A Tale of Two (part II)

The princess stood at her window staring at the sunset. Twelve days have past since she was informed that she was to be engaged to the son of a Nobel man. Her father, the King had told her that her groom to be would arrive in three week's time. The already heart broken princess was in a full depression now.

A few days on her normal disguise routine in the market she saw her stranger friend. She waved at him and he waved back recognising her. But when she approached him he asked her what she wanted in a rather cold manner and went away. The next few days she went back to the market to search for him but he was no where to be found. Then one night her servant who had been with her since she was a child told her that it seems that her stranger friend was spotted with a young girl a few nights ago. She also heard alot of similar rumors of her stranger friend. She was devastated. She finally told her mother what had happened. The queen was sympathetic to her and told her that it was her choice and that even if she had decided to marry the stranger she would try to convince the King, though she gently discouraged her. After all her happiness is what matters.

She wanted to give her stranger friend the benefit of doubt that what she heard was only rumors. But to her dismay the day before yesterday , on her trip to the market she met the girl herself who asked her (thinking she was a stall keeper) to pass the message to the stranger friend that she was not ignoring her and that she was busy with business and would talk to him soon. The poor naive princess ran all the way home crying and told her mother. Her mother told her once again to forget the stranger. Filled with anger and a sharp pain in her heart. She decided to forget the stranger friend of hers and continue with her life. And life has an amazing way of turning things around for her.

The next few days her father was to journey to another kingdom and while he was away, the princess was to see to the running of the kingdom. This kept her very busy so much so that she was too tired to even think about her stranger friend. Then one night, a stormy night, when she was filled with exhaustion she dreamt of her dragon friend. Apparently he asked her why she had not come to visit her and wished she could come to see him for her missed her alot. The princess decided to take a break from her assigned work and made her way to see the dragon friend.

As she approached the cave she heard a loud roar and worried she rushed in with her hands on her sword. What she saw horrified her. Just a few feet away from where she stood she saw her beautiful friend's head with his tongue sticking out and his eyes closed in the arms of a man whose back was facing her. She had no idea what she was overcome by, but all she knew was she charged towards the man screaming for her to let go and the next thing she knew was that she was on the ground facing a rather unfamiliar face whose eyes were looking at her puzzled and bemused. And then her friend's head popped to greet her. The princess got up and dusted herself.

The dragon asked her what she was trying to do and she explained her purpose of her visit. And how she thought that the dragon was being slayed by a stranger and came to her rescue.Throughout the conversation, the stranger seemed to have comfortably seated himself at a near by rock, looking at the princess. He seemed very much amused with the way she was narrating her tale. The dragon told the princess that they were just fooling around and invited the stranger to introduce him to the princess. The stranger stepped forward, took her hands and planted a kiss and before the dragon could say anything, the stranger introduced himself as Talyor, a blacksmith and an old friend of the dragon. The dragon grinned and nodded.

It was the first actual time the princess took a good look at Talyor. He was a handsome, strapping young man and did not seem at all like a blacksmith. Nevertheless, she thought he was too sweet and probably one of those who enjoys flirting with women. After all he could afford to because he was good looking. She removed her hands and wiped it off her skirt. She was red in face after what had happened and so to save her any more embarrassment she bid both goodbye and walked off the cave.

to be continued...

picture: http://annika.horus.at/pictures/dragonheart_draco2.JPG

Is there any grain of truth in school stereotypes?

This is a reply to the article called, "Playing with Stereotypes"written by Ignatius Low in the Sunday Times life on April 12 2009.

Any stereotype cannot continue to persist if they don't have at least some truth in it. To me two things contribute to school stereotypes, school culture and school image. Both are inseparable and to me it is to hard rank which is more influential.

I came from a neighbourhood primary school and was posted to St Margaret Secondary and I remembered how some of my teachers were telling me that girls from St Margaret always had a good command of English. And believe it or not, my command of English was quite good during the four years. And why not, when you have a Principal (the late Caroline Lee) who would correct every sentence we spoke and even taught me to differentiate the pronunciation of words, 'shit'and 'sheet'in the musical piece I was performing. We were also known to be pretty bold (it takes guts to wear green poka dots) and adventurous especially in the early stages of performing arts. This was not a level culture but a school culture. Today when I go to train my juniors in leadership and even after 10 years, the culture still remains. We may not be an elite school but the school identity still holds.

