Now forgive me as I take a moment to appreciate the level of freedom endowed upon me by The Mother.
Actually, a curfew doesn't exist because my mother never had a need to impose one on me. I have a social handicap okay. It's not knowing how to PARTAYPARTAYPARTAY.
\(^o^)/ ~~~
Lol my emoticon looks like it has a bazooka for an armpit.
I'll tell you right now why not knowing how to PARTAYPARTAYPARTAY is a social handicap.
So when Pak Din took the stage he was like...
And yea...I'm like *giggle giggle giggle* "FIFTEEN!"
"EH YAU SSSHH!" he teased across the mic.
I didn't know why though. I thought he was just trying to act cute.
Later while 7 of us, including Pak Din were mamak-ing, Pak Din was again secretive of our ages but gave in to saying I was barely legal.
I felt quite blur. Ok 'quite' is understating it. It was more like
So much later, Selamba Jane explained to me it's illegal for Shukri or me to be there because they sold booze.
That was literally my reaction. I just couldn't brain the fact arrest by JAKIM or something was warranted. I mean, c'mon we're not consuming it. We're just there, right?
Hah, wrong. As explained here.
Lulz I so ignorant can die. :')
BACK TO THE POINT OF THIS POST.
I'm sure some of you are familiar with Giler Selamba Jane. If you're not, I demand you to watch her now. I swear you will jizz in your pants from laughing. And if not your pants or skirt, well, I hope you're not doing something. KIDDING. ^.^V
Now watch2.
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Her question was...
"APA LAGI PELAJAR MAHU?????"
WOMAN, I'LL TELL YOU APA LAGI PELAJAR MAHU.
Jokes aside, she's really my principal.
Jokes further aside, that was a very hard question. I told her lots of wishes I had but have finally found a better single answer. I'll give you my answer at the end, but not before giving some personal context.
During the mamak-ing sesh, I gave my opinion on education which goes something like this...
"Mark Twain once said 'What is school and what is education?' In this era of globalization and technological advancement, I further develop the question to ...what is the belief of A, B or C?"
These are people see the value in education and as such have or will have rationalized reasons to drop out of institutions to seek 'real' education e.g. Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg
Two of the organizations championing these kinda movements are UnCollege and Thiel Fellowship. The former teaches you how to hack into education without setting foot in class and the latter pays students $100,000 to drop our of college to do whatever they're passionate about so long as it creates social impact.
The B's
These are people who believe school is an integral part of education. They recognized the importance of education outside the boundaries of school but do not place much weightage on it (size of blue < red + purple ). And as such, would not venture far into the deep blue of knowledge until they have graduated.
To them, red represents classes in school- fun or boring. In the context of Malaysian education, I'm gonna make a sweeping generalization it's mostly boring because it's usually lecture style. Red is important because it leads to purple.
Purple represents the education they get out of school- ASSESSMENT. Grades, certificates, or to the realization of some, 'worthless' pieces of paper. Nonetheless, to them, assessment is still important because it tells you where you stand academically and is a globally-recognized form of intellectual value.
In contrast, A's do not care about assessment hence, no purple. These non-conformists do not feel a need to be accepted by society's definition of intellect.
The C's
Frankly, I don't hang out with C's often so bear in mind you're in for a possibly biased description.
To them, school IS education, no more, no less. This flow-chart describes them.
Sometimes, I imagine them as people with OCD. If a pebble gets kicked off their path, they're gonna do whatever they can to make sure it's put back in the exact position or else THEY CANNOT MOVE FORWARD AND PROGRESS IN LIFE.
A real life example would be something I observed in my own college. It's exam season right now and it peeves me to see my own good friends literally walking away at the first sight of me to avoid small talk. It's as if they have to study so hard that they cannot spare 5 minutes of extra revision. I haven't really talked to some of my really good friends for months and that's just sad.
Ok fine, the above is an outlier. What's more common in the top class is you have people studying 12+ hours a day but they also go out when they reach their studying threshold. Still studying hard, and not smart misses the point of education.
Studying hard = memorizing
Studying smart = understanding
Oh and here's a quote to make C people hate me.
For some, getting a highly-paying job, working for someone in a huge corporation is where their life punctuates.
The Other Type- The D's
So ok, now I arrive at an issue. I'm neither A, nor B, nor C. I...
- skip classes nearly 70% of the time
- still make my grades
- use that 70% to do stuff outside of college such as attend hell a lot of events to learn (industrial, design, UX, programming, design thinking, disruptive technologies, innovative education)
- and co-lead movements like Incitement Youth and Selangor MUN.
Here's my justification. We live in an era of of globalization and progressive technology. If a kid told their parents 5 years ago
Yeap. I mean, c'mon, who could blame them? Apps were near non-existent back then. But that just shows how fast technology is growing.
Is our education in school doing enough to keep up with that pace?
^ This pace?
Now you argue technology is just a highly specific branch of education. That, it only subjects people who have a future career in it.
But my argument is that technology affects us all and often more so than we realize. Just step into an elevator or LRT and notice the amount of people with their eyes glued to their phones. Whether we admit it or not, technology has found a way to penetrate deeply into the very fabric our lives, particularly in the younger generation.
If technology affects the way we socialize, the way we uncover new scientific discoveries, the way we inform and share knowledge, among other things- then, it cannot be denied that technology significantly affects our world and consequently, the world that determines the syllabus of our education.
The problem is the current system we're in thrived in the era of The Great Renaissance, The Enlightenment and Industrialization. Back then, it was okay to be all smartass and spread your knowledge around in lectures and books. The world was slow enough to wait for the 'dumb' to catch up with the 'smart', as crude as it sounds. But, that is no longer the case. I contend the backdated methodology is becoming less and less relevant to our fast-paced world of the 21st century.
We live in an era of Exponential Technology. The world is growing at a faster pace than we can measure, infinitely maybe (crap, wish I took Physics). More than ever before, there is a greater need for individual-centric education, syllabus crafted by ourselves to make ourselves relevant to the world we live in.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for progressive education but I still love college and recognize its importance.
I disagree with A's- the dropouts, because of that one thing institution can offer that independent learning can't necessarily guarantee.
Assessment is an important check-and-balance to keep us grounded. If you're mega talented like Einstein then there isn't a need but most of us aren't Einsteins. The risk for irreversible failure is high.
Verdict: School is extremely important. Platforms for independent learning aren't developed enough to be depended on 100% but despite that, the rate of technological progress calls upon us to pay more attention to it than ever before.
And so this is me, this is D.
ZARA KAHAN, AFTER THINKING SO MUCH, MY #1 WISH AS STUDENT IS A MORE DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION.
I think we don't have enough say in how or what goes into our heads. From what I heard from my award-winning teacher(org dalam), not enough academic staff were consulted on the switch from BM to English in Math & Science. If teachers aren't a part of a democracy, what more us 'lowly' students?
Everything I wrote up there has a purpose. A purpose to be heard if not implemented someday.
Happy Days Ahead,
Yau
PS- I heard we have a new Deputy Minister of Education, Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching. I really like her weih. Get connected to her and epic shit will happen.
