Right Reads…Book reviews for babies, kids and teens

Since my kid will join the public school system in the near future, I am quite disappointed to find that the Malaysian education system is still focused on ‘quantity’ and not ‘quality’. Gosh, how can anyone score As in 14-15 subjects???

I’d checked out private schools and international schools too but the former still follows the Malaysian education system (or Singaporean) while the latter will paralyze you financially especially if you have TWO kids.

HOW ABOUT HOMESCHOOLING?

I became interested in homeschooling when we relocated to China and I met:

a) a pleasant American young man who was homeschooled from the age of 3 – 14 and
b) foreign / expat families who found the international schools too expensive (unsatisfactory) OR were on the move a lot.

We agree on a few points during our discussions:

1. Homeschooling allows your child to progress at their own pace
I like this feature because if your child progresses ahead of his/her grade level, he/she can start the next grade level earlier.

On the other hand, if he/she is behind on one or two subjects, you can coach him/her without the feeling that he’s behind the rest of the class!

Homeschooling is especially helpful for Special Education because you can adjust the pace according to your child’s needs. The curriculum for homeschooling includes audio and video materials (besides books), which help to support and enhance a child’s learning experiences.

2. Homeschooling has a balanced curriculum
I had the chance to coach a young girl studying at the international school, which follows the American education system. The American national curriculum comprises:

• Language Arts (or English as we know it),
• Natural Science,
• Social Science,
• Math, Arts,
• Foreign Language (French/Spanish),
• (U.S. and World)

with electives in subjects like Art History, Renaissance Art and Physical Education.

I really like their Language Arts, Natural Science and Foreign Language subjects, which are nothing at all like our “text-book oriented approach” in Malaysia…

If my kids can follow the US-based education system without having to be in the U.S., why not?

3. Homeschooling provides an international experience
An out-of-date curriculum, overcrowded classrooms, incompetent (or overworked teachers) and increasing crime rates, homeschooling is fast becoming a popular option for many families.

And since many of our public schools are not as “muhibbah” as they were in the past, you find most students sticking to their own race or etnic group.

I am especially sad about this aspect because I grew up with a mix of Chinese, Indian, Malay, Punjabi, Eurasian, Filipino(a) and Thai classmates and schoolmates.

Homeschooling provides an alternative because many homeschooling families connect via video chats and even meet up with each other if they happen to be in the same town

I know my toddler had a lot of fun mingling with little friends from Argentina, Colombia, China, Hong Kong, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Taiwan, the UK and the US during playgroup!

4. Homeschooling is mobile – no need to sign your child in / out of school each time you move!
Families on the move love that most homeschooling programmes have their curriculum online. If you enrolled your child at the international school, it’s *really tough* on your child when you move because he/she will have to adjust to:

a) a new school;

b) new teachers and

c) make new friends…

While parents tend to say,

“They’re young. They’ll adjust. They’ll be fine.”

it’s not entirely true. Children need a sense of stability – imagine how you’d feel having to make new friends every few months or every year? Read about Bastian Fauvell’s experience (whose father is in the US Air Force)  in “Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher“.

Also, children need a sense of responsibility. Moving them around makes them feel that they can always start afresh at a new place – they don’t think they have a problem if they don’t get along with people in the current school. They’ll be moving anyway!

Homeschooled children are still connected to their friends as they make new friends.

Also, if you decide to return to the public school system, you’ll find almost 100% of your homeschooling work / grades recognized and accepted.

5. Homeschooling is quite affordable

Unlike international schools, which cost up to US$10,000 a year per child, a virtual homeschooling package may be as low as $US625 per student – per year. Family packages are also available if you sign up more than one child.

You can use the savings from this to supplement the virtual learning experience with books, other materials and field trips.

All in all, I find that homeschooling provides an interesting alternative to our public school system.

Do you homeschool your children? I’d love to hear from you and know more about your experiences

While the rest of the nation is still grappling with the issue of the teaching of Science and Maths in English or Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysia’s national language), I am having a problem with my son’s slowly depleting Chinese!

