Saturday, April 30, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Blog prompt 11
Do you think that crisis brings out the best in man?
Yes, I think crisis brings out the best in man. Take the recent Japanese earthquake for example. The Fukushima Daiichi plant was badly affected. There was a nuclear leak and high radiation levels which was harmful to man. Most residents and workers near the plant were evacuated for their safety. However, a team of fifty workers aged 50 to 70 stayed behind. They risked their own lives and personal health to attempt to cool the radiators and keep things under control.
On the contrary, there are exceptional cases. The CEO of Tokyo Electric Power did not make a public appearance the week after the disaster. As the CEO, it is the culture in Japan to take full responsibility should anything go wrong. However, the CEO conveniently disappeared during the time of mayhem and disaster, leaving the management of the plant to the workers.
Blog prompt 10
Reflections on should students be granted the autonomy to develop their own curriculum
Freedom is not always good. Students given the liberty to develop their own curriculum would not work out well due to the possible mistakes these students make when developing their curriculum. When a student develops a curriculum wrongly, his academic grades may be affected and his studies would be affected too. Therefore, students should not be granted the autonomy to develop their own curriculum.
Mature thinking is something very important in decision making. If someone lacks maturity and makes a decision, the decision is highly likely to be an immature one and may be of limited benefit. Likewise, if a mature person makes a decision, his or her decision would be a mature one. Young students have a low level of maturity. Should they be allowed to develop their own curriculum, they may choose to study the wrong subjects and less important subjects. He or she may choose to slack and choose to spend more time on subjects which are more relaxed like art and craft and music instead of things like Math and Science. Later on, he or she may realize that the arts is no place for him, and that he has chosen the wrong subjects to major in. By then, choosing another subject to major in would be slightly too late, as students majoring in that subject would know a lot more than he or she does about it, and there would be huge pressure put on the student, which is bad.
Students being able to develop their own curriculum would not be beneficial to the nation. If every school allows students to develop their own curriculum, the students may like school better as they get to study what they want. However, the government may require more engineers at one point in time. If students then are more inclined towards the arts, then the government would face difficulties finding these engineers, and may have to resort to foreign labor to help "supplement" for the missing engineers.
On the other hand, some may argue that more mature students or elite students should be given the freedom to develop their own curriculum to better enable them to pursue their dreams. This is true. The more mature students and elite students have supposedly higher mental capacity and are supposedly able to make better decisions. This may not apply to every mature or elite student. Therefore, I feel, the teachers should recommend few students to the school that are capable of making mature decisions beneficial to each individual, and grant them the liberty to develop their own curriculum.
As a whole, I feel that only few students, preferably the more mature ones, be given the liberty to develop their own curriculum as the development of one's curriculum requires mature thinking and it would have a negative effect on the nation if every student is allowed to develop his or her own curriculum.
Freedom is not always good. Students given the liberty to develop their own curriculum would not work out well due to the possible mistakes these students make when developing their curriculum. When a student develops a curriculum wrongly, his academic grades may be affected and his studies would be affected too. Therefore, students should not be granted the autonomy to develop their own curriculum.
Mature thinking is something very important in decision making. If someone lacks maturity and makes a decision, the decision is highly likely to be an immature one and may be of limited benefit. Likewise, if a mature person makes a decision, his or her decision would be a mature one. Young students have a low level of maturity. Should they be allowed to develop their own curriculum, they may choose to study the wrong subjects and less important subjects. He or she may choose to slack and choose to spend more time on subjects which are more relaxed like art and craft and music instead of things like Math and Science. Later on, he or she may realize that the arts is no place for him, and that he has chosen the wrong subjects to major in. By then, choosing another subject to major in would be slightly too late, as students majoring in that subject would know a lot more than he or she does about it, and there would be huge pressure put on the student, which is bad.
Students being able to develop their own curriculum would not be beneficial to the nation. If every school allows students to develop their own curriculum, the students may like school better as they get to study what they want. However, the government may require more engineers at one point in time. If students then are more inclined towards the arts, then the government would face difficulties finding these engineers, and may have to resort to foreign labor to help "supplement" for the missing engineers.
On the other hand, some may argue that more mature students or elite students should be given the freedom to develop their own curriculum to better enable them to pursue their dreams. This is true. The more mature students and elite students have supposedly higher mental capacity and are supposedly able to make better decisions. This may not apply to every mature or elite student. Therefore, I feel, the teachers should recommend few students to the school that are capable of making mature decisions beneficial to each individual, and grant them the liberty to develop their own curriculum.
As a whole, I feel that only few students, preferably the more mature ones, be given the liberty to develop their own curriculum as the development of one's curriculum requires mature thinking and it would have a negative effect on the nation if every student is allowed to develop his or her own curriculum.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Blog prompt 9
I feel that students should be given the autonomy to develop their own curriculum as being granted this autonomy is beneficial to a student’s growth. A curriculum is the regular or a particular course of study in a school. Students being able to develop their own curriculum would essentially mean the students get to decide what and when they study certain subjects and learn different skills. Now, how would being granted this autonomy be beneficial to a student’s growth?
Firstly, it would help students become more independent. A student has to plan and develop his own curriculum to his advantage. For example, if he is weak in a particular subject like maybe Mathematics. He or she can arrange more periods or lessons for this particular subject, resulting in more time spent on that subject, hopefully leading to an increase in marks in Mathematics. Every individual is different, just like how every snowflake is different. Everyone has their own weaknesses. Therefore, there is no recommended timetable which would benefit everyone. Thus, a student has to decide for himself what he is lacking in and what he requires more practise in. As such, a student cannot depend on the school to form a curriculum for him, but he himself must put in the effort and develop his own curriculum, as a result encouraging independence.
Other than this, it enables a student to pursue their own interests from a younger age. A student may be very interested in the arts. However, the curriculum that the school has may focus more on Math and Science, with less focus on the arts. The student thus cannot pursue his interest and have to sit for Math and Science lessons which may be unappealing and uninteresting to him. Being able to develop one’s own curriculum would enable one to choose to spend more time on certain subjects. A student inclined towards the arts would choose more artistic subjects like music to study. Allowing this from a younger age would mean a head start compared to others. A student with the goal of becoming a Scientist can choose to specialise in Science from a young age. Due to this, he would have more exposure to Science when he turns 20 compared to other people. This head start would clearly distinguish the two, one being more experienced compared to the other.
Finally, being granted this autonomy would encourage self-discipline. A student would face the temptation of choosing more relaxed subjects like maybe Music and Art. These students would thus have a more slack school life compared to other students, which may appeal to some. However, a student must overcome this temptation in order to succeed academically. This requires self-discipline. Students thus must exercise self-discipline when developing their own curriculum. Through the development of their own curriculum, the students are likely to become more self-disciplined, which is beneficial to their adult life.
On the other hand, some may argue that not every student is has as much self-discipline and not every student is matured enough to manage such a task. This is true. These students should then be deprived of this privilege, as granting them this privilege would have negative effects such as poor academic results which may in turn affect their future on way or another.
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