An Appeal to Students
December 17th, 2009
this post originally started out as a post titled Swollen Eye Thoughts. the puffiness under my eyes is preventing me from comfortably completing my take-home final which is due in 6 hours, so i thought i’d write a post about the stuff i’ve been thinking about during this time-out. it started with the jubilant announcement that my ticket for a flight home has been confirmed, and that i will be home on Christmas Eve, and that i have so many things i want to do. then i started talking about some other random things, which segued into my thoughts on the readings for my take-home final. upon reflection, i realized that these thoughts warranted a post of their own, so i’ve removed everything else. and i dedicate this post to all the high school students reading this :) and anyone who cares about education.
a huge part of my take-home final is about Paul Willis’ book Learning to Labour, which is primarily a case study of working class schoolboys and their attitudes towards school. the blue collar background of these boys reinforce that manual labour is more important than academics, and they aim to identify with the working adult world by adopting adult characteristics like smoking, drinking, sex and racism. in these things, they find their masculinity and superiority. by contrast, they pit their dominion against the people who are different: women and the goody-goody, attentive, studious, white collar schoolboys they call ‘earholes’. they objectify women, even at that age, and feminize the earholes — both women and earholes are weaker compared to them.
it was a very moving and disturbing case study, because it reminded me so much of my high school experience. due to our streaming system, there was a huge divide in the batches of students produced — there was us, the academic nerdy ones of the A class who sucked up to teachers; and there was them, the cool, free-spirited, sporty, anti-nerd gu wak zais of B class and beyond. i remember the names they called us, and the names we called them in return. they used to make fun of us for intently reading our textbooks during morning assembly, and we used to retaliate by imitating their wannabe swaggers and ‘lala-ness’. it’s such a wide and sad divide, and looking back, it’s astounding how much spite can exist in children. how do we learn these things? another case study that i have to read for my final is the effect of teachers’ treatments on the creation of these divides. this is why streaming should be abolished. never do this to children — never make them feel like they are in the ‘third class’, ‘fourth class’, ‘last class’ and place them at a self-fulfilling and measurable distance from being the best. i utterly detest what this system does to people. how can they put in place such a cruel guideline to identifying oneself, and then say things like, “it will push students to improve”? how about, no, it does not push students to improve; instead it places them on a slippery slope of hopelessness and encourages them to give up because of how far away you place the prize? likewise, never put children in the first class and allow them to grow up thinking that they are better than others just because they can memorize an entire textbook and score 98%’s. what happens to their self confidence when they are placed in a situation where success is defined by more than just grades, and then fail because they simply haven’t been taught to think about success in different terms? what happens to collective morals if kids believe that humans can have values placed on them just by means of purely quantitative measures like GPAs?
with all the time i spend reviewing applications from students who are applying to colleges in the US, i’m definitely seeing a pattern among the kids who think of themselves as the high achievers of their respective schools. or at least, the ones who are told that they are the high achievers of their school. what’s the problematic pattern? the bulk of them are boring. is it a problem that even the cream of the crop, the best of the best, are boring? definitely. sorry, guys, i dont mean any offense against you — this is a direct attack at the system that we’ve all been placed in. let’s talk this out.
i dont know how it was in your schools, but in my school, you could only join one Persatuan and one Badan Beruniform. mine was the Interact Club and the Boys Brigade. there were so many other clubs i wanted to join — the Hospitality Club, the Drama Club, the English Debating and Literary Society … okay maybe that’s it, because the choices were just that banal. the first problem is that we had a limitation to the number of societies that we could join. this is bad. i think that if people have more than one interest, the school should encourage this and allow for the possibility of joining more than one club. this assists students in deciding for themselves what is important to them, encourages real passion, and creates opportunities for leadership and making a difference. sure, these things are entirely possible within just one club, but does it happen if you constrain kids to choosing only one club, which is very likely to be the one that all their friends want to join? if kids don’t have a firsthand experience of other things, how do they know what they like?
the second problem is the utterly poor execution of these club activities. most of the time, you just do, without much thinking. in my school, CoCo time as we lovingly called it, was a time of chilling out, or doing unfinished homework, or pontenging. i cant speak for other clubs, but from what i saw, most clubs didn’t do much. in the Interact Club, we were fairly vibrant albeit for many wrong reasons. one day i will tell you all the story of that stupid monstrous flag we had to make out of recycled items because Sri Garden wanted their name in the Malaysian Book of Records. how is this community service or charity? Sri Garden is this how you teach children what is important to society? hold on to this thought — it will come back. but for now let’s talk more about execution of activities. i’m not sure who comes up with What To Do, but even the teacher advisors who were supposed to lead the clubs were very bored and just sat around grading homework. sometimes they plan out a lot of lawatan sambil belajar without actually having the trip by the end of the schoolyear. sometimes they make us watch silly videos and do marching in fancy platoon names like in Boys Brigade. most of the time we don’t do much, let alone anything significant. how many of us really took away anything meaningful from our high school extracurriculars, especially if we were not part of the executive board? essentially, student whittle away all this time that the school sets apart for extracurriculars, and they waste all these opportunities to do significant things and develop themselves in an arena outside of schoolwork. because of poor execution, people don’t take these things seriously. kids know what wastes their time, and this exacerbates the problem of ponteng and being bored by school, simply because they are just not engaged by what is going on. i was in the English, Debating and Literary society for a couple of years, but not once did i ever think that i could be a debater. the thought was just never put in my head, because all we did in that society was go over grammar rules, and randomly selected poetry if we were lucky. when my wonderful English teacher asked me to try out for the school debate team in Form 4, i remember how i profusely refused because i didnt think i could do it. he forced me, would not take no for an answer, and now here i am. here i am, loving debate :) thank you encik iskhandar — you made such a huge difference in my life just by doing that.
