School Kids Issue (2009)

 AUG 22 — This week saw welcome rain in the desert I call home. Every day now, for the past few afternoons, there has been rain, cooling, wonderful rain, plant watering rain, but along with the rain came the scary flashing lightning, tumultuous thunder and, occasionally, lack of internet. It is the same with all matters; you take the good with the bad, the yin accompanying the yang, the black and the white, and, even when applying this dictum to the vagaries of our children’s education — the highs and the lows. Along with a zenith of studiousness, learning, winning of accolades enters the nadir of oppression, poor standards and careless callousness. These are the obverse and the reverse of the spinning educational coin, supposedly there to give our children a start in life and edge them gently into society, if only we, the sensible ones, the grown-ups, could finally decide how exactly this is to be done without the dangerous and disheartening flip-flopping of seemingly irrational educational policy. It would have been an unforgivable thundering cliché were I to begin this week with Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall — No dark sarcasm in the classroom, teachers leave those kids alone - so, here instead... TV diner by the pool, watch your brother grow a beard, got another year at school, you’re okay, he’s too weird, be a plumber, he’s a bummer, he’s a bummer every summer, be a loyal plastic robot, for a world that doesn’t care, that’s right — The Mothers of Invention. It has been an educational week, a week of children, their ups, their downs, and a bookish week. It has been a week, in which, students have been discouraged from becoming chess pieces. Perhaps not even domino pieces or, indeed, pieces on the ultimate black and white board of draughts, either. One wise minister, speaking at a Senior Police Officers College in Cheras, urged students not to become pawns, or cajoled into street demonstrations, which he considered unhealthy and illegal. One wonders just how many of these particular students, at the police college, would have been tempted to the dark side and been likely to take part in illegal demonstrations, other than on the side of law and order, that is. Alternatively, maybe, there is some secret dissent among student police officers, a dissent so threatening to our beloved land that the minister, in his wisdom, felt compelled to spread his soothing words to prevent a gross storm from rising from the ranks. Perhaps the minister in question — the deputy Home Minister no less, was tacitly acknowledging the bellow par intelligence of many police officers, insomuch as he sees them as highly susceptible to influence, and may easily be led astray. Possibly said susceptible police officers, would have benefited no end from having greater access to foreign books, while they were at school. Luckily, The British Malaysian Society has donated nearly two thousand books to twenty schools, here in Malaysia. A spokesperson said that the books in question are sorted according to category and reading level. I do hope this is not official doublespeak for checked to see if they are on the banned list. There are currently at least 1,458 books on this ignominious list of books banned in Malaysia. But, just to make sure that students, who may receive some of these checked and approved books, attend school, college, university the Education Ministry has ordered that the inglorious Anti-truancy task force to be reactivated. As if there were not enough self-important government and religious goons wandering the streets seeking fresh prey – and getting perverse kicks out of espying and reporting on young girls drinking beer or amorous couples amorously coupling, now we have a return to this. What with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the moral police and their obnoxious spies, the regular police, the Police Field Force et al, now there is the return of the school police. Kids — beware of all tall school buildings. At least these children, cute enough to survive with their natural parents, or attractive enough to be adopted, according to the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, might succeed in life. Even though they may be forced to go to school by the Anti-truancy task force, they will have the opportunity to study hard and enter into such competitions as the RHB New Straits Times Spell-It-Right National Challenge 2009, if, that is, their school is not closed due to Swine Flu. While at school, unless closed as mentioned above, children may learn the miracle of birth — first hand. That is, if any more newborn babies are abandoned in school toilets, like the one in Pokok Seni this last week, or the other discovered in a religious school in Gurun. I have to admit that I do believe in the benefits of early learning, but maybe this is taking things a little too far, I fear. Students, eventually graduating from school and college, might find themselves drawn to the various aspects of design, or maybe printmaking. One most lucrative graphic design and printmaking avenues, seems to have been the production of bogus travel documentation and passports. The Kuala Lumpur Immigration Department nabbed forgers in Pandan Indah, this previous week, and confiscated up to 30 passports, rubber stamps and accompanying fake documentation, along with fake weapon permits and driving licenses. If those rapscallion counterfeiters had put their diligence and skills to legitimate concerns, just imagine what they could have achieved. That, ultimately is what education is for, to teach –yes, to inform – yes, to facilitate learning – yes, but also to nurture innate gifts and ensure that those gifts, once fruitful are fruitful for society as well as for the individual. Remember boys and girls, not to take part in any naughty street demonstrations, use your powers for good, and do not turn to the dark side not even if offered a pretty glowing light sabre. Go to school, attend classes and hope that the government bogeyman does not get you.