School Bookshop and Front Office

3rd Feb - 7th Feb 2014

It is very frustrating for a child to keep going back to the same bookshop every day to find out if the Notebook that ran out of stock has been replenished. The bookshop lady does not even treat the child seriously. What's wrong with this people? In the meantime, he gets scolded by the teacher for not having the Notebook.

And it has been more than a month since I paid and placed an order for his school T-shirt and track pants and yet the school has not even sent out the order yet. When I enquired, I was told that they can't order in small quantities, they have to collate all orders before giving it to the supplier.??? Can't they think of better ways of handling things. 

I wish schools' front office staff were more professional, so far those I have encountered talk to parents like talking to a child or something.

He Makes It To The Control Class

3rd Feb - 7th Feb 2014

This week, in the first two days, he came back with loads of 'copying' homework. I think he enjoys this 'copying' business as he gets to :-

(1) think about other things like his Japanese anime characters while copying as this is a passive activity requiring no brain function

(2) use and fiddle with his correction tape as he erases his mistakes in copying - I saw him assemble and dismantle the correction tape many times - some obsession with the tape

(3) does not need to refer to us (his parents) if he is uncertain 

This week he related an incident that he found strange. He said his classmates including the non-Malays 'salam' one of the teachers. He did not salam as he was not sure of

(1) how to salam

(2) why he should salam

(3) what to say after the salam

(4) the meaning of the whole thing.

His friends wanted to know why he did not salam the teacher, they explained it is a mark of respect to the teacher. We had earlier told him not to do anything that he is not comfortable with. When I asked my sister who is a primary school teacher, she said it is a common practice in national schools as salam means the student wants to get the 'restu' of the teacher, sort of seek her/his blessing.

Personally, I think schools should just be kept secular minus all the religious and cultural demands on the kids.

The other important thing about this week is that my boy finally got selected to the control class, which means he has to switch to the morning session. In fact the few boys who got selected were asked not to come to school on 6th and 7th Feb as beginning 6th, many students, mostly Malays, entered his class. At the end, the whole class was full and more desks and chairs had to be put in to accommodate this second batch of intake. 

He will start his first class in the morning session on 10th Feb 2014. 

No CNY Celebration at the SK

27th - 31st Jan 2014

The SK school was closed from 30th Jan till 3rd Feb 2014, giving a total of 5 days off in a row. There was no celebration of Chinese New Year here. 

As his brother at SMK had the 4th Feb off, this boy refused to go to school on 4th Feb saying that it was unfair. Kids logic. Anyway, he got his was as their father didn't want to drive to and fro just to send one boy. 

Welcoming the Horse Year at SMK

27th - 31st Jan 2014

This was the week of Chinese New Year, meaning holidays for the kids. The school closed on 30th and re-opened 5th Feb 2014 giving a total of 6 days off in a row. There was a big performance by the various clubs/societies to welcome the Horse year - all students got to watch this wonderful show. Seems the martial arts groups were the most outstanding as they skillfully showed of their techniques.

The Carnival

25th Jan 2014

Both primary and secondary school celebrated the school's anniversary by organizing a carnival. The VIP was supposed to be the Prime Minister himself as he was a former student, but he could not make it. The schools worked so hard to prepare for the PM's visit but it ended up with the Director of KL's Education Department officiating the carnival. 

The atmosphere in the primary school (my 10 year old's school) was alike a Malay wedding with students playing 'kompang' and holding the 'bunga manggar'. The children in uniform such as the prefects, scouts and red crescent societies were there lined-up to salute as the VIP passed. God knows how long they practised to get their salutes right. The climax was a performance of Malay, Chinese and Indian traditional dances by the pupils. The Chinese dance had no Chinese pupils and Indian dance had no Indian pupils. Some of the boys wore make-up and were dolled up like girls. I think the female teachers must have got carried away, or could it be the parents' who prepared the boys? The boys did well and looked cute, but the dance itself was not well coordinated/choreographed. I suppose there is only so much the teachers' can do.

I notice a trend of treating kids like kids in this school. They were always told what to do, instructions and instructions, never talked to like thinking human beings. The teacher plays the role of a parent rather than the educator. 

The carnival saw many groups selling food, drinks, merchandise, books, insurance plans?, etc. Some creative ones put up game stalls, and a mini petting zoo (more like rabbit-petting). There was also a horror house which saw many students queuing to enter. It was more excitement for the secondary boys as the neighbouring secondary girls' school were also in the queue.

