To dissect a carrot
Here's a rather disturbing piece of news on the recent Biology practicals. The feat? To dissect a carrot with a penknife during the 'O'-levels Biology practical exam. Read it on The New Paper.
So was it the fault of the SHARP penknife, the BIG carrot or the CRAPPY education system? Or the poor clueless and defenseless student given a feeble weapon against a tough adversary?
A combination of all combined? All of the all of the above? A sum of the total?
Sorry to say I laughed at this piece of news - my heart goes out to those who suffered injuries and who faced the phobia of doing Biology practicals the rest of their lives - aiyah, how to go into the very hot Bioscience line like that???
I can vouch with my personal experience that penknives are meant to cut flimsy things like origami paper and perhaps onions, not tough old carrots. They should have consulted Home Economics teachers on this very basic, commonsensical "what knives should I use for this purpose?" knowledge.
And why do I feel so strongly about this piece of news? 1) It's about Biology - an academic discipline I stil adore even though professionally I'm not in that line 2) I had firsthand experience with carrots, knives and horse legs.
OK so the second story is more interesting - I've told it verbally many times before. When I volunteered at the Night Safari, I was tasked with food preparation. I spent most of my time in the kitchen processing food to feed animals - hours of cutting up carrots, sweet potatoes, legumes for that very fun albeit short 20 minutes of feeding the animals. The knife was a proper kitchen knife (not a Ginsu but still pretty large-assed one) but needed very regular sharpening as it blunts so quickly. I had blisters from the efforts - hours of chopping very tough roots with a blunt knife is no joke, but I persevered and chopped relentlessly for the sake of the cute and hungry herbivores. But one day I faced an unsurmountable challenge - processing food for carnivores.
It was a scene from Doom that is etched into my memory - a huge black horse leg hanging hoof-side up from the ceiling dripping blood onto the floor with a pool accumulating below it. I am accustomed to the sight and smell of blood - but when I held the long knife in my hand, I realised that I had no idea where or how to start, and I knew I could not do it.
So I gladly got "demoted" back to processing herbivore feed. And hence I can again vouch for the wisdom of using the right knives for the right job.
Back to the article - really, all this should not deter students from pursuing Biology - it will be a sad thing if it did. Until today, I still get such strong response from people who ask about my degree and almost always comment "Why aren't you working in a Zoo?" - for those who DIDN'T say that (I can count them in one hand), I am grateful that:
1) you are knowledgeable enough to know that Zoology is the study of animals, not running a Zoo fer godsakes
2) you respect that it's a proper discipline and not something you should make fun of. I don't tell people who study psychology that "Hey! Why aren't you working in IMH?" or philosophy "Hey! Why haven't you killed yourself yet?" or law "Hey! Why hasn't lightning struck you for lying so much yet?"
and
3) you know Zoologists are pretty handy with knives, they are not afraid of blood and internal fluids, and they know exactly how to remove organs, so don't you think we deserve some respect?
And for students - take heart, the carrot is just the beginning, there will be tougher things to carve in future, like the leg of a horse.
Here's a rather disturbing piece of news on the recent Biology practicals. The feat? To dissect a carrot with a penknife during the 'O'-levels Biology practical exam. Read it on The New Paper.
So was it the fault of the SHARP penknife, the BIG carrot or the CRAPPY education system? Or the poor clueless and defenseless student given a feeble weapon against a tough adversary?
A combination of all combined? All of the all of the above? A sum of the total?
Sorry to say I laughed at this piece of news - my heart goes out to those who suffered injuries and who faced the phobia of doing Biology practicals the rest of their lives - aiyah, how to go into the very hot Bioscience line like that???
I can vouch with my personal experience that penknives are meant to cut flimsy things like origami paper and perhaps onions, not tough old carrots. They should have consulted Home Economics teachers on this very basic, commonsensical "what knives should I use for this purpose?" knowledge.
And why do I feel so strongly about this piece of news? 1) It's about Biology - an academic discipline I stil adore even though professionally I'm not in that line 2) I had firsthand experience with carrots, knives and horse legs.
OK so the second story is more interesting - I've told it verbally many times before. When I volunteered at the Night Safari, I was tasked with food preparation. I spent most of my time in the kitchen processing food to feed animals - hours of cutting up carrots, sweet potatoes, legumes for that very fun albeit short 20 minutes of feeding the animals. The knife was a proper kitchen knife (not a Ginsu but still pretty large-assed one) but needed very regular sharpening as it blunts so quickly. I had blisters from the efforts - hours of chopping very tough roots with a blunt knife is no joke, but I persevered and chopped relentlessly for the sake of the cute and hungry herbivores. But one day I faced an unsurmountable challenge - processing food for carnivores.
It was a scene from Doom that is etched into my memory - a huge black horse leg hanging hoof-side up from the ceiling dripping blood onto the floor with a pool accumulating below it. I am accustomed to the sight and smell of blood - but when I held the long knife in my hand, I realised that I had no idea where or how to start, and I knew I could not do it.
So I gladly got "demoted" back to processing herbivore feed. And hence I can again vouch for the wisdom of using the right knives for the right job.
Back to the article - really, all this should not deter students from pursuing Biology - it will be a sad thing if it did. Until today, I still get such strong response from people who ask about my degree and almost always comment "Why aren't you working in a Zoo?" - for those who DIDN'T say that (I can count them in one hand), I am grateful that:
1) you are knowledgeable enough to know that Zoology is the study of animals, not running a Zoo fer godsakes
2) you respect that it's a proper discipline and not something you should make fun of. I don't tell people who study psychology that "Hey! Why aren't you working in IMH?" or philosophy "Hey! Why haven't you killed yourself yet?" or law "Hey! Why hasn't lightning struck you for lying so much yet?"
and
3) you know Zoologists are pretty handy with knives, they are not afraid of blood and internal fluids, and they know exactly how to remove organs, so don't you think we deserve some respect?
And for students - take heart, the carrot is just the beginning, there will be tougher things to carve in future, like the leg of a horse.
Hear hear...
From a Home Economics teacher's and also as a normal teacher's point of view, I'd say that those people up there do blunder marvelously. Sad eh...
Posted by
kenwong37 |
Sunday, December 04, 2005 10:37:00 AM