We’ve been barely back for 2 weeks and he’s already using less and less Chinese. Although he still uses a bit of Chinese, I can imagine how easy it is for him to stick to English completely since:

• we speak English at home;
• we read English books to him;
• he’s watching his VCDs in English AND
• the new kindy (as with many of the kindergartens or preschools here) he’s enrolled in emphasizes English…

Although the principal mentioned that Chinese is used during the second half of the day, in reality, he listens, speaks and reads English for nearly 3 hours and has casual conversations (if any) in Chinese with the attending caregivers.

Since it took him nearly 3 months to finally pick up the courage (or vocabulary) to converse with his teachers, friends and neighbours in Chinese in China, I’d hate to see him lose this second language he has acquired.

Solution? I’m hoping to find a Chinese teacher who could come to our home twice a week for Chinese conversation, nursery rhymes, flashcards and reading. Keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll be able to find a lady as nice as his preschool teacher in China!

Are you learning Chinese too? Check out these resources:

The news articles today “Focus still on English” and “English not neglected“, got me thinking about the education system in Malaysia:

THE TEACHING OF MATHS AND SCIENCE IN BAHASA MALAYSIA
1. I am relieved to hear that our government is still keen to ensure that the future generation of Malaysians will be able to compete in the global arena. While many parents are upset about the switch from teaching Science and Mathematics in English (for the past 6 years) back to Bahasa Malaysia, I need to remind them that the government’s decision is based on the interests of the majority.

I wonder if anyone remembers that the standard of English in Malaysia started to decline the year English stopped being a compulsory ‘pass’ subject in the SPM examination (equivalent to the GCE ‘O’ Levels, Year 10 or Grade 10)?

When I was in Form 5 (in the early 90s) we still had good English teachers (whether they are Malay, Chinese or Indian) who taught with passion and had quizzes, riddles, language games, English week, drama etc even though our English textbooks were DEAD boring.

In the late 1990s, I started hearing about young English teachers who could barely speak English, much less teach it. Furthermore, they were not very enthusiastic teachers…

Many of our old teachers also opted for early retirement because they were unhappy with the Education Department’s administrative policies.

At around that time, we English majors were ‘endangered species’ and I know of many Education major friends who scrambled to find options out because joining the teaching force meant low pay, loads of paperwork and a lack of advancement.

After teaching English in a private college for 5 years, I decided to jump ship myself. My students were horrified to hear how low my salary was!

Heck, I loved to teach English but I had to make a living too – and yes, even teachers dream of driving a nice car, going for a holiday overseas, dressing up and other fancies those in the higher income group enjoy

At around 2000, I was fortunate to find a challenging and interesting job in regional and international relations with an American organization. I was hired primarily for my proficiency in English. My employer was delighted and surprised to find me, which goes to show you how badly we’re doing then in English proficiency…

Later, I was tasked with hiring junior executives to support our work. Boy, was it tough! We just had to deal with the high turnover, their poor work ethics not to mention a poor grasp of basic English and communication skills.

2. I learned that I did not need to speak in an American or British accent to be understood. As long as I spoke clearly and enunciated my words well, I was easily understood. Many varieties of English are spoken around the world thus I don’t see anything wrong with having a Malaysian accent. That’s what makes us unique!

Other key factors include ATTITUDE, social skills and general knowledge. Being well-read is definitely a plus point

3. Back to the teaching of Maths and Science in English, we need to think about the Malay, Chinese, Indian, Orang Asli, Iban, Kadazan etc children in rural parts of Malaysia. Bahasa Malaysia is their language for communicationwhile English is like a foreign language to them!

If you can’t imagine their suffering, then picture yourself studying Maths and Science in German, Spanish or Arabic…can you do it?

Do you realize that you’ve first got to translate the meaning of the words before you can even start to understand the concept? This means DOUBLE WORK especially as you’ve got other homework, tests and exams.