School culture and school image are not frictional and they tend to manifest themselves over the years. Take ACS Barker for instance. When i was a teenager I use to admire ACS/ ACS Barker boys because they were usually athletic and very much a lady's man. They were charismatic and very boyish. I find that very true when I mix around with these boys/men in University and during my JCS days. I even conducted leadership training sessions 2 years back and there is no doubt about what has been said about them (this includes them being snobbish etc).

However there are some images like RGS and RI where the school image which is based on grades, tend to create the stereotypes and once again it is true that RGS and RI boys behave in a certain way that depicts the way they think.

However what really bothers me is the over emphasis on stereotypes of only certain schools. It is just churning the milk over and over again. After a while it gets sour. I am definitely guilt of such churning at times but nowadays I tend to look out for fresh perspectives in the schools I train in. For instance I find Evergeen students to be extremely polite and very neat. Whenever someone mentions the name Evergreen Secondary, the image of something green and clean comes to mind. Mention the name Kranji Secondary I think of future engineers because the students there seem to be good with their physics and maths and very analytical in nature.

The point I am trying to make here is that we should create more stereotypes of schools that are not basically talked about. I mean since there is definitely tons of grains of truth so why not spread it and give ourselves tons to talk about?

Unmasking of Children's Literature

This was one of my best essay (even though I got only an A-) that I wrote for my favourite sociology professor, A/P Syed Farid Alatas. He always knew me as the girl with a bandana and there was never a lesson that I would deliberately miss. That was how much I enjoyed his intellectual lessons. This is the first part of the few installments of the shorter version of the essay with some edition to its content. Thought of sharing it with those who do read my blog. Enjoy!

Introduction

"Ring around the roses
A pocket full of poses
Ah- choo! Ah- Choo!
We all fall down" - Unknown

When I was a child I use to recite this rhyme everywhere I went. I learnt it while I was watching a movie where a few girls were singing this in a garden and then they all fell down and never got up. As a child I had not the faintest idea that the girls were literally dropping dead (thanks to no handsome hunk) but from the great plague.

Many a times we assume that children are very much innocent and that they need to be protected and shield from the cruelty of life. So stories that were told to children such as fairytales would actually educate the children in way that they should behave so that they could protect themselves. Children's stories were very much a fantasy world where children would feel safe and where anything that tries to harm them would be killed. Sounds like a perfect scenario for children to grow up right?

In reality this notion is only the tip of the iceberg. The actual truth is the hidden portion of the ice berg which is submerged below the water surface. In this essay I shall attempt to uncover the conscious motives that lie behind the idea of children's literature. What exactly do the stories signify? How does a child take to the stories? What is it really trying to convey? In order to answer the following questions we need to first understand how one approaches children's novel.

Reading the text

It is important to understand that "children's books are written by adults for children"1 This means that are "multiple layers of adult writing"2 and thus multiple forms of interpretation. Children as pointed out by sociologists and many other theorists are not a homogeneous group of people but are rather largely diverse. They come divided by different backgrounds, cultures, history and societies. They also have differing developmental stages and different modes of making senses of the world they live in. However despite these differences when it comes to stories such as fairytales and folktales, there seems to be a common understanding of what is being depicted in these stories. Why is that so?

The answer lies in the way the text is written and how it is interpreted by the reader. There are altogether 5 types of reader involved in a reading process and the idea of the true meaning of the text is no longer in existence. What I am implying is here is that there is no such thing as a 'true meaning' when it comes to reading a text. It becomes very subjective and the true meaning would depend on the reader and the story that has been written. It is the interpretation of the author through hos story and the understanding of the story that gives out the 'true meaning' of the text.

Firstly there is the real author who writes the plot of the story. He or she is also referred to at times as the 'second self '. This second self is another level of adult writing whereby a "certain kind of reader through the kind of language used."3 This means it is words that the author uses that creates another level of understanding of the text and can be interpreted by the reader. Thus the motive behind the actual text may vary due to the language that has been chosen to be used.

Next you have the implied child reader. This is the child that surfaces from the second self. The language used belongs to a child rather than an adult, therefore the child reader then surfaces from the text through the use of the language. This basically means that the text is then interpreted from the viewpoint of a child and thus becomes the focus of the narrative. That "focus can be inferred if that narrative includes nothing that would be outside the child's perception"4 This then becomes another level in terms of understanding the text, the narrative focus within the child's perception becomes another form of understanding and therefore another form of reader.

The last reader would be the actual reader. This is any "given reader in the real world, can choose to read as, 'The Implied reader' on a 'temporary' basis, even though they might themselves have very different abilities and sensibilities"5. This is usually the last level of the reader of the text. This is also the level that many mistakenly assumed as the second level of interpretation when it comes to interpretation of children's literature. So when we look at the text there is multiple level of interpretation and hence this can appeal to children despite their social difference.