as an aside, i want to say something quick about teachers. i am aware of the stiff teaching culture, and i know the bureaucratic process of formation for being a teacher, and i know how they can be so insufferably boring at times. but teachers are such amazing wells of information and inspiration. again, it is the constraints of this horrible system we are all placed in. even the teachers are bored by the system. we always think that teachers are just there to impart formally structured education onto us, but by virtue of being teachers, they can have some of the most exciting and intelligent personal lives. i learned the most from my English teachers in my one-on-one chats with them at their desk, during ‘free period’ when teachers had no work to give us or any lesson plan to carry out. learning how to write informal letters was boring (please lah you think kids don’t write to penpals in their free time is it?), but curiously eying the book my Std 2 English teacher Puan Sushela was reading during free period (Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck) led to a conversation about literature that was infinitely educational. Miss Mabel, whom everyone makes fun of, often carried beautiful weathered paperbacks with her that she would read in the staff room — i would try to commit to memory the titles of those books, so that i could borrow them from the library later that day. i remember most of all Mr James’ angry outburst in Standard 6: about how it is SO WRONG to say, ‘teacher, i never do my homework’. “what do you mean you NEVER do? what kind of lousy english is this? ‘never’ means you’ve never ever done homework in your life! you mean to say you ‘did not do’ your homework! remember this for life!” and another angry outburst — “pronounce IMPORTANT properly! eem-POHT-tant. otherwise it sounds like IMPOTENT, and that is NOT something you want to say to people!”
what else? Encik Sahari was such a painful stickler as a disciplinarian, but i came across some syairs that he wrote in the earlier days of his career, and what resplendent lyrics he was capable of! i wished that i had the opportunity to get to know him better as a teacher and a mentor. speaking of mentors — Puan Goh, my Std 1 class teacher, was perhaps the biggest influence on the first years of my formal education. i dont know what she did, but she just did something. i think it was simply the belief that she had in me, and how she would tell me what she thought i should strive to achieve. you know how at some point, we have to all take turns to say what we want to be when we grow up? i think i said i wanted to be a teacher. she later laughed and said, Su Ann, you should be a lawyer. that light-hearted comment got me thinking for years and years. Encik Iskhandar (of debate team dictatorship) told me the same thing when i mentioned to him my interest in pursuing a degree in political science and economics. he told me not to waste my gift for rhetoric and the written word, that i should do law or mass comm because it will make me happy. i remember thinking to myself then, what kind of teacher tells a student to choose mass communications over economics? but what am i doing now? searching for internships in media agencies, because i want to. what am i considering? dropping my economics major for a sociology major. it’s funny how life turns out. our teachers are so much more than we give them credit for.
but back to the problems of clubs and societies — the third. :) the third problem is that students have limited to no agency at all in terms of how clubs were run, or the stuff that those clubs did, or, well, anything at all. if students are encouraged to think outside of the box, and are given some authority to decide what they want to do with their time, they can and will come up with so many more exciting things than some stuffy administration so far removed from the micro-level of students. in looking at the resumes of malaysian students applying to US colleges, they all do the same things — grade 8 piano, president of debate society, troop leader of pengakap, editor of school newspaper, prefect, church cell group leader. the bullet points of these things are vague and boring — raised X amount of money for charity (which?), led X amount of students, wrote two articles for school newspaper. the rare kid will have won international debate competitions, or represented Malaysia in the International Math Olympiad, but sometimes even these speak little more than stuff you inadvertently fell into, or what your parents forced you to do. it is even rarer that you find someone who did significant volunteer work outside of school requirements (you can always tell when they skew it to seem like they did it on their own volition), even rarer do you find someone who founded a club or society because they wanted to address an issue. i am often very shocked to see kids putting on their very beautifully formatted resume stuff like, ‘President of Arts Society – in charge of decorating hall during Teachers Day celebration’. it is arguable that these achievements have their own charm on a college application resume, but is this really all that you have done as the president of an arts society? why does no one challenge these things? why does no one stand up and say, teacher, all this stuff is very boring, may we please do something more exciting? this is where i remind you of that atrocious recycled materials flag that we had to create as an Interact Club project. just because your school thinks it’s very cool to use your community project allocation to build some pointless gargantuan flag spanning 10 badminton courts, and encourages you to start eatings lots of McDonalds to collect the red and white paper cups and fries packets to build the flag stripes with, it doesn’t mean you should do it. if you think a project is bogus, speak up, and remind the adminstration respectfully (i.e. not like me — i was incredibly obnoxious about how pointless i thought the flag was; sorry, SSG Interact Club! but we could have done so much more) what you think community service should be.
it’s easy to say that we can all break out of the system if we truly wanted, but it is not really that easy if we don’t know that we can do it, if we are scared, if we don’t know what is out there. i want to appeal to any students reading this, to try. to push boundaries. i’m not saying that you should do all these things to apply to top world colleges, cos god knows that the ivy league and oxbridge can be so overrated, but i’m saying you should do these things to firstly, forcefully make your schooling years an opportunity to give yourself a more exciting and vibrant life; and secondly, to give your individual actions and ideas more impact. malaysia needs a lot of change, and we can all start small by doing big — or starting big by doing small :) propose things to your school, then go out there and do it. challenge rules and policies that hinder your ability as a person. join all this stuff that fascinates you; appeal to join more than one club or society that piques your interest. dont be lazy, dont be disrespectful, dont be indifferent. form a club. form a student council. revolutionize the way your school or your community is run. think about the existent problems that no one thinks to fix. be the one who inspires other people to try and improve things. above all, DONT do these things for your resume, but instead for goals that are bigger and more meaningful than just some silly brag-sheet. okay? :)
dont be another me, who did a lot of boring things and was so disenchanted with school that i didnt even want to try to do much else. dont be another first-class student, who thinks that they’re smarter than everyone else because they are in 5 Anggerik or 5 Sains 1. dont be another last-class student, who gives up because of how far goals are inadvertently placed from them. just be someone who knows what’s good, and then go out there and get it.
