Young or Matured Students?

I'm currently surfing the net in a bakery shop at Lido township, filling the time gap between my first class (8 to 10 am: Strength of Materials) and my second (12.45 - 2.45 pm: Fluid Mechanics for Civil Engineering) in the OUM Sabah headquarters. I'm teaching nine Diploma in Civil Engineering students and one Bachelor of Education (Civil Engineering), all of them working and studying at the same time. All students but one are older than me.

I'm also teaching a few Civil Engineering subjects in a local university in Sabah, fulltime, and almost all of my students are very young. Most of them came in after completing their STPM or matriculation and all with very short period, or probably no working experience in the industries. With the opportunity to teach engineering subjects to both group of students from different age and background, I'm able to observe several difference between matured and young students.

In general, I notice that matured students tend to be very serious when it comes to studying. They may be slow in grasping some information (due to the age factor), but they are very determined in trying to understand whatever it is taught. My opinion is that they value the importance of education. They invested their hard-earned money into education, because they know they are able to go far if they are able to improve in their academic achievements. They are able to see what they want in their future and education is the one of the main channels to achieve this.

Some students I teach in the university don't really know what they want in the future. If they can't be an engineer, they can be a teacher or whatever. Thus, the level of seriousness in learning is not as high as the matured students.

Matured students also tend to be vocal in class and with that, I find it easy to get their feedbacks. They are able to think critically, questioning any issues which they disagree on. With these kind of attitude, it is convenient for me as an educator to gauge my performance in teaching. I can improve my teaching method to achieve the purpose in getting them to appreciate the subject. If they don't understand something, say, a concept, they would just raise their hands and ask - without me asking them to. It is not so with young students. Most of the time, they will fall silent, that I have ask if they have any doubts etc just to get feedbacks. They also tend to be lost if I start to ask them questions which requires them to argue or think critically.

I can list more, but due to time constraint (it's almost 12.45 already), I'll just stop at two differences. Bear in mind that these are only my observation and I would understand if anyone disagree with me. Feel free to comment/argue with me in this issue. I would really like to learn from the experiences of others.

Sabah: what is the future?

My apologies for the late update of my blog. I have been so busy getting adjusted with some changes in my life, that I couldn't spare some time to sit down, sort out the ideas in my head and start jotting down. Somehow, I need to start getting committed to express life seen from my eyes in words. Then again, that was what I was saying years ago. Anyway..

I'm currently reading a book penned down by Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan entitled "Justice for Sabah". Considering that the Malaysians are bombarded with the news of the current, tumultuous political atmosphere on the telly everyday, I find this book worth reading. It gives a detailed narration of injustice and violations of rights upon Sabahans, supported by numerous information on historical written evidence (statistics, laws, agreements etc.), added with the experience by DDJK when he was in a 4-year detainment under the Internal Security Act (ISA) since 1991.

After reading the first few pages of the book, I can't help but feeling shocked as how much Sabah has suffered since joining the Federation of Malaysia. There is so much violation made by the Federal government on the Twenty Points, which was composed in order to protect Sabahans from falling into another type of colonialism after Britain. It is also an irony where Sabah, which is supposed to be very rich in natural resources - oil, timber etc. - is listed as the poorest state in Sabah. What's wrong? Why do we end up like this?

After reading the book, I came to a realization as how unaware I was with what is happening in my own soil. Yes, I saw numerous poor Sabahans when I travel into the interiors of Sabah (these people are living in hardcore poverty). True, I see so many illegal immigrants coming into Sabah and becoming naturalized in such a short period of time. I am aware that the Federal government has screwed up the political system of Sabah. But neither would I imagine the depth of this political exacerbation nor know how long since this started. No wonder this problem is hard to solve. It has deeply rooted as time goes by.

Frankly speaking, I fear for the future of Sabahans. Every morning when I wake up from bed, I wonder what today is going to be. The government is so shaky that anything can happen in a split second. A very fine example is the recent fuel price hike - it was announced just a few hours before it was imposed. Such a ridiculous decision!

I'm not trying to be very political here, because I know it is not my calling. Well, at least for now. I'm observing how Sabah has been progressing (or regressing) these past years. Sabah has been a laughing stock because of its history of political upheaval (where politicians became party defectors). However, if it is God's will that this political turbulence should come to pass, we Christians just have to be prepared. Who knows? This may be one of the signs that the End of Days is around the corner.

"Lord, bless Sabah & bring us out from this political unrest.. but let only Your will be done.."