This is a rant thread written by an O level Geography Elective
student, dedicated to expressing his intense dislike for O level
Humanities.
Humanities are supposed to inculcate a love for arts, culture
and teach us to understand human mentalities and society. But, is O
Level Humanities doing its job in teaching us culture? In a
Humanities lesson, we are expected to learn to express our views
and taught that nothing is absolute in culture. We are all entitled
to our own views. However, is this view being brought to life in
the way we are assessed? From how I see it, Humanities has been
degraded to three basic points:
Instead of getting us to express our ideas about society and
human interaction, Humanities exams are now testing us on how fast
we write with respect to questions that stump all of us. Why is it
that we are expected to do so much in just one and a half hours?
Have the examiners ever tried taking their own papers? A Social
Studies paper requires at least four cross-references, identifying
of purposes, tones and hidden motives. How are we expected to do so
much in an ideal time-split of 45 minutes? And, the SEQ questions
are not tests of skill at all. Instead, they test our ability to
remember the model answers, and then vomit them out in record
timing. Is this what Humanities means in materialistic, modern
Singapore? That all we need to do to get far in life is memorising
a bunch of random facts and spilling them out?
Geography exams are not the best papers to do either. One point
of contention I have with the method of examination is the
requirement of examples- some questions, like the first sub-part
for the 2009 Geography Elective Human Geog questions, are based
entirely on the regurgitation of examples. Also, when we do
questions involving GM Food, how many times are we going to vomit
out the facts involving lectin potatoes and Bt corn? Are memorising
examples as important as knowing the concepts and applying in
situations? Geography is no longer a subject where we learn about
the land and political issues that are faced by the people- it's
now about memorising facts and vomiting!
People, Humanities needs its life back. What it needs is the
actual artistic spirit that it aims to instill in us.
On a lighter note, hurray! Humanities is OVER!~ No more
ridiculous questions involving weighing of factors to think
about!