I have finished reading...

"The Curse". That's the prescribed novel for form five students in Pahang this year and I suppose for few years ahead. Prior to reading the novel, I've heard mixed reactions from teachers about the novel. Some were good, some weren't so. The positive included 'interesting story', 'something Malaysian students could relate to and understand', 'familiar background' etc. The negative however dealt more with the issues presented in the novel. They thought the novel lacked moral values to students, what with talking about murder and affairs. I on the other hand believe learning happens not only when you are laid out with all the right things to do, but more so when you discover what are the right things. Life should not be seen as either black or white, there are grey areas and not that I'm implying that I condone such acts of grey, but I think what people have failed to do is understand. I feel that there is a need for me to send across this message to students: Do not label people. What I highlighted today when we started discussing the novel today was how people's perception about one another could do more harm than good. I illustrated this by drawing their attention to the contrasting characters between Madhuri and her sister, Azreen. They were total opposites of one another and people kept doing what they do best which is comparing. As a result Azreen develops a sense of dislike towards her sister, not because she really wants to but more so because she doesn't like the comparing. But can we really blame Madhuri for her demure personality? It's just who she is, but because of that she is expected to be perfect. What the society fails to see is the fact that she's a human being too, not free from err. Hence, even her own father couldn't accept the truth when he discovered about her affair. How could she, such a perfect young lady, a daughter he had brought up and married off to such a respectable man, could do such a misbehaviour? The label has blinded people from accepting that she could make mistakes too. Another issue I discussed with the students today is the importance of reputation in one's life. In the story, reputation becomes too important that justice is not only overlooked, but simply concealed and covered. Madhuri's murder was greatly covered to save the reputation of both her husband and father. Is it fair for Madhuri though? Well, there is no wrong or right answer, just stating my opinion. With that I think there's no harm done by introducing such real issues to students. Like I said before, you don't learn about life through reading about the rosy stories. You understand and discover things through seeing the repercussions and looking at life like a open book. I just hope my students enjoy the novel for both pleasure and learning some valuable lessons from it.