I read in
Dum Dum's blog that she is not sure whether to take Arts or Science when she enters form 4.
I faced the same problem but at least mine was rather clear cut for me because I only had 2 options for my future:
- My "dream" was to become a psychologist. So, that placed me in the Science stream.
- Because my parents were not likely to agree with the first choice, my backup plan was to get into Science, go to TARC for A-levels and study pharmacy like any other Tom, Dick and Harry...
And so, either way, I ended up in Science.
But I know people who faced problems because they didn't get the luxury of choice. There is the stereotypical thinking where Science stream students are better than Art students. So, most schools will automatically place their best students in Science and the not so smart ones in Art. At least that is what happened in my school.
Basically if your grades weren't good enough, even though you might want to go into Science, you are not allowed to. Biased? Well, that's Malaysian education for you.
And I feel that 15 is an age where they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too young to decide their future paths. In my opinion, people only manage to really find what they want to do in life when they go into college where there is a whole different level of independence and a certain amount of intelligence and integrity required.
For me, I love art and literature. But because I was in Science stream, I couldn't take those subjects because I already had 9 bloody freaking heavy subjects on my back. But I decided with a few friends (3 to be exact) to go ahead and take the Literature paper on top of our workload. And I managed to get a B by my own revision and discussion with friends. How we survived it, I have no idea.
But looking back now, I wonder how different life could be if I had taken Arts instead of Science... I'd have more brain cells for sure, because they wouldn't have been massacred by the evil evil subject Add Maths. I remember my first Add Maths results... it was only 12 marks? Out of 100. Which brain cell won't die?
I guess what I'm trying to say is that there needs to be more freedom for high school students to choose what they want. But I understand the limitations of the education industry for high schools... So, until Malaysia decides to revamp the whole system, poor lil 15 to 16 year olds have to flip a coin to decide XD
If someone asks for my opinion if they should choose Art or Science, I'd tell them to think about what they wanna do in the future. But they need to understand that going into Science stream would be hell and Arts' workload is not light either. The most important thing is that if there are people bossing you around or telling you what you should do, you really should just tell them to fuck off. It's your life.
I wish more of my juniors had said that to my school teachers... then there wouldn't be so many people who got lost after SPM because they realized that because they were forced to do something they didn't want to do, they just screwed up.
And there wouldn't be a certain arrogant idiot who ended up in psychology studying in the same college as me... GAH... but that is another story XD
