While having our brunch yesterday at Ah Lok Cafe, my good ol' friend, Cindy told me she went through some old photos the other day and had a big laugh about it. She scanned and forwarded one photo to me. My reaction was OMIGOD! That's the only word to describe it.The photo is sooo 90s. How time flies. The way we dressed, our hairstyles and not to mention our innocent faces. It was 1997 and together with Wai Loo, we were at Shu Fen's house to celebrate Chinese New Year. 
At that time we were still studying. Every semester or holiday break, we couldn't wait to go back to Kuantan to meet up with our good ol' friends whom we missed very much. What about the coming Chinese New Year? I think most of us will be just like the previous couple of years celebrating with our own families. We don't meet up for CNY celebration like we used to be anymore. Sad but it's true.
When I was a student, I always heard of the word 'utopia'. The word fascinates me and I wonder if it's achievable. After all, 'utopia' means 'ideally perfect place'.Lately, I've been thinking about 'utopian schools' and how we can have it to apply to Asian educational environment. Hardly anyone talks about educational utopias anymore. Instead we all seem to be too caught up with exam results, school violence, teachers burnout and so-called excellence. I've read an article saying that the early 1970s gave rise to exciting books like George Leonard's Education and Ecstasy and John Mann's Learning to Be, which painted fantasy pictures of futuristic schools that educated the total spectrum of human capability. In Leonard's book, children used computer-assisted technology to interact with humanity's rich collection of symbol systems. Mann's book described a utopian school where children attended "empathy classes" and simulated trips to Mars. Just 30 years later, some of these fantasies seem laughably outdated, whereas others are just now being realized. In their time, however, these books revealed a freshness of vision and an unabashed impulse to explore the heights of possibility in education. We just don't seem to do much exploring in this hardheaded era.I've checked the UM Main Library and it seems that both books are printed in the 1960s and 1970s. I'm going to get hold of those books later.In 1983, we saw the development of the remarkable theory of multiple intelligences (MI) by Dr Howard Gardner which sets a new paradigm for educational utopia. Most of us know what multiple intelligences are. In Malaysia, we have kindergartens and even publishers who tried to market their products and services by exploiting Gardner's model without fully understand its structure.I love the idea of educational utopia. I wish that someday our ministry of education will be interested as well.
Uni has just reopened for second semester. This is my second year here in UM doing my postgraduate degree.I've registered for the two final papers. One of them is leadership which I'll be taking together with a new batch of postgraduate students (other coursemates who are in the same batch with me already taken this paper during the first year).I attended the first lecture last Saturday. To my surprise, 25% of the students in the seminar room are "international students" and they are all from differents parts of China. I thought they must be muslims and from Xian or Xinjiang but I was wrong. Some are from the northern part of China, others from Shenzen and Guangdong. Perhaps this is a good sign. I believe UM is trying its best to improve the "International Student Score" in 2006.
Since I'll be away for New Year celebration, I'm going to take this opportunity to wish all bloggers a "Happy New Year". Hope 2006 will be a better year for all of us.
