First Saturday of 2003 and here I am totally dried up and exhausted. I don't know what's with me lately, but I seem to get tired very easily. I can't even get through 5 hours without my eyes feeling watery and squinty and my brain screaming 'stop working stop working'!!! Must be age creeping up... but I'm only still 22... that's young, YOUNG!!!!
So anyway I slept for 1 1/2 hours this afternoon after a horrible drive down Jalan Klang Lama - dunno what those contractors are up to there, but I guess surviving another year of the horrendous potholes and weird curves really get on your nerves... I went down to Petaling Street today, to get some text books for the new batch of Form 1 kids I'm taking on. Lots of people there buying those English medium Science and Mathematics texts.
Nuts I tell you. I SOOOOOOO do not agree that teaching science and maths in English will help to improve the overall standard of English in the country. Especially when the syllabus for English is so silly and redundant. Of course Monday's the new school year and I really do wonder whether those notebooks they're sending out to the Maths and Science teachers will serve any functional purpose. As far as I'm concern, 95% of teachers I know, including those that in my university doing the same course with me on the government's money, are using the computer only for Word and maybe Powerpoint... and computers just don't click with some people. I'm not undermining anybody here as I myself ain't that much of a genius, but I really doubt that good teachers who have been using their proper teaching skills to transit traditional knowledge will need the help of computers... I can just see the cikgu spending 10 minutes to turn on the notebook and wait for the class to settle down after the ooohs and ahhhhs of the class. And who's going to even see the tiny pictures on the notebook screen. Maybe the government should just consider fixing air conditioning and multimedia projectors for every class instead, as well as grills and other security features to keep these valuables safe and locked in.
As far as I'm concerned, what the country lacks is a PROPER syllabus for English, and GOOD, EXCELLENT teachers who have had remarkable academic records. I know better since most of my teacher-coursemates are very far behind us (read students who went through STPM , SPM) in English and Maths even. Fortunately I came from a school where my teachers were excellent.
