Merry Christmas & Seasons Greetings

May you and your family have great new year ahead.  In spite challenging time ahead, may family ties continue to be strong, may you find happiness

in the little things in life.

Have a happy and Blessed & Happy New Year 2009

One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

K V Soon, Chong Wai Leng

Amrita, Samanta & Arian Soon

December 2008

Happy Dongzhi!

Winter Solstice (image credit:http://www.wildhunt.org/)

Today is dongzhi or winter solstice. The Chinese in ancient times found out that the Winter Solstice was the shortest day in a year, after which the sun begins its slow return to the North. It is also significant because it also means that the lunar Chinese new year will only be one month and a half away from the Winter Solstice. To most Chinese, Winter Solstice meant a happy family get-together. Some would put on their best clothes, visit friends and celebrate it late into the longest night. Food plays an important part in the festivities. The most common is tong yuan I was also surprise to have heard fire-crackers exploding this morning! Some people are definitely takes this celebration seriously!

Tong YAN. (image credit: http://yungyaw.net/)

I had good celebration in Seremban - with lots to eat (a little too much though). It was good to see families coming together. Of course, we had tongyan. Being Chinese, we should take opportunities for families to come together and enjoy! Good excuse to strengthen family ties.

Happy Dongzhi!

Let the schools decide?

Let the schools decide? I must say this is an interesting idea. I do agree we need to at some point in time, we probably need to let the schools decide. We cannot do that now. Schools are structured to be extensions of the Ministry of Education (MOE), which is a part of the Cabinet - not separated from the political parties that rules us. Teachers are government employees. Headmasters are government employees and the same goes for all staff in the schools. The reporting line (some might want to refer to this as "chain of command") goes right up to the Prime Minister. The Ministry dictates all major policies from curriculum to texts. Schools cannot invite ex-students /head prefect back to function without running into the wrath of the MOE. Schools need to be set free! With this situation, how can you expect the schools to decide. Unless schools break free from the whims and fancies of political lords, little can be expected.

This can truly be happen when parents themselves are empowered and be come and active partner and stake-holder in the education process. The PTA (Parents'-Teachers-Association) needs to be revamped to give it powers in schools- not just being concerned about fund raising and dialogue with the teachers. Having said that, parents need to be awaken and exercised their rights. Not just leave it to the schools. Parents (and teachers) needs to move away from the once a terms parent-meet-teachers sessions or whenever there are problems with the students. Schools cannot shutout the parents and operate in a vacuum anymore. If schools are to decided on important topics such the teaching of maths and science in English.

When parents truly get involved, only then when change will take place. We will then learn that the "one-size-fits-all" approach to learning and teaching will not apply. The longer we wait for the system to change, more generations of our youths will be left out.

Time to liberalize education?

Came across this comment by Yeo Yang Poh entitled "The disaster of forced assimilation" (The SUN Dec 17, 2009). Felt it was interesting read and an affirmation as well as appreciation of cultural diversity. Taking it a step further, schools should move away for these "forced assimilation" as well.  As we look towards the future, we should think about liberalizing our education system. Some may say to democratize it - from central control, aka Ministry of Education, driven political policies.  For too long, we have been brought up with the notion that if we all speak ONE same language, think the ONE same way and do the things the same way, we will be an integrated (whatever that means), peaceful and harmonious society.  This has to stop because this is not the real world. Using schools to social engineer for the sake of control and power is against human rights.  Schools today are so rigid and almost no choices are available, we don't even have the right to choose our education systems. With the exception of language and (probably culture) everything is the same, remember:

Article 26.3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children."

Take a leaf from our neighbours, Indonesia. They move from a very mono-cultural environement (when eg, Chinese did not even use their own Chinese names) to the introduction of an Anti-Discrimination Bill in Nov 2008 when the Indonesian House of Representatives unanimouslypassed a bill that terms ethnic and racial discrimination as serious crimes.

We should all stand up and appreciate the diversity we are.  Let's start with the our kids and the schools our kids go to.

(picture source http://www.mediabistro.com)

English it is...........IT IS TIME TO MOVE ON!

Finally, English it is! It is time to put away political differences, and move forward.

It is time to stop the demonstration and move to take care of our children's future. Take care of them and never subject them to unnecessary pressure, beating or any action that brings down their self esteem and morale. It is NOT the time to dwell and live in the past!

It is time to look after each child and give them all the opportunity to succeed in life - not just about examinations and A-results!

It is time for parents to not follow the Ali's, Ah Chong's and Siva's and to compare with each other. It is time to follow your heart to listen to our children and to recognize the each one of them is a genius. It time to ask "how my kid is smart"not "how smart are my kids"!

It is time to also take care of the teachers that are entrusted to educate our child. Give them the due recognition and compensation which commensurate with their responsibilities. It is time to bring the level of this profession to be a noble vocation!

It is time to open our minds to a globalized and borderless world of limitless information exchange and availability. It is time we appreciate that world in changing and cultures evolving. There is no time to dwell in the past!

IT IS TIME WE WORK FOR THE FUTURE, THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN.


before we will run out of time

Time to JERIT (Scream) out OUT LOUD!

It is time to scream! Scream really loud! The police ain't going to help you. They are too busy, the CPO Selangor has got better things to do than to fight crime - putting under-aged cyclist in lock-up.