Now that I’m forced to speak in Chinese here, I know for one thing that it will be absolute torture IF I had to learn Chemistry or Math in Chinese!!!

I really felt sorry for a Malay family I met in the government hospital because not only do the parents have to support the 4 children, they also have to send one kid for English tuition – yet, he still flunks English, Science and Math because English is not spoken at home.

It was bad for him to flunk English previously but now he’s flunking an additional 2 subjects…his mum says he’s not motivated to go to school. If I were him, neither would I be if Maths and Science are suddenly Greek to me.

I feel sorry for my own kid who isn’t speaking Chinese as well as the Chinese kids in kindy because English is his first language. Although he’s picking up well, I foresee a lot of support at home i.e. a private tutor and additional language activities. Even then, we wouldn’t know if he’d survive in a Chinese-medium learning environment.

THE ENGLISH TEACHERS
Obviously, the English teachers are *very important* if we are serious about improving the standard of English among our students.

I hope that the Education Ministry remembers to focus on hiring GOOD teachers who can teach English, not just teachers who can speak good English…

In Hong Kong, Japan and mainland China where English is a foreign language, ‘native English speakers’ are enticed to teach in those countries with free air tickets, expat salaries, expat benefits including free accommodation and free holidays.

1. In Malaysia where English is a second language, we don’t need to hire foreign English language teachers. Why don’t the Education Ministry hire English-as-a-second language teacher trainers instead if many are availble in the aforesaid countries? After all, we’re supposed to be developing our human capital, right???

If we don’t have confidence in our own people, then how are we going to have confidence in ourselves?

2. Training up our current teaching force will do much better to motivate them instead of taking away their allowance. That could turn into a sour situation as they were given the allowance as an incentive to teach in English in the first place.

3. Language learning is a long-term process, even for teachers learning a new language or learning to teach in a new language. For some of the teachers involved, it entails becoming bilingual experts almost overnight:

• brushing up on their English skills first,
• picking up on the technical vocabulary in English (they were trained in Bahasa Malaysia);
• familiarising themselves with the English textbooks and
• dealing with the backlash of MUCH negative feedback on their performance from the parents and teachers.

I’d certainly hate to be in any of those teachers’ shoes…after all the pain (the stick) I’ve gone through, I’m going to have my allowance (the carrot) taken away? Don’t I deserve a second chance? Perhaps I’m only now able to demonstrate what I’ve been working on the past few years?

4. I realize that the teaching profession in Malaysia is now quite attractive but then I hear of people joining the industry for the perks and not for the love of teaching.

Also, we’re all more than familiar withe scenario (even way back in the 1990s) where university students are offered majors they’d never picked! I know I’ll FAIL miserably as a Mathematics or Chemistry teacher LOL

It seems to me that the root of our problems lies in the hiring process or even at the pre-university levels?

5. On one hand, we’re reducing the hiring of foreign workers (blue-collar workers) but we are spending even more money to hire white-collar foreign workers?

In so many countries around the world, people are fighting to claim back their country and cultural identity but it seems to me like we are retreating back to our colonial days??? You certainly don’t hear of other Commonwealth countries hiring foreign English teacher.

Sigh, what a step back for English in Malaysia…

6. Regardless of which language Maths and Science is taught in, please ensure that:

• the Maths and Science teachers are experts in these subjects AND that they are trained to teach;
• the curriculum and textbooks are interesting (why don’t we just copy the Singaporeans? Singaporean education is now an export commodity!) ;
• the English teachers who are currently in the teaching force are there because they CHOSE to major in English, not forced to in the university.

Lastly, please STOP harping on grammar – a grammar-oriented methodology has already been proven ineffective by researchers in the US, UK, Asia and Latin America (and deadly boring) since the 1970s!!!

In my 5 years of teachng, I can tell you that I have students who score 100% on grammar tests but

• can’t write effectively,
  
• can’t make a decent conversation in English or,
• even speak up in public.

What we need is a holistic approach…

Oh, boy, I sure can’t wait to go home…my children’s education is at stake here.