Having said that, can we then assume that the joy of reading and common understanding is derived by the child because he or she has his or her own interpretation of the text? In that case can we rightly assume that the motive of the text varies according to each individual child? The answer is no.

To be continued...

___________________
1 Karin Lesnik Oberstein , "The Psychopathology of Everyday Children's Literature Criticism, 305
2 Karin, 305
3 Neil Cocks, "The Implied Reader, Response and Responsibility: Theories of the Implied Reader in Children's Literature Criticism, 95
4 Cocks, 95
5 Cocks, 95

A Tale of Two

To many of us, nursery rhymes and fairy tales are songs and stories that we grew up with. They were there to entertain us, to help our brain to develop and sometimes to teach us a value or two. But the irony is that sometimes these tales are a disguise of what actually happen in some people's life. I would know that because I use the same technique to create stories to teach my younger ones. A true story that gets hidden in the world of fantasy to deliver a message. So far I have only used the traditional manner of telling tales. Today however, I shall write this tale down for you to read. Just enjoy!

A Tale of Two

Once a upon a time, in a far away land there lived a princess. Well, not exactly a princess. She was quite different from your ordinary princesses of her age. You see most princesses would spend their time carrying out their duties as princesses and looking after themselves. But this not- so- princess- like princess spend most of her time doing things that drove her parents insane. Now don't get me wrong she wasn't rebellious, she was different. For instance she would spend most of the days in disguised with the peasants and simpletons and do things that they would normally do for a living. When she was more in an adventurous mood she would take her stallion and ride into the forests and explore. Some of her friends include snakes , wolves and a rather old dragon who lived in the caves. She loved visiting the old dragon for he would tell her tales of strange journeys and even more far away lands.

Now one day the old dragon was telling her about one of his adventures when the princess sighed. The dragon knew she was bored and restless and asked her why. She complained that she was bored of being a princess and how she hated the prince that her parents have set her up with. She craved for something different. The dragon smiled and asked her that was what she really wanted. She sighed again. Then the dragon brought out a mirror to her and asked her to make a wish looking at her reflection. She was so excited that she made a wish from her heart without much thought. The dragon then asked her to leave and tell her to visit him again when she was free. She was puzzled and wonder why he had said that. It was not as if her life was that busy. Nevertheless, she did not ask any questions and left.

Now a few days later our princess was in disguise in a market place when she met a strange young man. He was not your prince charming at all. In fact he was a rather cold stranger who was busy eying the passer by and seeing to his business. Somewhat the princess did not like the stranger at all and without much thought she went back home. Now it so happen she would meet the same stranger everyday at the market place and before she knew it they became friends. He seem somewhat nicer to her than he was at first and she enjoyed his company.

The days turned to months and one night while they were both catching the tinulas (small creatures that only appear at night) the princess saw a huge scar on her friend's arms. He told her he got it in a battle while saving a friend who betrayed his trust in the end. For once in her life the princess saw a different side of her friend and she started admiring him. This went on for weeks and one day she told him how she felt. The stranger warned her that he was not what he seem but that did not stop the princess from having feeling for him.

The stranger himself did not understand his own feelings for that princess. He knew that she was a princess and he was not fit for her. He was afraid that one day she would leave him for a noble blood. She was a princess and he thought that she would never listen nor care about him. He thought that she was just fascinated with him and it would eventually die down. So one day when she came to see him. He scolded her and asked her to leave.

The poor princess ran to the cave to see her dragon who was not surprised to see her. She cried and told the dragon what happened. She told the dragon how much she loved the stranger friend of hers and no matter what he has done or what happens to him, her heart would only belong to him and that she would never leave him. The dragon listened calmly and then told her that she needed to make a decision for herself and only could do that when she goes home. He then bid her farewell.

She went back home heavy in heart. When she reached home she saw her father and mother in the company of other Nobel men. She wondered what was going on when her mother came to her side to tell her that she was to be engaged to the son of a Nobel man in order to bury the hatchet of an old rivalry. The poor princess was torn to tell her parents the truth but then she stopped herself. After all the stranger friend had rejected her so what was the point of her telling her parents about her feelings. They will only laugh at her. She also knew that she had to carry out her duties as a princess and not to shame her father. So she dried her tears and went to her chamber to get ready to be the princess she ought to have been a long time ago.