i am currently reading on Twitter about how Malaysia just won the gold medal for the SEA games. @eyeris is providing many excited blow-by-blows, and @kimberlycun tweeted about how she heard a burst of applause from the mamak downstairs. these things warm my heart. sports and music have such power to unify throngs of people under a common identity, and i always wondered why in malaysia, our sports teams and musicians are instead so widely disparaged and unsupported. we can’t say that it’s a form of disapproval towards government protectionism and biases, because that isnt general across both the sports and music squads. could it be a post-colonial effect on the collective local self-esteem? or an association of anything Malaysian to all the rot within our administration? perhaps we all like malaysian food so much because it is a thing of the masses, and not a domain of the government. would we like nasi lemak less if they started subsidizing sambal or accorded jurisdiction over Nasi Lemak Making to some minister’s portfolio? it’s so different being Malaysian back home, and being Malaysian far away. when one is here, on a different planet, everything Malaysian is focused into one intensely bright spot of identity. it becomes a very simple reference to who you are, with no caveats or conditions. this far away, Malaysians are just Malaysians. the constructs of racial categorization are very efficiently diminished – it’s now the Malaysian bubble bumping around with the American bubble, the South African bubble, the German bubble, and of course, the very closely competitive Singaporean bubble. no such thing as Malays, Chinese, Indian, DLL when you exit the Matrix. how may we transpose this evolution to the place we all came from?
congratulations to the Malaysia football team — an anak bangsa sends warm love from this tanah orang barat yang penuh dengan budaya kuning!
Entry Filed under: General
61 Comments Add your own
1. Naz | December 17th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Very well said Su Ann :) I feel the exact same way, being a Malaysian living in the US. There is no place like home, they say, yet being home and being put into different boxes (race), (religion), (political views) makes you feel further from being Malaysian at all.
You definitely should reconsider changing your major now. Dont be like me- you’ll just regret waiting too long and missing out on the opportunity to change.
Sending you love & hugs from one Malaysian to another!
2. RAY7 | December 17th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Your article reminds me of this green day song…
Do you know what’s worth fighting for
When it’s not worth dying for?
Does it take you breath away
And you feel yourself suffocating?
Does the pain weight out the pride?
When it’s time to live and let die
And you can’t get another try
Something inside this heart has died
Thanks Su Ann ! great insights.
3. annjie | December 17th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
su ann i love your post. i was in a shoe shop just now here in Vietnam when the national anthem started playing on TV from the live coverage. quite awkward as i stood alone at the TV because every body in Vietnam here is watching TV and Vietnam lost to us, hahaha
and i’m still a student so i can perfectly empathise with what you’re saying. sometimes it’s very hard to break out of the whole system that’s created, and i’m glad that you’re giving much needed inspiration to students like us :)
4. Random Surfer | December 17th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
You were in the Boys’ Brigade?!
5. Caffy | December 17th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
I hate stereotyping students according to classes, and science stream students looking down on arts stream students or students with bad results. So many of my friends with bad grades are more real and know more about life than those pompous 10A1s scorers, those now-scholarship-students I can’t even bring myself to respect.
But at the same time, I’m in college, and in a general class, stuck with a teacher who believes in not teaching everything “because the others wouldn’t understand”. Worse part is this is literature class. I couldn’t stand her dumbing down, with me ending up with this feeling that something is missing and not getting the whole picture, and for a while wish that, if only for lit classes, she’d stream her students. Though I have to say the other lecturers handled it well, even for bigger classes, so I’d say it’s the teachers’ fault.
YA SU ANN YOU SHOULD BE A LAWYER. Or an author.
6. anony mouse | December 17th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
you should have written this like 10 years ago, really.
sad that it probably has negligible levels of effect as an inspirational tool to me now :(
then again it was written for another audience and i feel that this will do wonders for those who still have time on their hands. they will be the true leaders of the next gen if ur advice is taken to heart.
nice shout out to the msian football team btw.
7. Ryan | December 17th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Absolutely inspiring. I’ve always been passionate about the education system, esp. in Malaysia, and this post echoed my sentiments exactly; albeit it is definitely more beautifully written under you, as usual XD
I’m currently in the UK doing my 2nd degree. My 1st degree went well – in fact i scored a 1st class – but i felt so empty looking at the gold, calligraphic typography on my cert. i knew i did injustice to my time at college; all i did was attending lectures, go home, finish my coursework and submit them on time. i never volunteer, not active in any clubs, didnt read any good books, and the list goes on. but fortunately i’ve been given a 2nd chance here in UK which i hope i can break out of the system in myself. years of focusing solely on my coursework only has made myself very rigid to try and experiment different things, but with the vast opportunity here, i hope i add alot more value to my life.
by the way, i think you should compile your posts and publish them into a book. :)
8. smartypants | December 17th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
a career in the media and in particular, an anchorwoman fits you to a T. you’re a natural. torture yourself with calculus and economy no more!
9. smartypants | December 17th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
and yes, i agree with your ex-teachers. you’ll make a great lawyer too, if you choose to.
10. lishun | December 17th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
i have unspeakable regrets about how i spent my years in school here, especially now that i am told every single day about how the malaysian school system is single-handedly responsible for the mediocre quality of doctors produced today. i used to think it was the older folk reminiscing about “”the good ol’ days” that weren’t, on hindsight, all that good actually, but sometimes it does seem like they have a point.
like you, i had the good fortune of meeting some outstanding teachers who recognised my potential and pushed me to do better than what the school allows me to. some of them spent years wrestling with the school administration to allow students to take charge of our activities and do things that will be beneficial to our personal development as well as help us in future college applications. unfortunately, i didn’t always appreciate those efforts on their part and it has hurt me tremendously. now i know i could have done alot more in school and become a far more interesting person if i had paid attention and responded to the opportunities that came by.
