HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY 2008

A VERY HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY TO MY FELLOW TEACHERS AND ALL MY 'GURUS' FROM THE PAST AND PRESENT. THANK YOU

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN, WHEN WE BREAK HEARTS AND DREAMS

As teachers we always encourage our students to study hard, believe in god , work sincerely,love their parents and respect their teachers. We always say "If you practice all these good values in life you will achieve your dream". Mostly they ignored us but, some listened , believed in our words and studied hard , did their work properly and sacrificed many things the year they took their SPM examination. Again, this year we were proven wrong.

Unfortunately I had to witness another batch of Indian students who did extremely well in their SPM, excelled in co-curricular activities and championed in sport having had their dreams dashed. These bright , articulate and eager youngsters were turned down by almost all parties that they applied for furthering their studies or scholarships. Matriculation, pre-University programmes and last but not least the JPA scholarship slammed their doors shut to them. One particular boy questioned me,
" Why sir, when I scored 10 A1s , all the teachers (including this blogger) congratulated me and the school felicitated me with special dinner and award ceremony, promising me a bright future and just a few month down the road they let us down by rejecting all our application. Why did you promise us something that we would never have?"

I was without an answer.

This bring backs a lot of memory from my own school days. When I was the top scorer of my school and district for SPM, I was invited to many award ceremonies and made feeling special as though the whole world was at my feet. And a few months after that I was thrown down from the pedestal rather unceremoniously and left with no other option than to do my STPM. I wondered why is that my malay friends who achieved far lower grade than my own secured scholarship and some even flew to overseas. This left me puzzled and I had my first taste of disparity in this nation. I am not questioning the right of the government to help the malay to achieve higher education and socio economic status by empowerment strategies but this must not be at the expenses of other races who are clearly in more need of these empowerment actions.

Coming back to the boy who questioned me, i could see clearly that something had died in him that day....I was wondering...would he put his heart and soul into anything that he does in his future? or will me adopt a more 'tidak apa' attitude thinking that hard work will not yield the desired result. I tried to guide my students by pointing them to many overseas universities that offers scholarship and study loans. I told them that the world is their oyster and they should accept the rejection as a blessing in disguise . Go wherever you want to go and achieve whatever you want to achieve....human mind is border less and your intelligence will be respected if not here by everywhere else. Whatever I say and even when some of them looked as though they have accepted their faith...I can see that now, they are afraid to dream. A dream shattered by their own motherland. Will you blame them if they became less patriotic as they soar towards the outside world? May god gives them the strength to carry on..

Let's start........

Hi people.....My name is Ariven. I have always been an avid follower of the news from the web as I always thought that it's better to get second opinion. I am a traditionalist. I don't like changes much as I always can identify with the term 'don't rock the boat'. The events for the past one year has made change inevitable. I started with a grunt, looked at it suspiciously and at last decided to embrace this change. I have come to realize that the change was not only important but also necessary.

But rather than just being a bystander I have decided to contribute my ramblings and be a part of this phenomenon. But , i am not a novice or not that I've been an armchair critic so far. For the last ten year I've involved in many organisations ( one in particular ) and doing my bit for the community. It is just that I've decided to take my fight to cyberspace.

I belong to a much older group than most of the friends I see in cyberspace. I see high range

of individuals as young as 18 to 24 yr olds sharing their views in an articulate and forceful manner. And the better part is that I can see that blogs are moving out of cyberspace and contributing in a more tangible manner. The donation drive for our special STPM high achiever, bro. Saravanan by B Mahendran and election of some of the more prominent bloggers as MPs and ADUNs can be cited as evidence. I can say that their activism originated from cyberspace. Free flow of information and freedom of speech ( to a certain level.note: RPK) in cyberspace has made this ignition of spark possible and the flames were heightened by the blatant disregard for the minority, public justice and arrogance shown by the majority of the ruling government members. As a famous tamil proverb goes the government dug its own grave. Not only that it cemented its downfall by being oblivious to the change of peoples mood. Bloggers saw this and disseminated the information act as the propaganda agent for change. I welcome this new ( not so new now) breed of social conscious blogging community and am eager to be a part of it.

The Agenda:

I belong in a near extinct group of profession: Male Educators ( Cikgu lelakilah). The profession lost its respect and place that it once enjoyed into the community. I seriously don't know why. Whenever I say that I am a teacher people look at me sympathetically ( kesian budak ini.....eeemmm cikgu...he must have not been very bright) or ( what happened?...you didn't get better jobs). This may come a bit of shock to you people but I choose this profession... I always wanted to become a teacher so I pursued this option after my degree. I am happy to say that I am enjoying what I do now( minus the tons of paperwork that force us to do). I am happy to be a teacher (cum the unofficial coach, trainer, drama teacher, gardener, librarian, clerk, typist, school nurse, guardian, counsellor and many more). I take it all in my stride.

So my main rambling will be my school experiences, with the education system ( need i say more?), human development and other boring stuff. But i will also will indulge in political, arts , community and anything else that fancies me on that day.

I don't expect to blog ever day as my schedule is very busy ( school and NGO) . But my voice (or my writing) shall be heard whenever I am free. As I am new here please guide me ( I am not from the IT field so I am technologically challenged and desperately need guidance on the presentation of the blog) and accept me as part of the family.