To be continued...

picture from : http://www.smh.com.au/news/film-reviews/tim-burtons-corpse-bride/2005/11/16/1132016860888.html

Fading out

Faith's scream pierced the silence of time. Love and Hope dropped whatever they were doing and rush into the room only to find Faith crouched at the corner of the room, her eyes filled with fear staring straight ahead. Love and Hope followed her gaze. What they saw stunned them . Straight ahead was Faith's wheel spinning as fast as it could. But what it was spinning was threads of fire. It was not just flames of fire but each thread was on fire as if it was an ornament for the thread. As the threads pile up it looked like a huge long a tail of an ancient dragon. A sight they have never seen before.

"Look Hope" whispered Love and pointed at the other two spinning wheels. Love's wheel was spinning black threads while Hope's threads were fading away becoming translucent in the process. The threads in combination was uncannily melodious but it was obvious that something was terribly wrong in a rather extreme manner.

"I had no idea. It suddenly caught fire and I remove my hands before it could burn me. Everything was going hay wired. I had no idea what to do. Your wheels were also spinning in a weird manner. I just didn't know how to react. I have never expected this to happen" cried Faith out of the blue moon. Love kneel down to comfort Faith. Hope moved around carefully analyzing what was in front of her.

"Hmm... this is not good at all. We are heading for disaster"

"What is wrong Hope? What do you see?"asked Love as she helped Faith to her feet. She was slowly recovering from the initial shock and was waiting to see what Hope had discovered.

" She is angry with you Faith"

Faith gasped, "But what have I done?"

Hope closed her eyes. She started chanting softly and despite her eyes begin closed, Faith and Love could see that they were darting from one point to another. It was as if she was looking at something and they knew she was. Hope was looking at the event that has caused such a reaction. She frowned and her eyebrows were locked in a rather engaging mode. Faith and Love waited anxiously to see what she had to say. After what seemed like eternity, Hope opened her eyes and sighed. She motioned the two of them to come to her side and to hold her hands. When they did so, Faith and Love was hit with a wave of images. They both quickly closed their eyes and steady the images. After a few minutes they both opened their eyes befuddled with what they have seen. Faith was the first to break the silence.

"I cannot believe that she thinks it was my fault. She thinks I am a twisted sick person playing games with her", fumed Faith who once again had regained her cool rationality. "Its not my fault if she was disappointed with her own expectations. If things does not go her way she blames me. She was disappointed with her own self and she has the audacity to blame me"

"Well, I think she was heart broken. I think she expected him to be there and he was not. I think she just no longer can take it. After all we are all stuck in a rut when it comes to her situation and it is hard to explain to her what is going on. I mean she is partly to be blamed because she just chooses to see what she wants to see and seem to interpret things wrongly" added Love

"I mean after all we have done for her she is so ungrateful and she just chooses to do things her way without thinking. I just don't see what we should take this from her. And if she thinks she is so smart, well she can just go and end her life. I mean I really don't need her. She thinks she controls me. She does not owe me anything, I just move on to someone else, a new assignment for me. How dare she thinks that I am dependent on her?" bellowed Faith. She felt her temper rising and was really getting annoyed with this girl and suddenly was tempered to just snap the threads of her life away. She looked at Hope who had just chosen to remain silent throughout and now had moved to her spinning wheel. She was looking closely at her thread but he thoughts were else where. Faith called out her name. She looked up

"Put yourself in her shoes Faith for once. She is in a difficult position. Think about it. For once in her life she has fallen in love and yet her loved ones don't really approve of who she has fallen in love. I mean they still fear for her safety despite the fact they would do anything to make her happy. Her happiness is their happiness. She is not sure if she is making the right decision. The man who stole her heart had asked her to find a better treasure and felt her in the ruts. She gets messages that does not make sense. She wants to give up but she realise all would be wasted and he loved one would get hurt and yet she cannot find replace the heart she has lost. She doubts herself and her self esteem is down. He life is stagnant and she just holding on to what she presumes is a learning part of her life and even that is slowly fading of her. She apologises many times but her mind is not stable and finally she decides to sacrifice herself and even then she is not convinced of what she is doing." Hope paused.

Faith pondered for a while. " I suppose its not easy but what can we do?"she asked but before Hope could answer Love interrupted.

"We have to wait until she clears her thoughts. But I suppose now what she is doing is clearing her frustration and let's just pardon her for it. I am sure it will clear don't worry Faith and don't be cross with her"She smiled and Faith heaved a sigh and smiled back.

" Well I hope so too. If not it will be too late to do anything... I really hope so"" replied Hope as she worriedly caressed her thread that was fading in her own hands.