when i taught science and chemistry while waiting for my a-level results, the school had me teach both the best science classes and the “last” arts classes. suddenly all the gu wak zai i stayed away from or weren’t very nice to in school became students that i was responsible for – at least for 2 months. it was tough for me to break the stereotype i’ve always had about them, and when i spent extra time checking to see if they understood what i was teaching them, it was clear that they found it strange to meet a teacher who bothered to encourage them to ask questions or sit down and talk personally with those who didn’t hand up their homework. it was then that i had an inkling of the kind of prejudice they face from the adults whom they interact with the most – the teachers who see them 7 hours a day, up to 6 days a week.
it took 5 years of humbling in medical school to truly reveal just how arrogant i was, thinking that good grades and a stereotypical CV (oh i had all those things – grade 8 piano, head prefect, committee member in various events, drill sergeant in rangers, blah after boring blah) was going to cushion me enough and prepare me for the real life. everyone in medical school had the generic CV of a medical student, but what made a few stand out was their natural ability to think logically, be empathetic, and use their common sense. i now realise that those are abilities that can be nurtured, built up and even trained, taught. but what school has done is made us into mechanical, achievement-hungry “products” and given us the belief that the nonsense we put into our CVs puts us into a category far above everyone else when really we have sold our souls.
thanks for writing this. i am glad that we have grown out of that old mentality we have been fed all along. i sometimes feel like it’s too late for me now, especially when a lecturer asks me a question and my natural response is to recall an answer instead of piece information together logically like a doctor should. it scares the hell out of me because if i am like this now, what kind of doctor, specialist, consultant will i be in the future? how long will it take for me to snap out of the rigid shell i’ve been in since school?
and yes, i am elated that malaysia has won their first gold medal in football in 20 years. it may or may not be the harimaus greatest achievement in the recent years past and the next few years to come, but it does show that change is possible in little ways. if our generation can realise it before they reach their 20s, there is no predicting as to what may happen by the time we take our places in world leadership.
11. michelle | December 17th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I hated school all these while because it was boring. I felt that all this while I’ve been memorizing textbooks after textbooks in school and when I finally escaped this system, I was immensely happy. I felt grateful for my parents because they sent me to Melbourne. Being in college and in uni ( in spite of my love-hate relationship with the Melbourne Model ) is perhaps the best things in my life so far.
While I generally did not have any problems with the streaming ( All of us are friends, nerdy or not nerdy ), most of the time, I got problems with teachers. Even my sister has. For example, my sister got sent to the discipline room because she had very good rhetoric skills. Start acting like Socrates at my school and you’re basically dead. I tried to keep myself low after hearing this. Apparently, being sent to the discipline room will cause a wave of prejudice amongst teachers and even students. I used to be like her but after a while, I just stayed low and did my own work.
I’m not a GKK ( or CoCo ) person all the while because in my school, most of the time, we do not even have proper facilities and manpower to run a club properly.
I personally agree to Ben Anderson this idea of race and nation is very much imagined. I mean, c’mon. At the end you’re still human, so why bother streaming/grouping ourselves in such a way!
12. Hoong | December 17th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
What started out as a seemingly casual post about puffy eyes ended up being a critique on the malaysian education system. You caught me by surprise there. =P
I guess being freed from this narrow mindset, which has been fed to us in school, about what it means to be an actual “achiever” is something that usually happens one way or another when we start working. So no worries there. What i do hope is for your insightful post to act as a wake-up call for many students & their parents, who are still blindly following the system and a chance to change. Please do consider sending this post to the newspaper, so that your well-thought message can reach as many people as possible. =)
Anyway, compared to your school, the students in my school definitely had more autonomy in clubs and unit beruniform and thank god i did not take things for granted. For me, being a scout for 5 years, is by far, the most fulfilling aspect of my secondary school life. Or maybe it’s just because i was such a loser back then?! Haha! The point is, co-curriculum activities can act as a platform for leadership & character building and what the heck?!? Those practical benefits aside, CoCo can be fun when implemented properly! Isn’t having fun an essential part of growing up? ;P
13. junkit | December 17th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
thanks for writing this. it’s a beautiful, inspiring post, and it really got me thinking about what i’m doing in university, that grades are really not everything, and to rediscover the lost passions and spark that i once had. :)
14. Ryan | December 17th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Lol I’m commenting again after seeing what the others wrote. I thought that it was a privilege for me to read this post.. and for those who either have been following your blog for quite some time or just stumbled upon here, should they have the patience to finish the entire post, this piece of writing will definitely made them think. thanks, and keep up the good work!
15. KY | December 17th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
you come to x’mas eve party! high school was a bit too long ago for me. :/
16. Patricia | December 17th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
my school has approx 60 extra-curriculum activities. in additional to that, we have our traditional sports day and class decoration, both that requires half a year each in preparation, each every alternate year. we used to be able to join as many eca as we like, but in recent years, we’ve been only allowed to join two, and that’s it. the reason school gave us is because joining many eca might affect our studies. and a lot of kids in school would rather dribble balls or march under the sun along with friends or practice wushu somersaults than sit still in a class and pay attention, that’s why our school had to draw a line. im not sure but i thought that, maybe your school had thought about this thus only allow one Persatuan and one Badan Beruniform for each student?
but thanks for the “dont be another me” paragraph, it’s really inspiring :)
17. kei | December 18th, 2009 at 1:52 am
ohmigod su ann! i love this post and thanks so much for addressing this issue! i think most of the schools in malaysia face the same problem, and it saddens me to think that the whole system affects us students so much. i dont think that its right for a student to feel more ’superior’ just because of the good grades, nor do i think that grades make or break you. i also hated the whole conforming to what the education system thought of you, and how anyone who was different or who did things differently were looked down upon. haha funny that im actually facing these problems more in college than i did in high school. sometimes i get so jaded in the ‘college’ because of the mentality there. im in this college full of scholarship holders and yet i see all these kids acting all high and mighty and the ironic thing is, i honestly know so many more people who are more deserving than those who actually got the scholarships. its a dog-eat-dog world in the college where everyone steps on each other to be better, and i hate it. :( whoa im rambling too much! haha better stop now else i type a super duper long comment because believe me i have so much to say.
but really, thanks for this post ;))
18. Amanda | December 18th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Well said. A good friend of mine started a club for women at University, inspired by a similar club in Wharton where she went on exchange. The club aspired to assist female University students to enter the corporate world. She was derided for being a feminist, but in actual fact, there are not nearly enough women represented on corporate boards or even in many organizations for that matter.
