Half Black, Half White

                The poem "Cross" by Langston Hughes shows the speaker was angry at his/her parents in the beginning. During the middle of the poem, the speaker apologized.  At the end of the poem, the speaker was in a state of confusion, wondering whether he/she is black or white.

                 This poem shows that a half black and white person struggling to accept and understand their ethnic identity in a world where black people and white people are considered polar opposites. I think this scenario not only happen in America, it is all over the world. Most of the people around us will not able to accept a mix races marriage. Even though it does exist nowadays, but they are still considered as "odd", they will receive harsh glares from the society. It seems like they are not being approved.

                So, I think this poem should be introduced to our students. Let them think if they are the child with half black and white blood, what they will feel. Is it necessary to judge people with their skin colour? Let them understand that a good people or bad people is nothing to do with their skin colour. As long as we are human, we have the rights to be respected.

The Dark Years

           After reading "The Dark Years" by Nelson Mandela, I realized that a political prisoner not only lost their freedom, they were also abused by the warders. They were forced to work in utter silence. Moreover, they were given short trousers to wear, signifying that they were “boys” and not men. Furthermore, they were given distasteful, nearly inedible food to eat once every day. They were treated like animals. These show that the white man was so cruel at that time.

           Quoted from Mandela's line “the racial divide on Robben Island was absolute: there were no black warders, and no white prisoners”. This was so unfair.  Racism does exist even though inside the prison. Thus, the black man are forced to fight for injustice in every aspect of his life.

          In my opinion,  this autobiography should be introduced to our students. Let them understand that we have no right to judge or discriminate people with their races, religions or skin colours.  Although they were political prisoners, they did not deserve to be treated the way they were, they were just strive for equal rights. We, human beings have equal rights to be respected. A peaceful society starts from respecting each other equally.

Respect and Equality

             In the essay "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, the narrator describes himself as “oppressed,” “a poor shot,” and “ill-educated.” This shows that he has a low self-esteem. This also tell me that he is beaten down and confused in his personal beliefs. Thus, he has killed the elephant. Instinctively, he does not want to shoot the elephant. But, he momentarily feels a sense of power and respect which is what he wanted from the villagers all along. As a result, he decides to shoot the elephant to avoid looking like a fool in front of them.

               I wonder what will I do if I was in his situation. Probably I will do the same thing.

 

            After reading this essay, I feel that respect to each other is the most important moral value which I will teach my students if I used this text in my lesson. I will ask my students to think what are the possible actions the narrator will do if he is being respected. I will also get students to understand the importance to respect each other. When people are not treated respectively, there will always be complaints and conflict between them. Confucius said, "He who respects others will be respected himself, and he who loves others will be loved by them." Equality among people can never be attained through the use of force. No matter what skin colour you are, you should be treated equally and respectively. When there is full, mutual respect among people, then we will be able to create a peaceful and harmony world.

The Girl Who Was Not Satisfied With Simple Things

          After I read "The Girl Who Was Not Satisfied With Simple Things" more than twice. I found that I have different views from my first reading. At first, I think people should satisfy with simple things and things they have. So that, we can have happy life. This remind me of the phrase "be content with what you have". But, if we always satisfy with simple things, I don't think we will have aeroplanes today. We live on land, we can walk or run. So why we need to fly since we don't have wings too. If we are satisfied with simple things, we would not be able to enjoy the good things that we have today like concrete house, handphone, computer and etc.

        We are human being. We definitely looking for better life. We want good house, nice car, beautiful spouse, good and cute children, better income...

       In my opinion, to be satisfied with simple things is just a way to prevent anxiety. We may feel depress or jealous when we don't have such and such thing that our friends or relatives have. So, if you can't afford those luxury items, then it is better to be satisfied with simple things. As a result, I don't think people who are not satisfied with simple things are against the good moral value. It all depends on how a person end up with his demands. Success or fail.

Becoming a Woman by Hilary Tham

            "Becoming a Woman" a poem by Hilary Tham. This poem talks about the changes in the life of a girl when she reaches puberty and is believed to be the writer own experience.

        Personally, I don't think this poem is suitable to use as literary text in secondary school in Malaysia. First, the text only target on girl's puberty only. This will probably make the girls feel embarrass in front of other boys in their class. Even though the boys already knew this before reading this poem, they still will make fun about it. Second, if male teacher is conducting this lesson, it will challenge him to deliver the text in a proper way too.

            However, I do agree if this poem is used at home from a mother to her daughter. Mother can use this poem to teach her daughter about the changes that she will face. It also tells how to overcome the menstruation problems with ease. With the help of this poem parents could tell their daughters about the changes that they will have when they reached puberty easily.

A Useful Fable

 

            All most everyone like to be flattered. "The Fox and the Crow" is a really good fable that we can let our children learn the consequences if they trust flatterers easily.

         Some more, from this fable, we can tell our children that taking others people belonging without permission is consider stealing and definitely wrong. Our children should learn to be hardworking in order to get things they want.

            Furthermore, we can let our students share their thought about the fox and bring out that cunning is  a bad attitude that everyone must avoid and give examples of the consequences of being cunning.

            Besides moral value, this fable is short and simple which also can be use as a listening material. We can let our students listen to this fable and retell the fable in their own words. Other than these, they can have a text completion exercise as below too.

Child Obedience

               "The Son of the Turtle-Spirit" is a Chinese folktale which has superstitious element.

