05 April 2018
A friend recently sought help from me to check if his son’s answers to his K2 homework were correct. I draw to your attention Q1 – ‘on the bus’ or ‘in the bus’?
The boy’s answer was correct but he was not sure why. Why do we say in the car but on the bus instead? He was happy after being enlightened and submitted his work. His joy was short-lived when he was told by his teacher that the answer should be ‘in the bus’ since children are inside the bus. The poor boy was confused…
I am glad my friend verified with me instead of following blindly what the teacher had claimed. To which, I provided a credible source – Ministry of Education’s (MOE) explanation.
This is not an isolated case of our educators obfuscating our young. I have come across students attempting to use difficult vocabulary that they have learned outside the classroom – only to be penalised because the teachers are not familiar. I am not advocating that our educators must be walking encyclopaedias. But certainly they can do better than to simply disregard our young minds when they experiment with something new. When something seems unfamiliar, mutual learning happens.