Most people I know would be happy to keep their head low and get the degree they came to get at University. But, the University experience is so much more than that. And to give back like society like she did, I think that is something young students should aspire to do, be it in school or University. Her grades didn’t suffer as well, she was the University medalist of her year and works on the trading floor (traditionally a male-dominated domain).
19. jasmine | December 18th, 2009 at 5:35 am
“it’s easy to say that we can all break out of the system if we truly wanted, but it is not really that easy if we don’t know that we can do it, if we are scared, if we don’t know what is out there. i want to appeal to any students reading this, to try. ”
agreed. it be great if more people who still have a link to school/young people/education make effort and come up with some ways to equip students to navigate their sec school life in a better way.
Most Malaysian teens love the comfort of cliques and routines. They need lots of encouragement and help finding the courage to start doing things differently.
20. Hafiy | December 18th, 2009 at 5:49 am
One of my life regrets was not saying hi and not taking a picture with you when I saw you and Kenny Sia at the Rainforest Music Festival last year. I knew who you are and read your blog for a few years now but I couldn’t do it.
The system we have can shape you to be someone who is meek and helpless. And us being the children under it, not knowing what’s good for us will just bow and let these so called elders lead us. What you’ve just wrote resonates strongly in our minds and thank you for writing this one.
The last statement was a nice touch. (:
21. aimee | December 18th, 2009 at 6:05 am
very well said.
and i loved the ending, cracked me up despite the seriousness of it all
22. Faustina | December 18th, 2009 at 6:33 am
Hi! Rmbr me?!
I almost totally agree with you…
Question is: How do we get it across?
Maybe imperfection is perfection?!
23. Victor | December 18th, 2009 at 7:04 am
Wait, don’t you have an assignment due in 6 hours? And you can write that much in between! Awesome
24. Zhi Wei | December 18th, 2009 at 7:31 am
I absolutely loved this entry.
I think I spent most of my primary and secondary school life living safely (and stupidly) in the system, so I can really relate to what you’ve written here. Shame on me, I know. I’ve always told people that things I’ve done (completely out of my own will and passion) after secondary school, after all the silly overrated SPM glory, have always taught me tenfold than the 10 years I spent in school.
Well said.
25. songjun | December 18th, 2009 at 7:32 am
hmmm… i remember most schools allowing u to join as many clubs and societies as u want as long as the meeting times dont clash
also we had alot of autonomy in the running of our societies!
26. clem | December 18th, 2009 at 9:36 am
very very very well said! i think we all fall under the category of the apathetic “aiyah it’s like that wan lah”, but it’s refreshing to see someone who isn’t like that.
i was talking to a singaporean friend and she actually plays the sax! at least, it was soo surprising to me – she ultimately said that in singapore (or at least, in her school? i don’t really know), for extra-curricular activities, they have a choice of joining either the school band and a uniformed body, and she tried out the band. she chose the sax randomly, and was then trained for years and she now plays for our uni’s band.
i also remember how after pmr i really wanted to go into the arts stream, but what prevented me were the ‘gangsters’ and other students with less than stellar characters who were all clumped up there. in the end i chose science even though i disliked it, and look where i ended up now after spm? (doing economics & finance, which i think is another mistake of mine, but that’s another story.)
i’m a victim of this system. i think we should form a support group wtf.
27. Passerby | December 18th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Dear readers and commenters, I’m sure you would have realized that this is not at all, something new or blossoming of a new era of such. Such system after all, does not only apply to Malaysia. The “coverage” spans across what may seem to be the East Asian mentality. Even Singapore is not spared from such mentality. Whether if there is one uniform body, one society, or many of them, there would not be any change in the mould of a person’s character and personality. School may be one of the places to guide you to be a person who you are, but our parents are equally as responsible as well. Parents should not shrug off the responsibility as well. If us as children had not been sown the seed of competitiveness and taught on the importance of high achievements, would we be acting that way?
But all in all, there should not be any pointing fingers to anyone, be it the government, the school, the system, the parents, your friends or even the feng shui of your room. Instead, if anyone here had realised it, then we should be the one changing it ourselves. if we are the ones holding on our own uvula to choke out the information we gobble down through the old system, then we should change our ways then, instead of remaining the same and blaming it all at others. It’s easier to say “Ah…if only I had did that back then..” than actually doing it ourselves because we are too afraid to come out of our comfort zone.
And there goes the saying, “Every man aspire to change the world, but no man had thought of changing himself.”
And the “change” element that we’d applaud should come from ourselves, not just relying on others.
So cheer up, be happy and be glad. :)
Disclaimer: The author is nowhere near conscious at the moment of this comment. He may be sleep-commenting and would not have any memory prior to this event. Call this a dream. :P
28. Irene | December 18th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Well written, Su Ann.
29. flory | December 18th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
i love you seriously. this post = win. the poor execution of CCAs isn’t just in local schools – happens in int’l schools very often too (at least in mine), and it’s very disheartening. though you have to keep pushing on!
30. lalala | December 18th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
haha! I was one of the few in my school who chose to go to the arts stream even though I had enough As from PMR for sub-science. They actually put me in a sub-science class and I appealed, and I never regretted being in arts! I met the most wonderful people (except for the occasional bitches) and I honestly think people from the arts stream are AWESOME. My class was one big happy family :) I remember the teachers treating us like shit just because we were in the “dumb” class but after SPM, all of us are in uni, we didn’t fail SPM, and most importantly we’re doing what we love! :D The teachers slowly warmed up to us also after seeing what a fun bunch we were.
