition and had no idea how the scenario in the question given could be applied to everyday life.
Perhaps the students are not to be blamed for their lack of inventiveness. If one dissects and analyses the present education system, one may well find that it leaves much to be desired.
The school syllabus and examination format are militaristically rigid and monotonous. Projects and coursework assigned requires the students to follow strict guidelines, thus leaving no space for original ideas.
Students end up waiting to be spoon-fed with notes because they are less likely to go wrong in doing so than in attempting the project by trial and error.
Upon reading any textbook, you will inevitably discover a lacuna: none of these books show the students how to use that particular subject to find solutions to problems in everyday life.
A fifth-former may ace a mathematics exam with flying colours without really knowing what logarithms are used for.
When I was at school, due to an ill-equipped laboratory, certain experiments could only be carried out by the teacher, while the students watched with waning interest.
When this ordeal was over, we had notes dictated to us. I wonder how this method of science education will directly benefit us in the long run.
Many suggestions have already been forwarded to the relevant authorities to overhaul the present education system but the bulk of these are turned down as being too idealistic and too costly.
So, in the meantime, we must be content to churn out hordes of unimaginative automatons who go on to lead a perfectly prosaic lives.
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‘Too lax on sex’
Not long ago, I overheard in a bus, a very smug-looking girl telling her group of overawed friends how she lost her virginity to her boyfriend on Valentine’s Day. I estimate the girl to be 14 or 15 years old.
The social moral decline is due to Western influences and the lax attitude of some parents. Young people don’t value their own chastity anymore.
I have heard of and met teenagers, as young as 13 years of age, engaging in illicit sex. It seems that many of them engage in sex to gain respect and acceptance amon their friends. There are those too who just want to experiment, to “try” sex.
Moreover, condoms are available at any 7-Eleven store. Thus, young people can now engage in casual sex without the risk of getting pregnant.
To stem this social ill, the Government should implement sex education. Such lessons should be taught by specially-trained teachers. Some school teachers were said to have giggled uncontrollably when discussing sexual intercourse during a science lesson.
The Government ought to stop the rot before it is too late. If not, a generation with warped ideas about moral values and truths would be born. Is this the future generation we want?
[ 本帖最后由 pp95 于 2007-12-31 20:15 编辑 ] |
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