               From this folktale I learned that people in olden day are very obedient. They will follow what ever their parents told them to do. For example, the maiden sewed the thread onto the young man's coat as she was told by her mother. Besides, the son of the turtle spirit too was an obedient child. He put his father's bones in the dragon's mouth and hang the rich man's grandfather's bone on the dragon's horn which his mother told him to do so.

             But, nowadays, I found that our children are less obedient if compare to the olden day's. I have seen many parents are easily give in to their children which make them become more demanding and disobedient when their demand are not fulfilled. We should teach our children like olden days but child obedience should be achieved the right way and for the right reasons. If a parent’s goal is just to get the child to obey and do whatever he tells him to, then he is missing the point. He may only be after convenience.

Teachers do make differences

            This film is based on a true story. The teacher's name was Mrs. Thompson and a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. I feel very touching while watching it and I am eager to share it to my friend.

            After watching the short film, I feel guilty of lying to my students too. I told my Year 1 class that I love each of them and willing to teach them. But, actually I am not happy with a boy name Jason in my Year 1 class. He can't pay any attention in the class, he always busy with his own works, drawing or reading other books. No matter how hard I try to persuade him to join my lesson, he will refuse too. For sure, I met his class teacher and others subject teachers to discuss about this. All I got was the same answer.

            Now, I have a different view. Every child arrives like a mystery box with puzzles pieces inside. Some of the pieces are broken and missing and others just seem to hide. This afternoon, I found out Jason was actually staying with his grandmother only. He has parents, but none of his parents is taking care of him. When I asked about his parents, he will look on the floor. His eyes told me that he missed that. Then, I asked about his grandmother, his eyes seem to have sparkles, he had broad smile, he talks a lot about his grandmother to me. From here, I know Jason is just like Teddy who lack of love.

         This film has actually reminded me of Kafka, 1910 Diaries, he keeps on repeating this line in his diary, "my education has done me great harm in some respects." He indirectly tells us that most of his teachers have ruined his life. If Kafka could have teacher like Mrs. Thompson in this film, his life would be totally different.

         As a result, an inspirational teacher can make a difference to a student, providing guidance and support at a crucial moment in a young person's life. These films also remind me how important an educator can be in forming young minds. Sometimes the process is slow at times, some need more helps than others, each child is a work in progress, with assorted shapes and colours. So, I will try my very best to help Jason no matter how long it should take.

The secret of great relationship

            Yesterday, I watched a video titled "Boy slaps his brother with ipad" in my Facebook.  I really could not stop laughing when I first watched it. The first thing I said was "Wow, ipad also have another function!" But, when I watched the second time, I felt bad about it. Is this the right way to treat your brother when he did things that really annoying? Definitely NO.

            This video remind me of E.M. Foster's essay "What I Believe", he states,

"Tolerance, good temper and sympathy - they are what matter really, and if the human race is not to collapse they must come to the front before long." (75)

           I strongly agree with this statement. We have teach our student tolerance, good temper and sympathy in every day school life. But, what have happened to our children nowadays? Why they behaved like this? What were missing among them?

        According to a parenting consultant, Kenny Toh,  the secret ingredient that is vital to having great relationships is R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Yes, I strongly agree with him. These boys do not know how to respect each other. From this incident, I am going to let my students learn how to respect. As Kenny Toh said, just remember the first letter in ‘relationship’ … ‘R’ for R-E-S-P-E-C-T.  Put in another way, without mutual respect, relationship won't work. To respect another is to honor his or her dignity and choices. And when you genuinely respect a person, you will also avoid behaving in disrespectful manners such as criticizing, blaming, complaining, irritating, making fun of, shaming, threatening, and inflicting physical, psychological, or emotional harm.

Never give up!

         After reading the myth "Prymus and Thisbe", I think this myth is not suitable to teach to our children nowadays. This myth talks about forbidden love and how they actually suicide when they think they lost their loves one. In my opinion, this myth will give more bad impact for teenagers. They will think suicide is the best solution when they face relationship problem. Just like the previous year, our Malaysia's  teenagers were willing to suicide just because they failed in their relationship. As a result, I have found another myth which I think is more suitable for our students.

         "The Glass Knight" is a myth from Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is about a basilisk. The basilisk is about a foot in length, of colour between black and yellow, having very red eyes, a sharp head and a white spot hereon like a crown. It goes not winding like other serpents but upright on its breast. If a man touch it though with a long pole it kills him, and if it sees a man far off it destroys him with its looks. Furthermore, it breaks stones, blasts all plants with his breath, it burns everything it goes over, no herb can grow near the place of his abode. The story continues to say that the basilisk killed so many people and so many fled that the little market town had hardly anyone left in it. Then a wandering knight covers his armour in crystal glass. When the basilisk sees its reflection it dies instantly.

       When I came across this myth, I realized that we all face difficult challenges from time to time. Sometimes we may even feel a task is too hard, even impossible, for us to do. Like the knight in the myth was feeling just as hopeless when he faced the basilisk which was so powerful and could kill with a single glance. But, at last he still managed to kill the evil basilisk. I would definitely introduce this myth to my students in school. Throughout this myth, I would like them to know no matter how hard it is, we all can succeed in the future if we never give up trying. Some more, the wording in the text is not difficult for most of the year six students to understand. I like this myth very much. It creates mysterious atmosphere for the readers too. When I first read this myth, I kept on imagine how the basilisk looks like. Finally, I went online to search for it and learned that the word basilisk comes from the Greek word basileus, meaning king. So they thought of it as the king of snakes and the most poisonous creature on the earth.