So don’t stereotype, y’all. And having straight As and a killer CV doesn’t mean you’re going to be street-smart enough to make it in this world. And even if you don’t end up being super rich, there’s still so much more to life than fame, glory and MONEY.
31. Caroline | December 18th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
hi, don’t know if you still remember me =p But just dropping by to say, I feel like most of my struggles education-wise have been summarised here already. =) we’re humans. we’re not supposed to be ‘mass produced’.
32. tze | December 18th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
i was from 5 sains 1 also! and i also was in the interact club (for 2 weeks then got kicked out by ms manoh or whatever her name was)! and i was green house captain!
but the teachers still detested me sigh why arh
anyway streaming is a very asian thing. and this post is very well written :)
oi what if we werent in sri garden u think we’d turn out differently arh? what if we didnt do all the things we did back in high school (since we both did almost all the same things)?
but u turned out magnificent <3
33. Lily | December 18th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Hi Su Ann,
This is such a well-written post. It was circulating in my mind for the longest time. You have no idea how much I have been wondering, what if I had actually done the things I wanted: started the school newspaper, a book club, engaged myself in more arts activities instead of pursuing my science when my heart was not in it. I was good at studying, in the first class, but I always found joy befriending the gu wak zhais as you call them because they are the ones that made me laugh. I am from a small town, all the way in kedah, so you can imagine the big divide. I promised myself when I grew up, I am going to impart freedom to my child as you said: starting small to make a difference. My time has passed, but I never stopped encouraging my younger friends to be vibrant individuals by taking part in clubs or whatever that interests them. I still get snarky comments for choosing to do mass comm instead of science when I scored well for my SPM, but I realised that was the first step in living a vibrant life. :)))))) Thanks for the post su ann. It related so much!
34. quaintly | December 18th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
naz : exactly. box politics are so cruel. i am indeed very likely switching majors… or at least minoring in econ :)
ray 7: that’s one of the later greenday songs that i actually like!
annjie : glad you think so, but you seem to me like someone who doesnt need the advice anyway! where in vietnam are you? the air must have been so tense throughout the match!
random : indeed i was! vice captain and platoon leader, haha
caffy : hmm but it’s a vicious cycle right? we feel stereotyped and so we stereotype back. dangerous cycle to get caught in. you should have a chat with your teacher btw :) she will appreciate the feedback, and all of you will get a richer learning experience. win win!
anony mouse: i do wish someone had given me similar advice 10 years ago too. but this is just small-time advice to a small pocket of the internet. i wish the people who could do something about it REALLY would do something about it.
ryan : it was so clever of you to chase down that second chance. i’m glad you did ! you must be having so much fun right now :) good luck exiting the matrix. haha no one would wanna publish my book…!
smartypants : haha next time we meet i’ll tell you all the stories about why i should not be an anchorwoman….!
lishun : your comment should be published in a newspaper :) lishun do you think it’s too late for us old fogies too?
michelle : that was true in my school too. it’s easy for teachers to gossip because the staffroom is just so conducive for that kind of thing, and i really dont think they know how damaging all their small talk can be on people’s self esteem and high school trajectory. i’m glad you’re crafting a better life for yourself now. but the sad part about you and me is that we only realized this after we left
hoong : to the newspaper? i dont think my angry rants are eloquent enough for a newspaper! even for a letter to the editor section or something. which high school were you in if you dont mind me asking?
junkit : you MUST do that. before it’s too late
KY : hahahaha lou paeng!
patricia : oh without a doubt that is the issue. i’m aware of that. but perhaps it would make more sense to me if a school knew how to create well rounded individuals instead of simply oppressing one aspect of education just so that it’s easier for them to focus on one
kei : where do you go to college right now? yes dog eat dog world everywhere unfortunately. and i hear it only gets worse
amanda : i’m proud of your friend, and i dont even know her! i bet she’s holding her own very well on the floor :) do pleease send her my regards and well wishes!
jasmine : i considered doing it many times for my own high school, but they’re so bureaucratic that it’s hard to get anything done as an alumnus even. i often wonder what they care about.
hafly : i regret your not saying hi too! but i’ll be there again in the coming summer, so…. :)
aimee : hehehe
faustina : HEY YOU. :) hows it going? not sure if imperfection is perfection in this case though
victor : haha i turned it in an hour before the deadline. i think i did okay………… i hope..
zhi wei : not too late to reverse the process and come to US to play with us :P
songjun : yalar you all gangster mah! how to fight!
clem : wow, the sax. sigh dont you think our kids would be so amazing if our high schools incorporated that sort of lessons into their academic plans? and yeah i do know a lot of parents who tell their kids exactly what you thought: “dont go to arts stream cos you’ll mix with all the bad people”. in fact i think my mom tried to make me convince my brother to go to the science stream for that reason… but my brother refused. good for him. at least he doesnt have to join our support group haha. eh how ah us econ majors who wanna do other things. sigh support group is right
passerby : let’s not look across the straits when we know very well the problems we have do not stem from the same problems they have :) i agree with you that we’re all not free from blame, but i must say that you overrate the access to ‘direction’ that students have. i know lots of parents who know what’s good for their child, but that’s only one opinion, and oftentimes this stifles the child because they dont exactly like what their parents make them do. the right kind of guidance is the answer. or sometimes no guidance is the answer :) as long as the right education and awareness is set in place. what’s the best and most all-encompassing source for this? can we always count on every parent to care about what their children are up to? can we always expect children to know what is good for them? i’m concerned about the number of clueless kids and uncaring parents that i’ve encountered, so i do stand by my position that if anything should be fixed to yield the best results, it’s the macro level system in place. :)
irene : thank you :)
flory : that’s interesting to learn. i always thought your school was very much into the ECAs, volunteer work and character development. i took a walk around a student art gallery at your school once and was muchly impressed!
lalala : your comment makes me so happy :)))))
caroline : which caroline are you? would you be the caroline who just recently emailed me?
tze : eh you 5 sains 1 pelajar kenapa keluar dengan budak kelas lain wtf. i do think sri garden has a lot of room for improvement and that it stifled me in many many ways, but at the same time i think we could have done worse in other places.
lily : i love gu wak zhais :) lily it’s not too late for us i think… i often feel sad because i feel like there’s so much i want to do, too, but that i may have missed my time. yet sometimes i dont think we have. and i’m goign to live vicariously through your mass comm experiences :)) do tell me a story about what it’s like to study mass comm!
