LEAN ON ME (tutorial)

A good teacher is a student’s good friend wherein they share all good and bad among themselves. But are there teachers like that? Barely seen. This is because most teachers believe that students can only be controlled through strict discipline rules. One of them is Joe Clark in one of the biographical movie I watched recently, ‘Lean On Me’.

Honestly, I don’t find it entertaining as the language seemed hard for me to understand as they are pronounced very fast. Eventhough there were some room for laughter, still it is not so entertaining. On the other hand, as a B. Ed TESL student, this movie affected me directly especially Joe Clark’s character. He plays a strict character that does not give face to anyone and does not appreciate anybody’s work; instead, finds wrong in it. What impressed me is that he agreed to the new school song just because the students find the old version is boring. From this, I realized that interest is the most important thing in the process of learning something.

After watching this movie, a few discipline teachers of mine came to my mind. It reminds me back to my old days in school where I have witnessed teacher punches student and students rebel against the school and etc. May be the discipline teachers should have taken the step that Joe Clark took, that is expelling all those problematic students. Then, there wouldn’t be so much trouble between students and teachers.

In conclusion, I learnt that as a future teacher, I must be mentally and physically prepared to face all kind of students and have to be strict so that I will not be fooled as how the students in the movie did before the presence of Joe Clark. Also, I should make students become interested in studies in order to score well in the subjects that I am going to teach rather than forcing them to study and punish if they fail. Being brave in facing consequences of your own act is a good value I have learnt through Joe Clark’s character which is proven right at the end of the movie. Lean “On Me is a MUST watch”

If one door closes, the other will open...

The number of babies being dumped is massively increasing after the authority puts a full stop to abortion. It doesn’t mean that there is no abortion taking place, it has still. Why is this so? When we look at the reason behind it, those babies are aborted or dumped because they are born out of wedlock.

            In ‘A Great Injustice’, Ah Nya had relationship with her boyfriend, Steven and had a baby inside her womb before they got married. Later, Steven jilted her and Ah Nya cannot give birth to the baby as it is born out of wedlock. When she first confessed that she is pregnant, her father Ah Seng shouted of disappointment at Ah Nya. The news that Ah Nya is pregnant spread as fast as lightning around the village and everyone looks narrow at her. People started to talk bad exactly infront of Ah Nya and she couldn’t take it when her bulging stomach was noticeable. She thought how would these people (society) accept her baby if now itself they started to talk bad about it. This drives her to abort the baby mercilessly. Now, my question is “Is abortion the only solution for babies born out of wedlock?”

            One who has read The Merry Maid by Dr. Jayakaran Mukundan will definitely answer no. In this story, Lakshmi’s relationship with Shanmugam led to a baby made her run away from home to conceal the pregnancy. Before they got married, Shanmugam was arrested for theft and Lakshmi left unprotected. Lakshmi did not do anything crazy like what Ah Nya did in A Great Injustice. Lakshmi observes Mr. Johan in several occasions and came to a notion that he would be the best care taker for her baby. So, she left her baby in front of Johan’s house. After some years, Lakshmi comes back as a maid to look and get close to her daughter who was Sakinah now. If she had aborted her baby like what Ah Nya had done, Sakinah wouldn’t have been there as a grown up girl. From here, it is proven that abortion is not the only solution for babies born out of wedlock.

            In conclusion, there are thousands of people who are yearning for baby and there are also many who want to adopt baby directly from the parents and also from the ‘Baby Bank’. So, why should we kill an innocent life cruelly? Let it grow in somewhere along with someone else’s family with a bright future.

Money, Marriage OR Maiden...

Coming from an Indian family, I never see anything wrong in the dowry system practiced in Indian weddings. It has become a tradition among us. However, it is being said that dowry system is not practiced as how it was initially. In other words, dowry system is not fairly treated in these recent days. I came to this opinion after reading two short stories; A Question of Dowry and Everything’s Arranged.

Looking at the first story (A Question of Dowry), it is clear that dowry system is not something new in the society. “My father gave us four for my dowry, and our second son received three as his wife’s dowry.” It is not left there; in fact, they train the next generation to be prepared with dowry for their daughters in future. “…he’s got to realize that his sons must have a good education, and that his daughters must have enough dowry.”  This statement shows that dowry system has become a must as it is well planned at early stages. The reason I say dowry system is not fairly treated is because the dowry which is supposed to be a gift has now become a certain fixed amount or material from the bridegroom’s in-laws. If the groom’s expectations are not fulfilled, either the marriage will be stopped or the bride will be ill-treated as they look down at her. “…that’s more than I can say for what Thangathurai gave his daughter when our son married her-and she had only passed her form IV too!” From here, I claim that it is no more a question of expectation but a question of status. “Do you want people to think that we have no money for our daughter?”  From this story, not is clear that dowry system is not fairly treated because Thiruchelvam and Sivasothi never got married because Mr. Ramachandran did not afford to pay for the high dowry set for a doctor bridegroom. “Well, a man had to have a wife, so why not have one with a reasonable dowry?

Everything’s Arranged is another story that made some tuning in my mind as the first one. As I mentioned earlier, the purpose of dowry is to ease newly married couple and it is a gift but in this story, the parents set amount of dowry by looking at education level and profession. At the beginning, Devanayagam’s family set $80,000 cash, a house with a plot land. ..his mother managed to let him know that he was getting $80,000 as well as a house and a plot of land, in spite of the fact that his bride would be a BA by the time they got married.” But later, after some problem, Rukumani failed to continue her studies and that made Devanayagam’s family increase the dowry amount. “There would be no final term for Rukumani. It was decided that the increase of $20,000 in dowry as worth the risk of family disgrace.”  So, here, the dowry is set by the parents based on education level and profession as Devanayagam is to be a ‘At least Civil Service Super-scale.’

In conclusion, dowry has created a barrier among the rich and poor and the educated and uneducated. Therefore, it is crystal clear that dowry system is not fairly treated.