steadyaku47

Tuesday 18 June 2013

ALINA AMIR : HER STORY IN HER OWN WORDS!


MONDAY, JUNE 10, 2013

Confession of A Teacher.

Note: The following is taken from the Facebook status of Alina Amir, a Teach for Malaysia teacher with her permission. In these times of plunging education standards, it is both heartwarming and at the same time heartwrenching to see such determined, bright individuals struggle with educating our children. One must wonder however, how much real change can a few teachers make? The education system requires structural reform from the inside especially. Good things to ponder while reading this excellent 'confession'.

So here’s a public confession: After 4 months into teaching, I came back from a class this morning, put my books on my desk, coolly walked to the ladies, and broke down; with tears, sobs, frantically fanned myself with my hands thinking that could help calm me down, the whole enchilada. Something I have not done for a very long time. 
In the last four months, I could have cried when I had kids calling me a prostitute in mandarin, or that time when a kid told me I should not mess with him because his dad is part of the notorious along gangster crew (which I have never heard of and the phrase “ignorance is bliss” could not have rung truer), or that time when I was wolf whistled at for weeks wherever I went, or when a disruptive boy decided get up in the middle of my lesson, ran around the room and banged every table before he ran out of the class despite me calling after him and then having him come back and literally went on the floor, hugging my feet and begged for my forgiveness the same day, or when I was locked in the school building and then had to come out through the roof (long story) or when a big fat rat, literally, decided to chill right in front of my front door. Those were legit reasons to cry if I wanted to cry. But I didn’t. Not a single tear rolled down my cheeks. I stood up to my boys, I had sleepless nights thinking of strategies to get my kids to just sit down for a single lesson, told every kid who threatened me to bring it on, went to every boy who wolf whistled and threw inappropriate remarks at me, looked them straight in the eyes and said, “how dare you”. I have got nothing to lose and I am sure, as hell is not scared of anybody, no matter who your daddy is.

This morning however, was different. In fact, I wasn’t teaching at all this morning. I was in a form 4 class, of which I only teach PJK to the six of the girls every week. So what was I doing with the entire class? I was invigilating their mid year exam, Sejarah Kertas 3 to be exact; An open book test where students are required to write an essay on a topic given. Just as I finished handing out the exam papers to all 35 students, one boy put his hand up and asked, “ujian apa hari ni, cikgu?” and I went, “HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW WHAT PAPER YOU ARE SITTING FOR ON THE DAY OF THE EXAM AND EVEN AFTER I HAVE HANDED OUT THE EXAM PAPER” silently in my head. Out loud, I said, “ujian Sejarah, kertas 3. Ujian ni boleh tengok buku, so keluarkan lah buku”. Half of the classroom started to rummage through their bags and looked under their tables for books while the other half put their heads down and went to sleep. Ten minutes into the exam, they were all just staring at their books, opened to the first page. I went to a boy and asked if he knew what he was supposed to do. He shook his head and continued staring at his book. Another boy looked at me pleadingly, and asked, “cikgu, macam mana nak buat ni?” No one was writing anything. No one.

I went to one of the girls and asked her to read the question and then looked for the answer in the book. The first question she asked after I told her that was, “bab berapa tu?” and I could sense the whole class was waiting for me to tell her which chapter to open to. I knew then, that they have never read a single thing from their textbook nor have they learned anything in the past four months of school. Heck, I wouldn’t be going too far if I said they barely learned anything in the last 10 years of school. At that moment, I saw their future flashed through my eyes and I wanted to cry.

I wanted to cry because it was unfair for them to be sitting for an exam that they are clearly not ready for. I wanted to cry because someone allowed this to happen. I wanted to cry because as I was explaining to some of the students on how to do the exam and they were eagerly listening, while I was quietly panicking because I am no way near being a Sejarah Form 4 teacher. I wanted to cry because I felt incompetent, wishing I remembered what I learned back in From 4 so that I can teach them something at that moment. I wanted to cry because it is not their fault. But most of all, I wanted to cry because I have 200 students and I have classes back to back from 7.30 AM up to 10.00PM every day that it would be completely impossible to take on new students. All I could think of was how if only all the educated people in the country would spend their time teaching these kids, then maybe, maybe I’d be writing a different story.

