Moral Values and Education

This incident happened in a school. The whole incident was witnessed and related by the school's vice-principal. You may want to think about the difference between a lowly eduacated security guard and a highly educated parent. Think about how education makes a difference in moral values and does it works in inculcating social well being in today's society.

There was this boy who was admitted to the college and wanted to appeal out of the college for a better one. Of course, in order to do that, he needs important documentations and acknowledgment of his current school. Yes, he did that. But that was when the school had closed at 8.30 pm at night. The vice principal was on his way home when he noticed that there was a commotion at the guard post.

The parents of the boy, together with the boy himself, was at the guard post. The parents of the boy seemed rather educated. The parents was very rude towards the security guard, using a very rude tone and was unreasonable. Actually, the school had already closed and the security guard was kindly telling them to leave as they are not allowed in. Instead, the parents were impatient and gave uneasonable excuses to go in. At last, the guard was able to persuade them to leave. The parents and child went into the car and requested to make a U-turn in the school to leave. The guard readily agreed with a smile. He was trying to be courteous throughout. He allowed them in.

Instead, misusing the the guard's trust on them, they drove in and get off the car. They started walking around the school. This activated the school's security alarm which was linked to the police. The guard chased them and what the parents retorted back was "we were just touring around the school". The vice principal stepped out and asked about the commotion. He did not asked the parents and child to leave and helped them to prepare and approve the documents the parents needed. He also de-activated the alarm system and had no intentions of charging them with tress-passsing. However, as the vice-principal was walking out with the boy, he told him "When you leave, could you say sorry to the security guard or just a thank you. He was just doing his job. No to find any trouble with you. Thank you." The boy was silent, and not a look of remorse or embarrassment. After grabbing all the informations and documents from the principal's hand for his appeal, the parents of the child rolled their eyes at him and drove off.

Not a word of thank you. Not a word of apology. A lowly educated security guard who was just doing his job. A highly educated parent who was just expecting whatever he wanted. How did education play a part in this incident? Or did it even play a part?

EP3 allocation

This post is in response to Si Yuan's blog post about EP3 allocation system. He posted that he had a secondary 1 friend who was attending basketball training in school right when he joined our school. He was a talented player and was attending training after he went the basketball trial given that he was skillful and had no problem getting into the school basketball EP3. Most importantly, he was interested in it. However, he was not admitted to basketball despite his skills and interest. He was admitted to track and field. Which he knew about it.

I agree with Si yuan that EP3 serves much importance in our secondary school life and that it is a place for us to learn and excel through our interest. I also agree with his argument on why his friend, Jack, was not admitted into his desired EP3. Jack had all the capabilities to enter the school's basketball team. I also do not understand why the school had allocated him to track and field which he had no experence in.

EP3 is also called as co-curicular activites, wherby we stay back after curricular time to do something which we chose to and try to excel in that direction. It is where we do what we chose and like, not to do what we did not like. Same for this situation. Track and Field was not in the 6 choices of Jack and yet he was picked to join that sport due to the a weak reason given by the teachers in charge. As Si Yuan stated, the teacher said that the school's track and field C divsion is weak and needs strong sports background to improve the standards. What questions me is that is the school basketrball that good also that they did not need any strong sportsmen? In my opinion, the school picked Jack into track and field rather than basketball is because of the fact that the track and field EP3 has been a niche area in our school and that they needs to maintain the standards.

I think that that is not a rather constructive reasons to put someone's 4 years life into a time where he will not enjoy and what he call a waste of time. The school track and field could still be maitained the standards by maintain the training methods. Not by recruiting more good sportsmen who had no interest in the area. Interest is an important factor in motivating one to do something and drives him to spur on. Jack lacked that important factor towards track and field. So how is he able to devote himself to that sport which he is not used to? EP3 should be there for us to have the opportunity to do what we like and at the same time improve in that skill. Therefore, it has no purpose when it is there for one to loathe and dread going to.

Interpersonal assignment

I am going to present to you an interview I did with a friend of mine. I will be asking questions and views from him about prejudice and discrimination.

Me: What do you think is prejudice?
Friend: I think it means an unfavourable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without prior knowledge.

Me: What about discrimination? What do you think it means?
Friend: A treatment of a person or thing based on the group, class or category in which the person or thing belongs to rather than on individual merits. Because of discrimination, then will have prejudice.

Me: Can you tell me an example of discrimination?
Friend: When one tries to avoid you and makes bad remarks about you because of your face colour when he did not even know you well.

Me: Do you think discrimination will affect society growth?
Friend: Yes, definitely. Discrimination will hinder society as it will cause tension and conflicts, Resulting in undesirable results like the racial war in Singapore in the past. It has caused fights and even death. It also affects economic growth.

Me: What do you think can solve discrimination?
Friend: We can have awareness of both parties, to communicate to each other on how the person is. This can allows the opposite party to know more about you and your character and will not judge you based on hie false opinions.

