My Goodness, Folks!

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Have you, by any unfortunate chance, seen the latest novels for secondary literature components? Merlin's beard! I wonder what's going on in the head of these people from educational department! They all look like happy little comics! I mean, like, seriously? You call these Literature? I know they keep saying we are not teaching the big L, only the small L, (duh!) but still, come on. What are these things? My goodness! Poor these kids in school today.

To be honest, I don't know where the former syllabus went wrong. As much as I hated reading some novels before, but they were novels of quality. They were well-written as novels should be,and as far as I can recall, contained only a few images to help students comprehend the novels better. But the latest ones? Only one word (and it's not even a word actually): euuwww!To honest, when I was a student, the lengthy paragraphs of the novels did not bother me so much. At least, I learned new vocabularies, knew how they were used in appropriate context (from looking at how they were used in sentences), and most importantly, I was allowed to let my imagination of the novel run free, without any little happy images to so-called aid me. But now? I barely see a good sentence in the novels! Only few words are put inside the bubles pointed at the cartoons' mouths and few characters are already nicely drawn for the students! Gee. Then what the students' brains are for?

And by God, if you survive the novels (give yourself a little pat at your back), then have a quick glance at the poems and please, please - shudder at the sight of them. These kids would grow up without knowing who Williams Shakespeare is. Not that it is important for them to know that long-dead bloke, but everyone knows that he was one of the greatest poets of all time and learning his poems and sonnets would be a tremendous exposure for them - not only to appreciate the beauty of the language, but also to see the examples of well-written poems. And the other poems were good, too! The Road Not Taken was a beautiful poem about making decisions in life, There Has Been a Death in the Opposite House dealt with death, the inevitable matter in life and Moonsoon History was a poem that ilustrated a beautiful culture. I mean, they were all fine and relevant. By God, why did you have to change them? I know some would say that this is good so that the students would feel motivated to read. But honestly, do you suppose they would bother to read when you have all the gaudy-colored images scatched for them? Like on one page after another?

Oh, I won't even bother to start barking about the short stories. The previous ones were excellent literary works which are still relevant up to this moment I write this post with my anger and frustration bursting out. Bunga Telur and Bally's Shoes was a great story, stood so close and dear to our culture and custom. The Pencil was a heart-warming story and students could easily relate the story with their own experience as students. Everything was almost perfect.

Have you ever heard a saying that goes pretty much like this: if you keep chasing for perfection, you will most definitely end up having the flawed ones. It's just precisely my first impression of the literary texts that the poor kids nowadays are studying.You know what? I always thought that I was unlucky in so many things. But this one? I'm glad to be born pretty much earlier compared to these poor, poor, and poorly educated kids. I am not so ill-lucked, after all.


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