Jovial was telling me and my wife the other day that finally he succeeded in doing well in his exam of the subject of Moral, last term he managed to get 60 odd, this term around, he shot all the way up to 90.
I was happy for him for he managed to keep to his words that he could fare well in his exam with just little "supervision" from us and on the hindsight,I was not too pleased with it, for the reasons below................
When asked how did he do it,he said all he did was simply just to memorize the particular subject,like 背到滚瓜滥熟,then I was thinking to myself,that should not be it man........I did not tell him there and then about my feeling,well just a little of it though,as not to dampen him.
Second of all,personally I don't think the subject of "Moral" should be made into "exam'able", we might just lose the real essence of moral,if the students only read and memorize it,without really understanding it,,,haiz.
Now,I am thinking,why so many students hate the subject of "History" because they are told to memorize all those names, all those dates, all those place,without really grasping why certain incidents happened, the cause and the action of it........
I hope we are not churning out graduates who are only good in memorizing and not analyzing.............I am trying my best to cultivate the "enjoyment' of study to my boys and to instill that learning should be fun and not boring, Lord help me.
Have a good weekend folks and God Bless.
P/S : Son..enjoy it
I don't like my girls memorise the book too, in order to avoid this to happen, is to make them comprehend the book.
ReplyDeleteEugene, our Msian edu system sucks, and our time we still survived and came out ok, but look at the graduates now, those in 20s many can hardly speak fluent basic English.
ReplyDeleteA recruitment friend told me that those chinese -ed ended up in IT firms, some small firms which is dead end job, and Malays who can't speak Chinese or English, well... sad for them.
Your kids are doing great, most important is character, outlook in life and morals. Not memorizing dates and names and being brainwashed in History that "orang putih mengaut keuntungan di tanah air Melayu" 2 points for that, but zero for life.
Have a good weekend bro!
I was like him too! Now I think back sometimes it was not easy for young minds to digest and fully understand everything yet. The teachers may not even have time to explain the full stories, so papa can do it. Well done boy!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Irene 100%! I interviewed so many fellas and shook my head in disbelief. Even those who graduated in Mass Comm could not speak complete good English. How did they graduate?
ReplyDeletethat's our education system... if you don't memorise the moral values, you won't be able to answer and get a full mark on the papers...By just answer how, why, where is not good enough, all answers have to comprehend the moral values... well, I have friends who even memorise math equation!!!
ReplyDeleteEugene, during our time Moral is not a compulsory subject but we also memorize on many things..
ReplyDeletebut nowadays, our kids have to do that too, my kids memorized the points in moral.. like in rukun negara.. but theirs more of course..
But that's the Malaysian education system - more emphasis on academics from rote-learning instead of the real education. I'm also of the opinion that students may be too young to be able to understand everything so learning it by heart is the only way to score.
ReplyDeleteHistory is a tough subject because it involves memorizing dates and names. It's a study-subject we used to call it because one has to study to get the dates and names right to write about it. Geog is not that bad - so long as you have read the chapter and know the facts, you'd be able to use your own words to write about the subject.
History and Geog are important subjects because we have to know our roots to appreciate our existence (but let's not go into the distortion on our own history!..) and Geog, lest we think we can drive to Hawaii from the US mainland or think people of Malaysia still live in trees.
If it's any consolation, 90 is better than 60. Never mind how he did it. Maybe he knows more than you give him credit for. Eh?
As for English, if one can get the fundamentals right, everything else will fall into place. Btw, watching cartoons on tv can help in improving English, excluding 'Popeye', of course.
Whatever.. leave the week's worries behind and have yourself and your family a wonderful September weekend!
haha it's true. Last time we condemn those friend score good mark in moral. The lower mark mean we are very "honest"
ReplyDeleteI memorized both my History and Moral subjects. They were my least favourite subjects and I never scored them well in all exams.
ReplyDeleteAgree with HappySurfer that our education emphasize on academic and also, there're lots of kiasu-ness around.
i hate history too...because of the memorizing!
