Not political again.
What with Totto-chan at the window, busy children, reminders to be understanding and encouraging and all the talk about factory-style education and class size, I was inspired to pen the following.
Please forgive the amateurish endeavour. I must admit that although I did lit from Sec 1 right through uni, I paid little attention to the lessons on poetry because I found it hard to appreciate. (Some exceptions of course, e.g. Blake, one of our A level poets) But I do hope that you will still understand what I'm saying in it. Here goes:
Look
Look at your books,
the teacher said.
Are the grapes heavier or the apples?
How many grams are the grapes?
How many grams are the apples?
The girl looked at her book.
The grapes are 450g,
The apples...
she looked up.
The boy and the girl in front of her
were making faces at each other.
She giggled to herself
and looked out the window.
The girl in front liked her new seat
by the window and beside the boy.
He was funny, like her sister,
and they did silly things together.
She didn't care how heavy the apples were.
She looked out the window and
wondered what grandma was cooking for lunch.
The boy drew circles in his book,
then looked out at the passing bus.
What was the teacher talking about?
He thought of his father
who came back just before he went to bed last night.
Would he be home tonight?
In the middle of the room,
Cheryl was listening and
looking at her book.
The grapes were heavier than the apples by 150g.
Did she finish Ms Teo's tuition homework?
Oh yes, she must have.
Aunty Beth would have reminded her if she hadn't.
Ms Teo would be here today.
Then Aunty Beth would remind her to practise the piano.
Would Mummy be back late again tonight?
From her seat she saw
a family of birds swoop past the
window.
May I state once again that I have NO political agenda here, although my political orientation might be suspect, as Bear Hugs suspects. But I will say that, election or not, regardless of anyone or any party's views on the matter, I subscribe to the following views:
1. Class size matters. Compare yourself in a 40-student pri or sec class and a 4-student uni tutorial, where you don't even dare to yawn and your tutor can ask you a million questions if he chooses to. (Actually, I did fall asleep once in my lit tutorial. Very, very embarrassing. Even though there were really only 4 of us. Some of us are just beyond redemption, ha ha.)
2. Streaming is but ONE way to cater to individual abilities. For example, some countries have 'pull-out' programmes instead. If you are good in Math, you go to a 'gifted' math class during the math lesson, while the rest are in the regular math class. You don't necesarily get 'streamed' into a 'gifted programme'. Sure, all these methods have their pros and cons.
Neither am I casting aspersions on teachers.
There are 4 children in my poem. Think of the other 26, or 36, as the case may be. And think of the teacher trying to cater to 30 or 40 different hearts and minds.
Just received a colour 44-page booklet entitled Nurturing Every Child.
What with Totto-chan at the window, busy children, reminders to be understanding and encouraging and all the talk about factory-style education and class size, I was inspired to pen the following.
Please forgive the amateurish endeavour. I must admit that although I did lit from Sec 1 right through uni, I paid little attention to the lessons on poetry because I found it hard to appreciate. (Some exceptions of course, e.g. Blake, one of our A level poets) But I do hope that you will still understand what I'm saying in it. Here goes:
Look
Look at your books,
the teacher said.
Are the grapes heavier or the apples?
How many grams are the grapes?
How many grams are the apples?
The girl looked at her book.
The grapes are 450g,
The apples...
she looked up.
The boy and the girl in front of her
were making faces at each other.
She giggled to herself
and looked out the window.
The girl in front liked her new seat
by the window and beside the boy.
He was funny, like her sister,
and they did silly things together.
She didn't care how heavy the apples were.
She looked out the window and
wondered what grandma was cooking for lunch.
The boy drew circles in his book,
then looked out at the passing bus.
What was the teacher talking about?
He thought of his father
who came back just before he went to bed last night.
Would he be home tonight?
In the middle of the room,
Cheryl was listening and
looking at her book.
The grapes were heavier than the apples by 150g.
Did she finish Ms Teo's tuition homework?
Oh yes, she must have.
Aunty Beth would have reminded her if she hadn't.
Ms Teo would be here today.
Then Aunty Beth would remind her to practise the piano.
Would Mummy be back late again tonight?
From her seat she saw
a family of birds swoop past the
window.
May I state once again that I have NO political agenda here, although my political orientation might be suspect, as Bear Hugs suspects. But I will say that, election or not, regardless of anyone or any party's views on the matter, I subscribe to the following views:
1. Class size matters. Compare yourself in a 40-student pri or sec class and a 4-student uni tutorial, where you don't even dare to yawn and your tutor can ask you a million questions if he chooses to. (Actually, I did fall asleep once in my lit tutorial. Very, very embarrassing. Even though there were really only 4 of us. Some of us are just beyond redemption, ha ha.)
2. Streaming is but ONE way to cater to individual abilities. For example, some countries have 'pull-out' programmes instead. If you are good in Math, you go to a 'gifted' math class during the math lesson, while the rest are in the regular math class. You don't necesarily get 'streamed' into a 'gifted programme'. Sure, all these methods have their pros and cons.
Neither am I casting aspersions on teachers.
There are 4 children in my poem. Think of the other 26, or 36, as the case may be. And think of the teacher trying to cater to 30 or 40 different hearts and minds.
Just received a colour 44-page booklet entitled Nurturing Every Child.
Comments
but me thinks there's something wrong.
Because her math is the pits
Woe is me if she has to repeat.
I also did lit up to uni (1st year only, too difficult after that) and from my attempt you can see why I was never any good at it!!!
I did lit as a minor in 2nd and 3rd year, which wasn't too bad because 1 paper was prac crit -- non-studying paper. Ha ha, lazy me. That was definitely one reason why I chose to do it as a minor.
Anyway, I was looking through Nurturing Every Child and it said that the smaller class size is for P1 and P2. Do you know if that means they will be in bigger classes from P3 onwards?