Geraldine's reflection 4

State of Literature in my school

Literature in Regent Secondary School is (like many others) a dying subject too. The school has a total of 3 literature teachers teaching only lower secondary literature. There is no pure or elective literature in upper secondary. Currently, the secondary 1 students are learning literary devices such as metaphors, personification etc... while the secondary 2 students are studying prose with the help of a textbook About Literature by Andrew Koh, Alison Bickley and Elvira Holmberg. The way literature is taught and assessed in Regent is exactly this 'comprehension-style' that many have mentioned so far. All the focus is placed on understanding the meaning and plot of a story or poem through short-answer questions but nothing further than that.  

I am teaching 3 secondary 2 literature classes: 2 express classes and 1 NA class. I think literature is dying here because students are not pushed towards finding that joy in reading or studying literature. When every literature class becomes one where students copy notes and answer short, comprehension questions, it is no wonder that I have had some students chanting "Cher, cher, I hate literature" before class time. However, I feel that there are some students who genuinely show interest in the subject and will be able to excel if given the opportunity. Yet, these students know that they are not going to be able to do literature as an O level subject and this affects their attitude and enthusiasm towards it as well. I think another reason why literature is not able to flourish in this school is because the students are very weak in the English language. Many of the classes here struggle even with very basic grammar, therefore, a lot of them are not confident in expressing themselves in class. It also hinders the way they express their thoughts and ideas in their written work.

ST article

I agree that there is "a distortion of the holistic and interest-driven education that we want for students" in Singapore. We want students to pursue what they are interested in, this way, they will be motivated towards excelling in it. However, if students are not given the choice to do literature for the O levels, even when they want to, it completely goes against this notion of an "interest-driven" education. In Regent, I feel that students should be allowed to choose their core or elective subjects no matter what. Even if it's only 10 students or even 1 student who wants to do literature, schools should try to help this student do so. The reality is that our education is about practicality and being exam-focused, everything we do is driven by how well students can do in the exams and in the most efficient way possible. As such, literature is neglected because people assume that literature is difficult to understand, difficult to teach and difficult to 'score'.