I have never actually done this before; asking people to consider teaching. I believe that entering into the profession should come out of your own will. I have never recommended Teach for Malaysia to anyone. In fact, I’d be all-skeptical to anyone who are actually considering to join TFM. What are you in for? To have connections with top corporate partners? To meet CEOs of this and that? To be featured in newspapers, radio, magazines, online blogs? What are you in for? Is it the tagline? Is it really for the kids? I’ve been asked these questions before and I personally used to think that it was a fair concern. It needs to be out there that being a teacher, through TFM or not, is not even a tad bit glamorous. You don’t get paid on time, you’d be missing best friends’ weddings, family gatherings, birthdays etc., you have crazy deadlines and you’ll feel like crap because you don’t know how you’re doing. Nobody sends you a “good job” email on that awesome class you just had, or though you had. Are you sure you want to be a teacher? If you think it is a walk in the park, be rest assured that it’ll be the ghettoest, most messed up park you have ever walked in. I used to think that only the strong should be a teacher. Only those who know that they won’t quit should be a teacher. Today, I don’t care anymore. Today, I realized how desperate the country is and beggars, can’t be choosers. If you have gone through the education system and came out alive, teach. If you have no idea what to teach, trust me you’ll learn. You’d be surprised to meet kids who have never been told that cleanliness is a virtue, that rempit is not a legit career path, that you don’t have to give up at 16.

Listen to me, drop everything you’re doing and come back to school. Teach them to be human beings because they need to know that screaming at a lady is not the way to speak, that not knowing how to read at 13 is not cool, that cursing at your teachers is rude and to talk back to your mother in front of everybody at school would get you to every hell of every single religion in the world. Teach. If you think it’s too hard and teaching isn’t your thing, then quit. But you can’t quit teaching if you have not actually tried teaching. My point is, every one should teach. Decide later if it is something you want to do in the long run. Just teach. Join TFM, do it the normal route, stop a kid in the middle of the road and ask him/her to tell you the multiplication table, tell him/her a random fact about Egypt or aeroplanes, teach them the right intonation after seeing a question mark, teach.
If you think, all this doesn’t make sense and it’s just some really long facebook status/note by a crazy lady who just cried in a high school toilet, then darling, my dear, you have not taught in a classroom where half of them can barely read and write and the other half is just lost by this immense language barrier that no logical inspiring words can get through them. So teach. I am on my facebook knees.

This morning however, was different. In fact, I wasn’t teaching at all this morning. I was in a form 4 class, of which I only teach PJK to the six of the girls every week. So what was I doing with the entire class? I was invigilating their mid year exam, Sejarah Kertas 3 to be exact; An open book test where students are required to write an essay on a topic given. Just as I finished handing out the exam papers to all 35 students, one boy put his hand up and asked, “ujian apa hari ni, cikgu?” and I went, “HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW WHAT PAPER YOU ARE SITTING FOR ON THE DAY OF THE EXAM AND EVEN AFTER I HAVE HANDED OUT THE EXAM PAPER” silently in my head. Out loud, I said, “ujian Sejarah, kertas 3. Ujian ni boleh tengok buku, so keluarkan lah buku”. Half of the classroom started to rummage through their bags and looked under their tables for books while the other half put their heads down and went to sleep. Ten minutes into the exam, they were all just staring at their books, opened to the first page. I went to a boy and asked if he knew what he was supposed to do. He shook his head and continued staring at his book. Another boy looked at me pleadingly, and asked, “cikgu, macam mana nak buat ni?” No one was writing anything. No one. 

I went to one of the girls and asked her to read the question and then looked for the answer in the book. The first question she asked after I told her that was, “bab berapa tu?” and I could sense the whole class was waiting for me to tell her which chapter to open to. I knew then, that they have never read a single thing from their textbook nor have they learned anything in the past four months of school. Heck, I wouldn’t be going too far if I said they barely learned anything in the last 10 years of school. At that moment, I saw their future flashed through my eyes and I wanted to cry. 

