LITERATURE IN MY SCHOOL
I’m currently doing my practicum at Bukit Batok Secondary
School and I must say it is a wonderful place for English Literature teachers! The
Literature department is made up of 6 teachers who are very easy-going and very
open to new ideas and teaching styles. This is great for me since I get the
chance to try out new methods and materials. They are very supportive and
friendly and it is a joy to talk to them about Literature. They give me
extremely useful tips about teaching Lit to the different levels and streams
and how I can tie in Lit to help improve their English. The school offers pure
Literature to upper secondary students (the total number of students make up
about 1 class), but I am not taking any pure lit classes this time round. I
am given lower secondary classes and so far it has been quite an experience
teaching them. The Sec 1s are doing Animal
Farm and the Sec 2s are doing Ten
Short Stories by Roald Dahl.
Initially, I thought that the texts chosen were too
challenging for ‘neighbourhood’ standards but I was pleasantly surprised when
my secondary 1 normal academic class told me that they liked the book and ¼ of
them had already finished reading it! It was also very comforting when they
asked intelligent questions about Napoleon’s regime and his rules, showing that
they are thinking critically about the text and what it represents. The
secondary 2s are also very involved in Literature class and they have very
fruitful discussions. While Lit is not as promoted as the other subjects, the
students generally enjoy Lit classes and they participate actively during
lesson. During the recent Lit festival in school, the students responded very well
and their work is now put up all around school. Although not all of them choose
to do Lit at the upper secondary level*, I feel that they have experienced
Literature and they enter upper secondary with a new mindset: one that allows
them to read deeper and think critically.
*The streaming system in my school splits the upper
secondary express classes into Science and Arts. So instead of 3E1, 3E2 and so
on, the classes are now 3S1, 3S2, 3A1 and 3A2 (S = Science, A = Arts). I think
this is a good way of banding students, as the Arts students are not compared
to the Science students like they would be traditionally. Arts can now stand on
its own and students in the Arts stream no longer need to feel inferior to
their friends in the Science stream.
ALL THAT HEAT
I feel that the recent heat Literature has been receiving is
good publicity for the subject. Those who are passionate about Lit can now use this
opportunity to advocate it and show its benefits (both academic and
non-academic benefits). The sentiment that Literature is difficult subject to
score in is an old sentiment that can be disproved easily since there is now an
increase in the number of local texts used in the curriculum. The use of local
texts breaks down the language barrier for students and it helps them to relate
to and understand the subject better. The study of Literature does not offer us
immediate benefits like Math or Science, but it teaches us to be critical and
yet to empathize. To be discerning and yet receptive to new ideas. These are
intangible skills that cannot be measured and graded, but they are just as valuable
as counting and spelling. I acknowledge the fact that these skills take time to
develop but I urge people to have a little patience, to wait it out and notice
the change in our child’s attitude and mindset towards life in general.
Literature
and the Arts is the soul of society and we cannot do without it. I just hope
that people see the value in it fast because Literature is running out of time.
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