Hello Sunday

I've been having an exam-filled week last, and it took me the entire of yesterday and part of today to recover, not to mention easing my fears that my scores may not be good enough to apply to my dream programs. I don't know my full results yet and will only do so in two weeks time, but I think now is the right time to work on perfecting a writing sample, work on my statement of purpose AND fill in the application forms (on top of chasing up on two more of my referees, I think I'll get a fourth referee from the head of my former department). I was trawling the net most of yesterday night, after spending my afternoon to evening at the mall (yeah strange choice but I sort of like the bookshop there, nice for reading) and a spa, relaxing, finding out how and what I should do in preparing for grad application. I think I should pay a particular centre a visit before the end of this month, because at this point, I am highly dependent on the Internet for MOST, if not all, of my information.

Anyway, in my feverish hunt, I came across some interesting sites with interesting articles. Some of the issues explicated actually resonate with the conditions in Malaysia, which kinda arouse my interest. If the US is trying to move towards cultural-sterilization in its curriculum development, Malaysia seems to be moving towards cultural dogmatism (but it's been awhile since I last check but I hear things haven't changed radically).

Anyway, I am going to relax tonight before returning to a very busy day tomorrow, courtesy of my having been on leave for the last 2 1/2 days beginning last Wed.

I can't wait for Dec to come because that's when I freed from the application processes and can take my long-awaited holidays.

http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/1/cornog-readers.asp
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2004/12/08/15stotsky.h24.html?querystring=stotsky&rale=l4RcsgF70mPtCaS2ek8aL%2FHim3s5xG%2FFRSzhnM6nFXwtmUpH4yIKkb2JOlH8bB%2Brcg16gPcZvjWZ%0A3NC%2BysLspgFDXmI%2FlcT0UFD0QeYmHbfC%2B%2B2nsQk1apFKk3%2FHmsYssdFDTXoPXGS%2F2wCx

On a different note, the war against postmodernism continues here and it seems many are calling for the return to the kind of educational direction hailed by Allan Bloom and his didactic colleagues

http://www.grecoreport.com/bring_back_the_greeks.htm
http://www.grecoreport.com/the_founding_fathers_&_the_classics.htm

To take this to a different level (and away from the wars), how important is the study of classics? Personally, I think it is though not many would share my view (in Malaysia, we do have some sort of study of 'classic' works by having Malay Literature incorporated into the Malay Language studies syllabus in high schools. In fact, if one talks about ancient classics, they are likely to be less culturally-specific than the more 'modern' ones and can be appreciated by students from all backgrounds, with the aid of a well-trained and astute teacher. However, where will one find such a teacher in numbers that can fill the schools, especially third world schools? Perhaps one way around it is to stock the school libraries with the books and attempt to encourage the students to access and read them via publicity-type exhibitions or activity weeks. When we have a generation of students who know the classics, we will be able to have more teachers in this area and the anti-intellectual sterility of most public and corporate orgnizations can be countered.

As I wrote my exam essays, many ideas assaulted my thoughts (and my concentration) and it was unfortunate that I could not write them down at the time. Perhaps they may return to me sometime soon.