I wanted to cry because it was unfair for them to be sitting for an exam that they are clearly not ready for. I wanted to cry because someone allowed this to happen. I wanted to cry because as I was explaining to some of the students on how to do the exam and they were eagerly listening, while I was quietly panicking because I am no way near being a Sejarah Form 4 teacher. I wanted to cry because I felt incompetent, wishing I remembered what I learned back in From 4 so that I can teach them something at that moment. I wanted to cry because it is not their fault. But most of all, I wanted to cry because I have 200 students and I have classes back to back from 7.30 AM up to 10.00PM every day that it would be completely impossible to take on new students. All I could think of was how if only all the educated people in the country would spend their time teaching these kids, then maybe, maybe I’d be writing a different story. 
I have never actually done this before; asking people to consider teaching. I believe that entering into the profession should come out of your own will. I have never recommended Teach for Malaysia to anyone. In fact, I’d be all-skeptical to anyone who are actually considering to join TFM. What are you in for? To have connections with top corporate partners? To meet CEOs of this and that? To be featured in newspapers, radio, magazines, online blogs? What are you in for? Is it the tagline? Is it really for the kids? I’ve been asked these questions before and I personally used to think that it was a fair concern. It needs to be out there that being a teacher, through TFM or not, is not even a tad bit glamorous. You don’t get paid on time, you’d be missing best friends’ weddings, family gatherings, birthdays etc., you have crazy deadlines and you’ll feel like crap because you don’t know how you’re doing. Nobody sends you a “good job” email on that awesome class you just had, or though you had. Are you sure you want to be a teacher? If you think it is a walk in the park, be rest assured that it’ll be the ghettoest, most messed up park you have ever walked in. I used to think that only the strong should be a teacher. Only those who know that they won’t quit should be a teacher. Today, I don’t care anymore. Today, I realized how desperate the country is and beggars, can’t be choosers. If you have gone through the education system and came out alive, teach. If you have no idea what to teach, trust me you’ll learn. You’d be surprised to meet kids who have never been told that cleanliness is a virtue, that rempit is not a legit career path, that you don’t have to give up at 16. 

Listen to me, drop everything you’re doing and come back to school. Teach them to be human beings because they need to know that screaming at a lady is not the way to speak, that not knowing how to read at 13 is not cool, that cursing at your teachers is rude and to talk back to your mother in front of everybody at school would get you to every hell of every single religion in the world. Teach. If you think it’s too hard and teaching isn’t your thing, then quit. But you can’t quit teaching if you have not actually tried teaching. My point is, every one should teach. Decide later if it is something you want to do in the long run. Just teach. Join TFM, do it the normal route, stop a kid in the middle of the road and ask him/her to tell you the multiplication table, tell him/her a random fact about Egypt or aeroplanes, teach them the right intonation after seeing a question mark, teach. 

If you think, all this doesn’t make sense and it’s just some really long facebook status/note by a crazy lady who just cried in a high school toilet, then darling, my dear, you have not taught in a classroom where half of them can barely read and write and the other half is just lost by this immense language barrier that no logical inspiring words can get through them. So teach. I am on my facebook knees.


Alina Amir

8 comments:

  1. her story leaves me speechless, her tenacity to teach, to reach out leaves me with a deep sense of gratitude that there is still hope left in this crazy education system of ours, a system that has been tinkered left to right, back to front by every education minister of the day !! thank you Alina Amir...

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  2. Please DON'T give up Alina Amir...the students NEED you...badly. Tell them REAL LIFE INCIDENTS / INSPIRING STORIES / ASK THEM TO REFLECT ON LIFE - their parents hopes and struggles. What they HOPE TO BE - to survive the future.

    Even better, get TOGETHER your friends AND TEACHERS to WRITE TO THE EDUCATION MINISTRY about the REAL SITUATION experienced from the ground...please don't say it's hopeless - with your 'voice in the desert' out in the open, I believe other voices will be heard and hopefully loud enough for the powers that be to SINCERELY TAKE DRASTIC ACTIONS TO REVERT OUR EDUCATION TO IT'S ORIGINAL STANDARD OF THE LATE 60's and EARLY 70's...