For the past 2 weeks (if you have not known by now) groups of cyclists from Kedah and Johor cycled to meet in Parliament on Thursday. These young people decided to cycle for a cause and worked with MPs and ADUNs to make their cause known. During these last two weeks they have been harassed and intimidated by the Police, apparently in an attempt to stop them from reaching the Parliament grounds.

Read about how the police are harassing these kids trying to speak up and how Robbers run wild, cops arrest Jerit cyclists, cops put underage kids lockup.

For the initiated, check out http://www.jerit.org

JERIT or JARINGAN RAKYAT TERTINDAS is in existence since year 2002. It is a network of four coalition Factory Workers Coalitions (GPKK), Plantation Workers Coalition( JSML), Student and Youth Coalition( GAMP), Urban Settlers Coalition( GPBP) and NGOs. Since 2002 we have been involved in various community issues. Political parties and other NGO support our campaigns and our work. To date , 47 organisations , MPs and State Assemblymen endorse our Bicycle campaign

·         JERIT has been  an active coalition and has been quoted many times in newspapers and electronic media, has an active website and have been invited to speak in many programmes even govement  programmes, so it is suprising that the police have only now discovered JERIT

An end note: I support the parents of these kids. They have overcome fear and taught their children that they can be responsible and fight for their rights. They have taught them not to be cowards. I salute these parents.

Check out the photos below

Schools: Misdirected Priorities

The hot topics in education today surely are (a) the teaching of science and maths in English, and, (b) the status of vernacular schools.

I have written about the the vernacular schools issues briefly here where I questioned what schools are doing today versus what they are suppose to be doing. There is far too much emphasis on integration by the politicians. I feel this is totally misdirected and cannot but get the impression that these politicians are trying to get some mileage from their political parties - drawn along racial lines. We somehow have forgotten that we schools is much more then integration and surely even more than just the convenient playground for our politicians. What I feel is that children (naturally) make friends and "integrate" (though I do not feel that need to do it) while it is the policies from the highest levels that needs to be addressed. We do not see children engage in the type of fights / disagreements politicians engage in such as the one initiated by Datuk Ahmad Ismail. In short, do not blame the schools or the children.

It does not help either when the educationist becomes selfish and lay claims on their own languages. The chinese schools are fighting and even to the point of protesting that English get to stay outside the gates of the schools. In local Government schools, the fight to maintain BM is narrow-minded to say the least. I will not dwell into this as Kian Ming presented a very good article regarding these selfish attitudes here.

My concerns are more on the education policies and vision and the lack of vision and direction are setting our children, along with that, lose several generations of young Malaysians. From the perspective of the parents there are several key issues. Firstly, the overall quality and standard needs to be improved. If any parents does not find schools innovative enough (I am sure there are many), there are no choices. All schools teach basically the same things - curriculum decided and enforced by the Ministry of Education. Schools that want to do things differently will have to do it outside "official school hours "and hold the students back. Except for the medium of instructions, everything else remains the same. So when Marina spoke about Creating Polygot Kids, she talk about human rights, our children DO NOT have rights. according to her:

Article 26.3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children." But parents will not willfully choose a bad education for their children unless they had no choice due usually to poverty. Ultimately I don't think anyone cares what language their children's schooling is in as long as it's good schooling.

The question is do we have good schooling? Is it just about teaching English? When will we have good schooling? Do our leaders and politicians have it in them to provide "good schooling"? While we debate this (including Maths and Science in English), generations of our children would have been wasted. It is time schooling is liberalized and have many systems and approaches and keep up with the times. It s time to allow schools to being our the best in our children through proper education. Politicians can go somewhere else for their playground.

DAULAT TUANKU!

Have been very busy lately with work, kids, and kids and work! Lot's to write but I seem to fall asleep every night I place my fingers on the keyboard. Interesting thoughts about the right livelihood and innovation camp for kids coming up later.

Meanwhile, today is the Sultan of Selangor's (official) Birthday. Stand-up straight, hands by your side and look straight



Daulat Tuanku! Daulat Tuanku! Daulat Tuanku!

KLM

KLM Flight : KLM - Fill a Plane - Promote your plane

what are schools for?

Everyonce in a while we hear politician and law makers discuss and debate about schools systems. While I am unsure where their interest and intent lies, track records shows that the good of the child is usually not part of their intent. This is the latest:

Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir said:

the government should put an end to vernacular schools so that Chinese and Tamil schools can be streamlined into one "Malaysian education system".

Naturally the Chinese community slammed him as "repeating the same polemics that are a few decades old" and "politicians cannot think out of the box".

What is telling about Datuk Mulhriz's remarks is that he felt:

"there is a need to induce unity"

What is "induce unity"? Does unity need to be induced? The more I read and think about the his statement, I cannot help but to get the impression that is it another word for assimilation.
In others words, it is about the benefit for others - not at all for the children they are entrusted to take care.

What's the purpose of Education? Is to to"induce" unity or is about the growth and development of an individual? I think the point is completely missed, that's why our education systems is what it is today. And these law makers are still struggling to decide on the usage of English in maths and science while our children's future is being wasted away. Don't blame education for the lack of unity when our own elected leaders continue to divide the country with their limited and sellfish views.

The damage to our education system has already been done and generations of our children's future has gone down the drain. Better they shut up and put more action than deeds when it comes to unity and national intregration.

50 years is too long a honeymoon!