Friday, July 23, 2010

Speaking-in-Role: Latiff Mohidin's "In the Midst of Hardship"

Students enacting an impromptu live news reporting using the situation presented in the poem.

A great song

john_farnham/song/youre_the_voice
We have the chance to turn the pages over
We can write what we want to write
We gotta make ends meet, before we get much older
We're all someone's daughter
We're all someone's son
How long can we look at each other
Down the barrel of a gun?

You're the voice, try and understand it
Make a noise and make it clear
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o
We're not gonna sit in silence
We're not gonna live with fear
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o

This time, we know we all can stand together
With the power to be powerful
Believing we can make it better
We're all someone's daughter
We're all someone's son
How long can we look at each other
Down the barrel of a gun?

You're the voice, try and understand it
Make a noise and make it clear
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o
We're not gonna sit in silence
We're not gonna live with fear
Oh-wo-wo-wo, whoa-o-o-o

ooooh We're all someone's daughter
We're all someone's son
How long can we look at each other
Down the barrel of a gun?

Friday, July 2, 2010

What if?

What if?
What if Lincoln was a vampire slayer?
I simply adore fiction that explores that very notion. Dr Gitu always stressed on that in his classes.
I think this is what literature is all about...to ask of the author and the reader the possibilities that are out there, the infinite alternatives to reason and seeking of meaning, and the unlimited outreaching beyond borders.
Yet, the syllabus determined in the classrooms are so rigid. We rarely teach kids to think, we merely teach them what to think. Formal school education limits us so much. It curbs imagination and kills creativity.
Yet a single teacher can make that difference. It took a hobbit to save Middle Earth, a single father to champion equal rights or at least the truth (Atticus Finch), a frail old man in a loincloth to challenge the mighty empire, and a man with no university education to establish and remain at the center of the Western Canon!
I cannot begin to claim presence in this distinguished circle of minds but I can aim to reach out and beyond.
I seriously believe that when teachers see their duties as missions and not mere chores......this is what I believe...students can reach limitless possibilities and potential. Until then we stay doomed....education a mere series of chains to hold us back.