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  3. No wonder my friend's daughter took her Std 5 daughter out of school last month and decided to home-school her! This is a new phenomena in Malaysia. As a retired teacher I know what Alina is talking about. The whole education system needs a revamp not one of those fancy blueprint that looks only good and paper and where the implementation sucks! I always believe the Ministry of Education should be headed by the top brains in the country, not by a nincompoop!!!

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  4. AS an ex-teacher,this story doesn't shock me a bit.We were trained in the 60s and during those days teachers were very discerningly selected based on specific qualifications.Nowadays because of skewed national policies, because of certain accomodating issues overiding professional ones,to be a teacher is like any clerical job you get in the Civil Service.So whose fault are all these?
    Then the school system has deterioriated to kingdom come,causing structural damage to it and that's what we get today.This is the result of too much political interference to the system and we see politically motivated Ministers of Education, who doesn't know anything about quality education,adding spoilage to the whole gamut.This is the cause of false and wronged policies in the name of nationalism.Quality and good education has never been the main objective so this is what we get after 56 years of "GREAT" policies and politics in education.

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  5. Alina, thanks. Pls circulate to Najib, his Education Minister. No need to feel sheepish or apologetic abt airing this in public.
    1976 was the last year when all subjects were in English. Fr then on, we watched as the standards of education declined to this day. One of ex-colleagues, a really nice sweet young man, left his admin job to "teach". I asked him, r u sure or not? He said, he teaching very small kids in a private school, English. But friend, your English not very proficient. He said, tak apa. The kids won't know.
    This is the reality in Malaysia.

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  6. Dear Teres Saint,
    The scale of the problem (disaster actually) must be resolved on a national scale. Can't imagine what kind of future these kids face. I always suspected this rapid decline in standards of education & deterioration of English in schools are by design.
    -----------------------------------------
    Probably more than ten million kids over the years affected? Steadyaku, pls paste this on mahakutty's blog. He wl be glad to know it worked.

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  7. Am pleased with myself for staying on in the teaching profession for 33 long years and retired when it was mandatory retirement.i knew too well the scenario in schools then but i didn't care a bit for the system that serves the MOE and the apple polishers.i lived in a world of schoolchildren rather than in a world of who is who in the education dept nor the school itself.There were too many sages on stage rather than people who walk the talk.Too many were echoing cliche...blue ocean,out of the box,innovation etc etc not at all knowing let alone concern about these overused words and phrases imply.It was routine.A 'in the box' head adressed the teachers and students weekly in BM and fortnightly in broken English and nothing came out of the hour long assembly after which the head would disappear for ' meetings' at the efucation Dept and God knows where else.these heads are labelled as Heads of Excellence and they moved from grade to grade,leaving me far behind.It did not matter to me because my passion was in educating the young minds and the increase in pay scale would not make much difference when i retired .shall i say it was ignorance is bliss where salary scale is concerned ? But when it comes to the innocent children's plight ,ignorance is not bliss.It is deafening ! I soldiered on doing what i enjoyed doing other than teaching.i gave them opportunities to flaunt their oral skills / tct skills on stage at the weekly assemblies,very much believing the stage is not for the sage but for the students as well . They have now come back to me to say how much they appreciate my honing their skillls and how confidence built has helped them go far.Kudos to Alina for bringing up this issue.You are doing a great service to the citizenry and i hope it will help address the poor state of affairs in our system of education and the mediocrity that is breeding fast camouflged by the documents and reports of excellence by the powers that be.

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  8. Azlina,

    Mee no unnerstanding wat you rite. yours ingreesh too hard on to unnerstand. ours malaisia erucasion menteri saying he melayu firstly and menteri saconly so I ikut my menteri. My menteri janji tat I becoming racer mat rempit if I cann not passing my SPM so I not neet to risau.

    ReplyDelete