the end of 2012, the beginning of 2013
Towards the end of 2012, I think I've gone down paths I never thought I would have taken. And I've forgotten about this space, I've forgotten how to write about the changes that are happening in my life, about the people who leave and the new people who become a part of my life.
The most major change will have to be getting starting a new job. It has been about 4 months now since I began carrying out my duties as a librarian. It has been a challenging task due to the extremely steep learning curve, but I think i've always managed to get on the ball when something is thrown at me. I love my job because I'm required to read a lot (sadly, mostly juvenile fiction). Nonetheless, I think that is why I try my best to find the best juvenile fiction there is out there to recommend to the future generation. With pop-culture permeating their lives leaving them extremely little time to peruse pages and pages of books, they have got to learn what is good literature and what is not. I am very astounded by the scale of the reading programme that I am designing with the team, and executing on a daily basis since 1st Jan 2013. The aim of this programme is noble - to get every child reading again, no matter what the material is.
But that makes me question if the act of reading can go back to what it has always meant - as a cultural tool, to teach, instruct, give an appreciation for the arts. It seems like reading is mainly an act of acquiring information, be it to increase one's command of English, or to increase knowledge. Can reading be about appreciating the sounds of words and language? How can I teach these children and youth to appreciate that?
I'm not even sure if, if I do carry out my programmes to ultimately bring the children to a certain level of appreciation, that will be in line with the goals of this programme. I always feel like literary appreciation is undervalued here in schools. No one teaches you to love language. I've tried, over the past two days during my workshops to not provide pencils/pens and especially erasers for drawing and sketching assignments. I merely give them a box of crayons and colour pencils for them to play with. One common first response that I get from students when they start creating their art piece is "Teacher, I need an eraser. I've made a mistake". When I told them that they can simply build on what they have drawn, or simply draw over it, the students looked lost and confounded. It is as if they did not know what to do when given the freedom to be creative, without any restrictions, with a specific instruction to not be afraid of making mistakes. I was rather disappointed when, during one of the workshops, the teacher gave an instruction in addition to mine - to use a pencil first to draw just in case they make a mistake and need to erase it. And the students immediately took out their pencils to draw instead of experimenting with the crayons and colours; social conditioning at its best.
This is why I am so proud to have been able to get away from that mode of thought and instruction that unfortunately is so present in many schools in Singapore. And I at least hope, that with the new generation of babies and toddlers intensively attending speech and drama enrichment classes, that they will know and learn the value of creative freedom and expression. Then maybe, maybe the reading culture in Singapore may have a future.
The most major change will have to be getting starting a new job. It has been about 4 months now since I began carrying out my duties as a librarian. It has been a challenging task due to the extremely steep learning curve, but I think i've always managed to get on the ball when something is thrown at me. I love my job because I'm required to read a lot (sadly, mostly juvenile fiction). Nonetheless, I think that is why I try my best to find the best juvenile fiction there is out there to recommend to the future generation. With pop-culture permeating their lives leaving them extremely little time to peruse pages and pages of books, they have got to learn what is good literature and what is not. I am very astounded by the scale of the reading programme that I am designing with the team, and executing on a daily basis since 1st Jan 2013. The aim of this programme is noble - to get every child reading again, no matter what the material is.
But that makes me question if the act of reading can go back to what it has always meant - as a cultural tool, to teach, instruct, give an appreciation for the arts. It seems like reading is mainly an act of acquiring information, be it to increase one's command of English, or to increase knowledge. Can reading be about appreciating the sounds of words and language? How can I teach these children and youth to appreciate that?
I'm not even sure if, if I do carry out my programmes to ultimately bring the children to a certain level of appreciation, that will be in line with the goals of this programme. I always feel like literary appreciation is undervalued here in schools. No one teaches you to love language. I've tried, over the past two days during my workshops to not provide pencils/pens and especially erasers for drawing and sketching assignments. I merely give them a box of crayons and colour pencils for them to play with. One common first response that I get from students when they start creating their art piece is "Teacher, I need an eraser. I've made a mistake". When I told them that they can simply build on what they have drawn, or simply draw over it, the students looked lost and confounded. It is as if they did not know what to do when given the freedom to be creative, without any restrictions, with a specific instruction to not be afraid of making mistakes. I was rather disappointed when, during one of the workshops, the teacher gave an instruction in addition to mine - to use a pencil first to draw just in case they make a mistake and need to erase it. And the students immediately took out their pencils to draw instead of experimenting with the crayons and colours; social conditioning at its best.
This is why I am so proud to have been able to get away from that mode of thought and instruction that unfortunately is so present in many schools in Singapore. And I at least hope, that with the new generation of babies and toddlers intensively attending speech and drama enrichment classes, that they will know and learn the value of creative freedom and expression. Then maybe, maybe the reading culture in Singapore may have a future.