Friday, March 11, 2005
A Better Song To Sing? No, I Don’t Think So.
“Found a better song to sing, have you? No, you’ve found a different song, that’s all,” says Frank’s figurative allusion on the self-realization of Rita, who wants to escape from working class life to become a middle class people in Willy Russel’s play “Educating Rita”.
Rita desires a change from the inside, so she applies for an Open University. She wants to break the rules of working class through education on her way of searching for a better life.
Though she says, “I’ve got a room full of books. I know what clothes to wear, what wine to buy, what play to see...” her change has resulted in losing her qualities which makes her very unique and sympathetic. She does not find a better life but a different life. It depends on how her life will go on. She can choose which class to belong to, where to travel, whom to visit and whom to keep company. Now she has the freedom of choice.
I do feel the same way with Frank’s view on Rita’s change. Sometimes, we work very hard because we want to make changes in our life. We want to achieve a better life and probably we also do so through education like Rita.
This is what I am doing now. I enter this course of PKPG TESL because I want to upgrade myself, earn more money and find a better life for my family. I learnt a lot of things from literature and I work very diligently to get a better grade for it. However, the result is not as what I have expected. While I spend so much time and effort for doing the assignment, what I get is so little when compared to what I have sacrificed for it. I wonder why I spend so much time in doing silly things especially in simulated teaching. I have done two times for it and I got B for both.
I feel that it is so unfair because the world of literature is so subjective. It is very difficult to decide what is good and what is not good teaching. There are people who put so little effort for it but got A for their simulated teaching. For example, student A asks questions for set induction and she got A but when student B uses the same technique for set induction, she is condemned for not putting any effort and her lesson is very dull. When student C uses the picture of the late princess Diana and Camelia and she has no problem and got an A but when student D uses the same picture, she is commented for the reason of not using local celebrity picture. When I am not using western picture but using local Chinese man picture, I was suggested for trying to imply to students wrong moral values. I really don’t know how to please a lecturer like this.
Many of us are dissatisfied with the grades we got. We feel that the lecturer seems to favour certain students and give them good grades even though their teaching activities are not related and their worksheets contain a lot of mistakes. We feel demotivated and frustrated but we can’t do anything. I personally feel that what is the point I put so much effort in doing something that I definitely won’t get good result because I am not the ‘favoured’ student. I also feel that doing simulated teaching two times is a waste of time since the grades we get for both times are more or less the same or just by one mark difference. Why not we spend more time in dealing with the other plays for example “Streetcar Named Desire” and “30 Days in September” in more details? Doing simulated teaching two times not only make us stressful but also for the lecturer because he might not be able to give a just and fair grades due to his tiredness in listening to too much teaching. Why not we do teaching once which is of quality rather than quantity? And the lecturer also give grade that is of quality to everyone?
Now I have resolved in my heart that I don’t want to spend too much time in works that won’t return me my effort. I have better spent my time in doing other things that bring me satisfaction. Actually, I didn’t find a better song through literature but a different song that changes my view and attitude. Yes, I have the freedom of choice.
Rita desires a change from the inside, so she applies for an Open University. She wants to break the rules of working class through education on her way of searching for a better life.
Though she says, “I’ve got a room full of books. I know what clothes to wear, what wine to buy, what play to see...” her change has resulted in losing her qualities which makes her very unique and sympathetic. She does not find a better life but a different life. It depends on how her life will go on. She can choose which class to belong to, where to travel, whom to visit and whom to keep company. Now she has the freedom of choice.
I do feel the same way with Frank’s view on Rita’s change. Sometimes, we work very hard because we want to make changes in our life. We want to achieve a better life and probably we also do so through education like Rita.
This is what I am doing now. I enter this course of PKPG TESL because I want to upgrade myself, earn more money and find a better life for my family. I learnt a lot of things from literature and I work very diligently to get a better grade for it. However, the result is not as what I have expected. While I spend so much time and effort for doing the assignment, what I get is so little when compared to what I have sacrificed for it. I wonder why I spend so much time in doing silly things especially in simulated teaching. I have done two times for it and I got B for both.
I feel that it is so unfair because the world of literature is so subjective. It is very difficult to decide what is good and what is not good teaching. There are people who put so little effort for it but got A for their simulated teaching. For example, student A asks questions for set induction and she got A but when student B uses the same technique for set induction, she is condemned for not putting any effort and her lesson is very dull. When student C uses the picture of the late princess Diana and Camelia and she has no problem and got an A but when student D uses the same picture, she is commented for the reason of not using local celebrity picture. When I am not using western picture but using local Chinese man picture, I was suggested for trying to imply to students wrong moral values. I really don’t know how to please a lecturer like this.
Many of us are dissatisfied with the grades we got. We feel that the lecturer seems to favour certain students and give them good grades even though their teaching activities are not related and their worksheets contain a lot of mistakes. We feel demotivated and frustrated but we can’t do anything. I personally feel that what is the point I put so much effort in doing something that I definitely won’t get good result because I am not the ‘favoured’ student. I also feel that doing simulated teaching two times is a waste of time since the grades we get for both times are more or less the same or just by one mark difference. Why not we spend more time in dealing with the other plays for example “Streetcar Named Desire” and “30 Days in September” in more details? Doing simulated teaching two times not only make us stressful but also for the lecturer because he might not be able to give a just and fair grades due to his tiredness in listening to too much teaching. Why not we do teaching once which is of quality rather than quantity? And the lecturer also give grade that is of quality to everyone?
Now I have resolved in my heart that I don’t want to spend too much time in works that won’t return me my effort. I have better spent my time in doing other things that bring me satisfaction. Actually, I didn’t find a better song through literature but a different song that changes my view and attitude. Yes, I have the freedom of choice.