35. michelle | December 18th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
The reason why we realised this after high school has ended because we experienced something so difference from high school. Suddenly we’re thrown in an environment where we need to think for ourselves and speak our minds out. Basically, if you don’t, you won’t be able to survive uni/college. In a way, it’s good to know that you’re finally free. But then again, looking back, one will realize that high school is such a sheltered place. I always thought my high school years were a bit like the middle ages.
36. Hobart Lim | December 19th, 2009 at 3:26 am
As I look back at my sec sch education, a perspective tainted perhaps by hindsight bias, I struggle not to heap the blame on the edu system while trying not to blame it all on my ignorance. Having been stripped of the false idea of what constituted an outstanding student, I questioned why I never took an initiative to be more than what I was back then and to break free from the mold that I was fed. Yet, I have come to realize that nothing happens in a vacuum. I’m realizing now because I have had new experiences and insight – interaction with people, like yourself, who have made me see that life was not all about grades, fighting for awards, or so called “must have” activities. These were the added information that my old self back then didn’t have. That is why as much as I hate putting blame on others, I still believe that the m’sian education system did not do much in fostering passion, initiative and intellectual curiosity. Alas, baring a time machine, it is only productive that I look towards the future by changing today. I just hope I have the courage to break free from my comfort zones, having lived in the “Malaysian education dream/lie” for so long.
37. Hobart Lim | December 19th, 2009 at 3:27 am
Oh, ps. not sure if you read the plurk, but my apologies for not replying your email. Did not intend to be rude, but has no excuse not to have replied (at least a rational, acceptable one) :)
38. Mar | December 19th, 2009 at 3:49 am
I wonder how the teacher would have reacted with the word ‘Pontenging’?
Yes, students need to be aware that ‘work’+'Life’ is more than just a paperchase. But as long as corporations exist, there’ll always be a place for the academically inclined and the bureaucratic warriors.
You challenged the system for creativity and proactiveness, and if there’s a ribbon for it, then I’ll gladly wear it on my sleeve as well.
39. Anonymous | December 19th, 2009 at 4:29 am
I am sending my 2 kids to International school.
40. jun | December 19th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Jesus, this is by far one of your lengthiest post so far yet so inspiring. well said pinkpau.
totally agree with you that student should not be categorized into different ‘boxes’. and high school should be more than just aiming high grades and joining a club or society just for the sake for beautifying ones portfolio. It’s even sadder when some teacher agreed that student should be categorized and those whose were in the first class should be given more attention and for the last class just walk in, sit down and pass paper around and let the student do monkey business.
coming from a family with both parents being educator, dad headmaster, mom teacher. there were a lot of dirty little secret going on around in the teacher office.
is saddening.
41. caffy | December 19th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Suann: but I did! I made my opinions known, and spoke to her about teaching real poetry (tone of voice, measure, things like that) and how to really love poetry, but she said not in syllabus and we don’t need to learn. She chooses things to teach based on what we would find easy, not what we would find enlightening(she used “because it’s easier and the others would understand” to justify her text choice a few times)! To make things worse, she’s quite conservative and couldn’t stand another opinion, and a lot of times I’m not convinced by her answers. I sometimes know my text better than she does.
Tell me how lah, I’m so frustrated. I’m sure I cannot learn literature properly like that, and am determined to find an outside teacher or form a Dead Poets’ Society of sorts to discuss literature.
42. caely | December 19th, 2009 at 8:04 am
i’m 16 this year, and i’ll be sitting for my spm next year.
i can’t help but to think, “is this all there is?” because i can say that although school is great and all, it doesn’t allow me to learn anything more than the syllabus =/ everything is so restrictive.
i absolutely agree with what you wrote and will tell all my friends to read this too so they’ll be inspired as well :D
43. Jin Rui | December 19th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Hm. I wish i read this two years ago. SPM’s just over and i’m out of high school. I want to study in America too, but am sad to say that i dont even have the “grade 8 piano, president of debate society, troop leader of pengakap, editor of school newspaper, prefect, church cell group leader”.
Guess i had a late start. =\
44. miss.cc | December 19th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
haih, reading this post makes me sad/regretful. coco wasn’t very engaging for me either; almost every club did mundane activities and the ONLY club which was actually very active was the interact club. that really sucked bcuz they were pretty strict about choosing the interactors so while they got to hv a rly long list of activities/contributions to add to their CVs, the rest of us cld only watch in envy :(
and sure, the whole grade 8 piano, president of _____ society, prefect etc sounds so boring but at least they got to do smtg although they aren’t particularly outstanding. and there’s also the mindset of ppl who hv been trained to think that all those titles are worthy to be mentioned of. it’s undeniable that ppl will be in awe with all those accomplishments but they don’t realize that sometimes even ppl without all those impressive accomplishments turn out to be significant figures in society or that they end up hving better lives.
oh well. at least there’s college to look forward to.
45. fish fish | December 19th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Very nicely written, Su Ann. I can see the way you think is shifting gradually. :)
46. Marlene | December 19th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Hi Su Ann,
I went to school in Singapore for 4 years and have experienced the streaming you talk about… after that I finished high school in New Zealand… what a big difference. I have to admit that I like the emphasis towards academic achievement so prevalent in Asia, here in NZ, parents do not seem to expect their children to achieve the way Asian parents do, to the extent that sometimes it feels that they do not believe in their children’s abilities enough… or they simply understand their children’s abilities better and do not think that a profession like a dr or lawyer to be a sign of success in life.