ReplyDeleteCertain things are better not to be memorised...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, wishing you a great weekend!
well, very true, the subject Moral is always very controversial.. how students are assessed and how the syllabus are laid out may not really address the morality issue right?? a good boy may have scored only 60, but the one who scored 90 might not be good either..
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ReplyDeleteI remember 2 questions from my daughter's primary Moral paper:
ReplyDelete1） 我功課沒做完，不用幫媽媽做家務。
I'm not done with my homework, hence do not need to help mom with the housework.
2）衣服不用天天洗.
Do not need to change cloth (for laundry) everyday.
My daughter answered YES for both questions but got both WRONG. I think I'm the one to be blamed. I once told her not to change her cloth everyday if not dirty... especially pyjamas.
No point memorizing something that you do not understand for you learn nothing at all. I think our education system is a big failure. Kids are not allowed to think on their own. They are also not allowed to speak up. Parents have to play a bigger role to educate their kids if they want them to be competent globally.
ReplyDeleteit has always been like this lo bro. Who pandai memorize will get straight A, but come out work, apa pun tak tahu.
ReplyDeleteto understand the learnings is better than memorizing the readings. because in the end, our memory can't store that much either way.
ReplyDeleteoh, i love to teach Moral..I made the students speak in English!
ReplyDeleteYeah...malaysian education system truly sucks. I still remember my eldest son detest history and fail almost every exam. He just could understand why he has to study it and could not remember all the dates. When I asked him, he said all the teacher does every session is come into class, get one student to go up to the blackboard and copy notes onto the blackboard. The rest just copied into their exercise book whereas he will be happily playing with his handphone. How to do well? When he went over to Christchurch NZ, one day, he emailed me an article on Gandhi and asked me to comment. I told him it was an extremely good article and told him to take some of it for his assignment (he is supposed to write an article of 1000 words on Gandhi and they have to do research to get it done). I was surprised when he said "Daddy, that is MY article!" Simply amazing turn around. We are already planning to make sure that our two young ones now will have a chance to leave the country to study elsewhere.....
ReplyDeleteThe stupid subject. DSAI started it when he implemented the new syllabus in 1988...and forced Science students to study History. I don't know why nobody has done anything to change that.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I hear, these subjects very easy for "those people" to pass...so kekal (they never bother about distinctions anyway). Moral - they memorise EVERYTHING...and then they score. Yang pandai2, betul2 bermoral...give own answers, all tenggelam.
Don't worry about your son memorising. That is exactly what they do these days...and they can score straight As to show you in your face. Ask them anything a week or more later, they would tell you that they've forgotten.
ReplyDeleteMy time, Senior Cambridge, I took Literature. Those from Chinese schools memorised all the answers in the Minerva guides, their English so horrible...and they all got A1. I wrote my own answers, cilaka...only B3. Surely I'm A LOT better than them!
This is the weakness of written exams - I always say it does not show anything - just how good you are at passing/scoring distinction in exams - not a true reflection of who you are and what you are capable of.
And THIS is exactly why those with excellent results cannot secure scholarships....they go for interviews and make utter fools of themselves...
"orang putih mengaut keuntungan di tanah air Melayu"
ReplyDeleteDunno how true here but in the case of India, if the Queen would return all the crown jewels they stole from that country, it certainly would help boost the economy a lot!
i agree. Moral should be practiced, not put up as exam. did i tell u i almost flunk my moral paper in SPM? and i was the most moraled person i know. sigh...
ReplyDeleteThanks guys
ReplyDeleteRote memory is never good, but many students especially those from the Chinese medium are just so good at memorizing.
ReplyDeleteWell, we know how our education system is - too exam-oriented, and parents are overly anxious when their children don't score an "A" in every conceivable subject. Some parents even demand that their kids score a perfect 100% or else they've to face the consequences!
You're right. Moral should never be made a compulsory subject in exams. The answers are just too subjective because unlike in tertiary education, kids don't learn the theories of moral, do they? So moral shouldn't be tested at all. Every subject should have some moral values integrated in them, if possible. That's a better option. Well, too bad... we have professors who just want to be in the limelight, so...hey presto! Moral becomes a public exam subject.