Me: What do you think one will feel if he or she is discriminated?
Friend: Left-out, osctracized and lonely. Most probably feels unhappy and uneasy as one may even hurt you.

Me: What do you think about equality?
Friend: Everyone is borned equal and they can't choose their backgrounds and family. Thus, it is unfar to deprive them of any rights based on their background or social status. We should treat everyone equally without any bias.

Me: Thank you for sharing your views with me.

Multiple Intelligence

Earlier on, I took a multiple intelligence test to test on what kind learner I am. I found out that I am a kinaesthetic and interpersonal learner. I am quite surprised that I'm a kinaesthetic learner as I often thought that I learn better through lectures and lessons. However, the results has proven me wrong. As for being a interpesonal learner, it could be well predicted as I like to get social with people and communicate. But as for how it helps me learn better, I am not too sure. Therefore, I went to do a research on these learning techniques.

Being a kinaesthetic learner meant that you learn better by carrying out a physical activity than listening to a lecture or just merely watching a demonstration. Kinaesthetic learners make up 15% of the population(wow!). Kinaesthetic learners struggles to pick up things by reading or listening to things. It also helps for them to move around when learning or understanding things. They are usually good at chemistry experiments, sporting activities and acting. Well, after reading so much about Kinaesthetic learning styles, I am really surprised as I actually thought I learn better through notes and lectures. And I did not know that I'm good at sports or acting. But this test has shown the opposite. I guess I could start trying such learning styles. I could maybe excel further!

Going on, an interpersonal person meant that you have a strong social style, communicates well with people, both verbally and non-verbally. People comes to you for advice and you may enjoy helping them. You may be sensitive to their mood and understands their views. You may prefer learning in groups and class and learns better by listening to the thought of other people. You will like social activities and games involving teams like basketball, baseball or soccer. I think this is rather true as I like to get social with people at times and communicate with them. I also learns by listening to their response and I like basketball! Hence, this result is rather accurate based on what I think of myself.

Now that I've learnt more about my learning styles and what fits me best, I should start trying them out. Let's see if such learning styles realy help me best...

Home Learning

No school for two days. Monday and tuesday will be home learning for our whole school. Which meant that we need not go to school but have to stay at home to well, learn. Teachers will post online lesson packages on their web and we students will visit the web and complete assignments with the help of the online notes. Students get excited about this as they need not go to school and could spend half the day in the computer. I agree. But thinking again, is home learning a beneficial learning platform and suitable for schools to embark this approach permanently?

It do have it's benefits. Like last year's H1N1 case, schools has to stop for a week. The home learning has came into good use. A week of lesson is rather essential for teachers and students. If they miss it, I will take a long time for them to catch up and teachers has to quicken their teaching pace. The home learning will serve as a great temporary learning platform to allow students to catch up and get an idea of the topic in the syllabus. It will also help when they get back to school afetr the break. The timng of the online lessons will be more flexible and allows students to end their lessons earlier if they finish it quickly. Hence, such teaching is really helpful and allows students to cope with their work when they go back to school for lessons.

However, let's think it in another way. For example, if a school wanted to try out this home learning programme for a year, do you think it's feasible? In my opinion this will leads to some problems if such home learning activities is to be embarked for long term teaching. Basically, it will leads to failure in teaching, social problems and health problems.

Firstly, failure in teaching. It actually meant that teachers may not be able finish covering syllabus or failed to make students understand certain topics. This is because, as experienced today, the whole school internet portal was not able to accessed to due to the number of people logging on at the same time. Thus, this cannot goes on if lessons were like this everyday as there may be miscommunication or failure to convey messages. Besides, if one's system crashed or stops working, the whole learning process will be disrupted. Students may also face problems when they wanted to ask teachers question as it is not as simple as a face to face question. Even if it's a yes or no question may take some time. Thus, there are still flaws that should be eradicated.

Secondly, social problems. Students are exposed to the net all days. It will be impossible for them not to get distracted and log on to facebooks or online games. Hence, addiction in computer games may happens. Besides, it will also leads to discipline problems. The students will not be too driven to complete their work even if a date line is given since there will not be any punishment for late submissions. Even if there is, what could it be? Will it really deter students from being sloppy in their work. And how are students going to get tested? They could just go to the web and fing out all the answers. Integrity issues. Besides, students will lose contacts with friends and will lose interacting skills. Long term home learning may leads to such serious social problems. So, is it still feasible? Or there are any alternative ways to look at it?

Lastly, health problems. Staring at the computer for the day may leads to serious eye problems. Degrees of myopia may increase. It is definitely not healthy to stay in front of the monitor the w hole day. Students will not get active since there's not any period called physical education for home learning. Hence, leading to obessity or irregular diets as students may not follow the timetable for lunch or recess.

So, will long term home learning be feasible, same as the current teaching methods or even better? Please feel free to state your views.