Anyway, now that I am a mother, even though I acknowledge that the NZ education system is far from perfect, I would choose it anyday to the narrow and restrictive Asian system that I have encountered in my youth.
Good post! Love it when you bring up issues like these and get us thinking.
47. marie | December 22nd, 2009 at 8:55 am
so happy to know that not having grade 8 piano, society president……. on my resume doesn’t matter…coz i don’t!!! Even though i am only 14 this year, but in terms of CoCu i am an underachiever la…haiz.. no piano class or super ability to back me up too…so my mum made me take up chess and am planning to start learning french, just to get a shot at the ivy league next time. =I
True, all these don’t represent you as a person, but without it you wouldn’t have a shot against others who may come from more diverse backgrounds or have a more beautifully embellished resume. Reality is that in order to stand out, you need something to give you the one up against others.
On the issue of streaming,
Many times, students get streamed into different classes, not because of stupidity, but its because of their lousy attitude towards school life which causes them to lag behind. A man is a product of his own actions, if they were willing to put in just a miniscule amount of effort, things would be a lot better. I’m impartial towards streaming of students as it has its own set of pros and cons but i strongly believe that one should be responsible for one’s own actions and not blame the system. Instead, find a way to change it.
but your post on changing the usual perception of society towards the issue of education was really inspiring. Keep up the good work =)
48. Alvin | December 23rd, 2009 at 11:39 am
I was a friend with a bunch of samseng in primary school. 5 of us were best buds. They were good kids, just didn’t like book much. After I scored well in UPSR I got assigned to the ‘good’ class in high school. They weren’t that ‘fortunate’ (come to think of it, they were actually the fortunate ones)
I still hung out with them regularly in high school even though they kept making fun of me and my elite classmates. I am glad they were there for that part of my life as the friendship later define part of what I am now. You already mentioned the negatives so without being too generalizing, these blue collar boys do identify themselves with some positive values: loyalty, friendship, sincerity and always know where you come from.
Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk might also be relevant to your interest: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
49. Honeybunny | December 23rd, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Merry Christmas~! :D
If you ever felt the need to talkcock =), come chat at http://www.cbox.ws/?kennysia
50. Hoong | December 23rd, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I’m from Methodist ACS Ipoh.
It’s even a tradition in our school to put on a play once every year through the Music & Drama Society (MADSOC). Really enjoyed the exposure that i’ve gained through acting in a musical once =)
If there is one thing i can change about the education system in m’sia, it would be the lack of emphasize on social sciences & art… Studying in Germany/Europe really opens up the opportunity to explore such areas. I’m envious when i see some of my korean acquaintances being more well-informed, that’s important if one want to appreciate the literature, music & artwork that Europe has to offer…
51. louise | December 27th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Hi Su Ann, I’m a regular reader of your blog. I’m 17 years old this year, just finished my SPM and I wish I’d read this post a whole lot sooner.
I was thinking about how I didn’t really learn anything important in the last 5 years; at least not in the classroom. And I did a post about it; and I linked this post of yours to it. Thank you – it’s really inspiring. I hope my juniors read it!
52. s | December 27th, 2009 at 2:15 am
Brilliant stuff pinkpau, but as I’m sure you know (you being a debater and so am I) setting up a student councilor even a new club isn’t easy. We have tried, but our teachers just bring us down and do not allow it. So what if we have more than 100 students supporting us? The bureaucracy and the red tape is binding us down. We try to aspire for the best, and do what we believe in, but the school says they don’t want their students to have too much power. It’s just the system. This silly system.
53. quaintly | December 27th, 2009 at 2:55 am
s: the key to that problem is negotiation :)
54. Jowee | December 29th, 2009 at 8:50 am
I usually don’t post comments on so called “famous people”’s blogs because it seems futile somewhat. something about not being able to be read amidst the tons of other comments. But I like this post so much I couldn’t care less about my usual passiveness . . . thank you for posting this. You’ve managed to capture everything i’ve been thinking about bout our malaysian system. . .
55. Jowee | December 29th, 2009 at 8:51 am
i like tht we like the same things, the same type of music. . . the same words. . .
56. Slow down, it’s hap&hellip | December 30th, 2009 at 3:46 am
[...] Here is pinkpau’s blog post appealing to all high school students. What she says is somewhat related to this one. It’s a bit late, but I think it’s a must read. If you’re not Form 5 yet, lagi more must read! [...]
57. F | January 27th, 2010 at 10:30 am
hey su ann. didn’t notice your reply to the comment until today. the grass always looks greener on the other side — while it is definitely an edge over most local schools…there is that whole corporate aspect to complain about.
58. Shawn Tan | May 3rd, 2010 at 4:53 am
Hi Su Ann,
There are alternatives to school-based co-curricular activities. They are called real-life activities! If the school system is broken, students should just look outside for other things to do. I’m sure that most of our sports champions started playing their games in their housing area and not at Bukit Jalil. If they get good at it, the CV points won’t really matter much – the talent speaks for itself.
And yes, Malaysia definitely looks very different from the outside. Just make sure that you do not lose that objectivity when (if ever) you come back home. While you may feel constantly frustrated at things, keep the ideal in your heart and try your best to work towards it. You will find many others like you at home.
59. Sean | May 17th, 2010 at 10:42 am
Hello there..I’m Sean..Malaysian who has just started uni over here in Sydney.
Just thought that I’d say that I absolutely agree with this post. While I enjoyed my secondary school life immensely, I definitely think a lot more could and should be done to make it even better. Especially, like you said, for students who aren’t able to make it into the so called top classes.
I could really relate to the part about teachers as well. I too found that some of the most important lessons came from free periods when I would just have interesting chats with some of my teachers in the staffroom.
60. lishun | May 23rd, 2010 at 5:50 pm
su ann…mp tony pua featured this post on his education blog recently. did you experience a sudden increase in interest in this post? hehe.
61. Timothy | June 17th, 2010 at 8:32 am
Great article. =)
Leave a Comment
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed