WE ARE TEACHERS

                                                  

ARE WE FAIR ENOUGH TO OUR STUDENTS?

                   When in 1999 the Ministry of Education integrated the teaching of literature in English to all students in secondary schools as part of the English syllabus, amongst the aims of the components highlight contribution to personal development and character building, and broaden students’ outlook through reading about other cultures and world views. that short stories offered in the literature component does provide us with insights into cultural practices of others.  
        For example, in Ali Majod’s The Pencil, we are put in a situation where the boy, Zahid, was unjustly accused by the teacher, Mr. Jamal, of stealing a pencil and even hit Dolah, the boy he believed had stolen his pencil. It creates a flashback of a situation where perhaps we had also gone through some sort of accusation or had wrongly accused someone. When we put ourselves in the shoes of Zahid, or the selfish Mathilde in the Necklace, Heidi Munan’s patient Galau from How Dalat Got It’s Name and even any character involved in the short stories, it enables us to examine ourselves and also understand others. We tend to feel the way others have felt, why is it that they reacted in a certain way? What is it that led them to think in such a perspective? What are their concerns? What are the beliefs that they hold? We ask these questions in our head and go through the story from beginning till the end in search of an appropriate answer. We teachers, need to be more patients and try to be fair to our students.
             For me, literature components provided in Malaysians school a few years ago do provide us with insight into cultural practices of others, Malaysians and non- Malaysians. The Form 1 short stories selected revolve around the Malaysian context, which would depict various Malaysian cultural practices and aspects, issues and concerns of life, experiences and even the daily lives of people in Malaysia.