(Word of warning: long post ahead!)
Day two done and dusted! Today was the longest day in the world, ever. We were up for breakfast at 7.30am (all on time!), out to Kidzania at 8.30, in Kidzania from 9-5pm, dinner until 6 and then off to the TFM office to reach at 7 where we had a workshop from 7.30 to 10 and a short detour to KLCC for photos before heading back home, by midnight. Phew!
Kidzania was, as expected, a tremendously eye-opening exposure for my kids. Many of them have revised their initial ambitions (although most want to be DJs now because the DJ station was just awesome) but ultimately I think what really it offered was the cementing of the realisation that there was just so much out there and that it was accessible given trying and the right attitude. What really, really got me were two things- one of my most struggling readers in his police costume and the kids taking part in the public Kidzania dance at the end of the day.
My most struggling reader still can’t read many words. His parents told me they want to put him in Pendidikan Khas. He often doesn’t know what is going on and reacts to things much later than the other kids so he tends to follow his friends around and do what they do. His parents can’t send him for project read so I’ve been picking him up from the fishing village since we started in March. Ever since the first time I picked him up for reading classes, he’s told me he wants to be a policeman. So today when he saw the policeman booth he insisted on queueing up for it. Zarul and I realised early on that many of the kids were avoiding queuing even for things they wanted to do cause they didn’t want to wait long- it really made us realise how big a problem grit is in our school! Anyway, Hafizul insisted on queueing even though none of his friends wanted to and patiently waited in line for his turn alone. The smile he had when he put on the policeman uniform was like the sun.
Another thing that cropped up was a few of them coming and hanging round my table around the start of the day. They told me they were ‘tak larat’ to take part in the activities, which really hurt my feelings because I thought they were not appreciating all the hard work it took to get them here. As I mulled over it, I realised that it was because they were scared. Kidzania was overwhelming, with all its enticing and previously thought unattainable opportunities offered. A lot of the volunteers assume you can speak English and that’s pretty intimidating too. I had to (really really) coax a few of them into taking the first step and trying- but imagine my delight when, near the end of the day, when it came time to do the hourly Kidzania public dance, I realised that the very same kids who ‘tak larat’ before were doing the dance enthusiastically behind the performers on stage! It’s so easy to assume that just giving the kids opportunities some times is what is needed, but what we need to remember is that it’s not a magic formula and proper guidance and handholding is sometimes necessary.
We then went to TFM for a workshop that would build on what they had seen and learnt in Kidzania. The Form 1 and Form 2s would be split up to cater to their different proficiency levels and I would like to give a huge shout out to the amazing volunteers, who took a load of time out of their busy schedules to plan and run their sessions. 12 amazing volunteers ran the different parts and the kids truly benefitted from it.
For the Form 1s, they learnt about the different vocations out there, and how to pick based on their personalities. They then learnt how to set short term goals and tried to set a few goals for themselves. They got really comfortable (read: cheeky) with the volunteers really fast, and their final goals were actually amazingly heartfelt! “Saya tak akan ponteng sungai di sekolah” (They escape school by wading through the river at the back of the school) “Saya tak akan merokok untuk dua minggu”, “Saya akan solat 5 kali sehari”. Thank you, Atikah, Kai Lee, Mirosha, Kharleez and Dan for leading a super fun session and keeping even my most hyperactive student engaged for over 2 hours!
For the Form 2s, they had a heavier session on identifying careers using SWOT analysis, before an incredibly informative session on the different streams, paths, scholarships and further study options present to them. Several super cool people from different fields (aircraft engineering, sustainable architecture, a pilot, software development) spoke to them about non-mainstream career paths and finally they did a 10 year plan for themselves. The kids took it all in like sponges, because getting information like this is really hard and rare in school and they so badly want to do well for themselves and their families. Thank you, Yazlin, Johann, Amira, Alyn, Yugen, Sheena and Alex for the power-packed session, and for stepping outside your comfort zone to help the kids (:
After that, it was KLCC (when they saw the lit-up KLCC from the bus on the highway, all of them let out a collective ‘Oooooooooh’) and then home. Zoo Negara tomorrow and then it’s back to Kedah for us! I’ve really learnt a tremendous amount the past two days, and I hope it’s the same for my kids.