Also at the secondary school level, there was the usual band display, quite impressive. This was followed by a cake cutting ceremony. The speech by VIPs were preceeded with the customary doa recital. I sometimes wonder what the non-Muslims do when the doa recital goes on, do they pray to their own God, fiddle with their mobile phones, look blank...wouldn't it be great if some acknowledgement were given to the non-Muslims who are obviously present, like please join us in saying a prayer in your own way for example...I looked at my boys and they stared stone-faced into space. I guess they have learnt to adapt.

Well, I took the opportunity to check out my kids' classrooms and here is what I found...

Standard 4 - the classroom had tables and chairs for about 34 students, a big number. My boy has got a seat right in front to the left side of the teacher. I am not too happy about this as it means the board is not in front of him but rather on his side. Where he came from, only the weak or the most disruptive kid was placed close to the teacher and all others were subject to rotating seats. 

There was nothing much educational on the notice boards. Worst of all, the classroom was strewn with rubbish on the floor and inside the desks. My boy told me it is usually like this when he enters the class. I also noticed an Islamic educational poster on the board. As for the curtains, they looked centuries old and badly in need of washing. I would love to volunteer just to spruce up the classroom a bit..

Now moving on to my other kids' school..

Form 1 - The class room has high ceilings and bay windows, so it is spacious, airy and has the potential to be best-looking. This image however is marred by the presence of rubbish such as torn papers, pencils and old books as well as leftover food and styrofoams in the desks. I checked my son's desk and yes, it was full of  rubbish. I asked him if it was always like this, he said yes. Most stuff are left by the Form 4 morning session boys. I think the last subject teacher or Class Monitor of both morning and afternoon sessions should do a check inside the desks before letting the boys go. All pupils who leave rubbish behind should have their names on the demerit list.

When I left, I was saddened, if this was one of the better schools in KL, what about those without the title?

Finding His Place & Peers - Standard 4

20th - 24th January 2014

This week, my 10 year old wore his scouts uniform for his first Scouts activity. The teacher got all the Scouts to gather in the school field and asked each boy to step in front and recite the Scout's oath. He didn't know this was coming so he didn't get it right. When I asked him if the teacher had given him the oath to memorise, he said no. I have to find it myself I guess.

After about an hour of Scout activities, the children were asked to join their respective clubs/societies. He had earlier signed up for Maths & Science but he said he ended up in a classroom where the teacher gave them an essay to write, entitled "Aku Seekor Monyet" ( If I Were A Monkey). Puzzling, don't the teachers check on the kids?

The week went well for him because of two boys who he is now close with, T and K. He hangs out with them often. Sometimes T and him walk around the school field looking for leaves. Also this week he managed to do many things on his own, including buying his own books.

I saw a boy teasing and berating another boy about why he does not speak in Bahasa Melayu. I heard the reply from the harassed boy too, he was trying to be polite when he said, "because my name is Alex.". This exchange actually took place in front of the harassed boy's father whom I guess didn't want to get involved. To this, the boy who was harassing said," cikgu kata kita mesti cakap Bahasa Melayu" (teacher said we must speak Bahasa Melayu).

Hmm, scary, as my own son is not really that good yet in speaking Bahasa, simply because he is out of practise. I am sure he will catch up soon. I think SK school kids should be encouraged to speak both languages, and the only place where most Malay kids get opportunity to speak English is in school with non-Malay speaking friends, so why not make use of it? In fact, why not allocate 2 days in aweek as 'English Speaking Day'.

School Timings & Endless Copying - Form 1

20th - 24th January 2014

Since we are nearing the end of Jan, you would think we would have sorted my kid's timings for his extra-curricular activities. Well, we haven't. So, we dropped in the school to speak to the teacher in charge of Co-Curricular activities. According to him, some of the clubs/societies have yet to commence anything and as and when they do, it will be announced to the students. The house practise is not scheduled to start till mid-Feb. As for uniformed bodies, it falls on Week 1 and 3 of the month which means for Weeks 2, 4 and 5, my kid has to come in on a Sat for the activities. Looks like one parent has to be home permanently to provide transport. I don't know how other parents' are coping.

The ideal situation will be for a single session school that starts AM and finishes PM. where all extra curricular activities are slotted after school hours and lunch. As the school does not have the space to accommodate all students, right now, the Form 1 & 2 kids (13 & 14 years old) are placed in the afternoon session, hence the messed-up timings.

This week my kid brought home a Geography assignment and he said he needed to type and print out. I was happy to hear this, finally, some work where he can use some brains to work on. But alas, what he had to do was to type out some info from the text book (exact words as in the book) then use the computer graphics to draw a bar chart in colour and print it out. So what he printed was an exact copy of what was already in the text book...what teaching method is this, just blindly copying everything there is in the book?