Social Studies Lesson

I think I'm falling in love with Mr Jalleh's lessons.

For so long, since Sec 1, I have never really felt the passion for history / geog / social studies. Too plain, too dry, too asessment-oriented. But Mr Jalleh is a teacher who can wave his hands desperately in the air and go "I know you are concerned about your PT, but forget about it for a moment, let's look at this". I like that. I mean how many teachers nowadays can actually display his/her own enthusiasm for a subject that evokes your pure interest in it as well? He shows it. And most importantly, he looks confident enough to make you believe that what you learn is worth your time.

Yesterday we had this makeup lesson on the UN, focusing mainly on China-Taiwan relations, as well as North Korea's nuclear weapon issues. But then he spent one and half hours talking not only about the tactics to tackle our PT, but also the way of thinking of governments (principles and issues as he put it): "there's no move that doesn't have a political motive behind it. It's like a chess game".

Honest, frank and direct. I like that too.

He talked about the Iraq war, about Saddam. About how Saddam could be a great leader in the eyes of people of Iraq. About the act that Saddam's leadership has enabled Iraq to remain as one of the strongest country in the Middle East for the past decades. And what has it become now? He emphasized on the importance of national sovereignty, the right of a country to make its own decisions.

(YEAH MAN. that's what I really wanted to hear for a long time. Saddam is like Qing Shi Huang, just like in a different time, place and context, that's all. But you can't deny some of the contributions they made, certain effectiveness of their leadership. Just like you can't say Mao Ze Dong is not a good leader by merely looking at the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Internal Affairs. Eventually they will sort things out on their own. Leave them be. )

I don't remember a teacher speaking to us with that kind of objectivity before. Yes, they say you need to think from all perspectives, you need to analyse the situation. But most didn't really analyse and and guide us to think like that. Worksheets came with columns on comparison and contrast, handouts came with debate notions about world issues, and then lessons were focused on LORMS and question formats. But honest comments from teachers are rare. "Independent learning" they say, "You gotta have mature thinking".

If only RP could concentrate more on how to involve teachers who can actually motivate students to think like that, to make them feel the excitement of thinking like that, and to forget about the mere importance of a good portfolio, a can't-do-without leadership experience, the loads of specific rubrics (that try to make grading objective but often than not controversial), and the said-to-be-not-so-important-but-still-is GPA.

I wish we are learning for the sake of learning, for the sake of our interest in all the subjects. Not a better chance to be better integrated into the society.

But then again, in this fast progressing world where pragmatism overpowers ideology (the ss forum does have some truth in it), such chances (or changes) are hard to come by and hard to grab (or execute).