UPSR Essays : Creating critical thinking.

This is taken from http://just-4or-fun.blogspot.com/

A couple of days ago, Yu Jin had us to debate about the KBSM syllabus and the SAT. Interestingly, we had a couple of advocates for the Malaysian KBSM. The rest of the class were pro-Americana. After some fiery exchanges and a great deal of yelling, the majority was firm on the stand that SAT was a better test, despite its flaws. I was one of them. However, what I did not know was that at the primary school level, the UPSR test did what the SAT is doing to us now. Can you believe it? Indirectly, the UPSR challenges critical thinking, debating on controversial issues, and also promotes an eye-catching first line where we have to 'grab it and don't let go.' (inside joke, that :P) The UPSR test is in fact an avenue for young, creative minds to express themselves without the restriction of formatting, language, and formalities.
If you're blur, confused, and asking yourself, "What on the good earth is he talking about?!", it is time to read these two great UPSR karangans. Malaysia Boleh.
Got this from a forwarded email. It may be familiar to some of you. :)

KARANGAN 1
Ceritakan peristiwa yang paling ngeri dalam hidup anda.

This morning is a weekend morning. The weather is so cold it reaches the freezing point. That is why I do not take my morning bath because the water became ice and the water does not want to come out because it is frozen in the pipes. That morning, I am having breakfast with my family in a camp fire because I cannot stand the coldness. After that, my mother asks me to accompany her to the market. But I do not want to.

After my mother stabbed me with a fork on my stomach many times then only I reluctantly follow her. We walked about 120 kilometres because the market is 128 kilometres from home. About 8 kilometres from the market, I met a truck container speeding fast from the back.

The truck hit my mother. My mother is thrown to the canyon. She shouted “Ouch!” After that my mother went up and chases that truck. I too had to run behind my mother because I am afraid my mother will hit the truck. The truck driver saw us speeding towards him. He speeds faster, equivalent to the speed of light. We are forced to chase the truck even faster, which is twice the speed of light. My mother managed to kick the front part of the truck. The lorry skidded and then hit the divider and then hit the ferry. The ferry split into two.

All 100 ferry users on that ferry died. The ferry driver is mad. He then transformed into Ultraman and fires the truck driver. The truck driver presses a special button in the truck and the truck changes to a Transformer robot. They fought in the air. My mother wasn’t satisfied. She then rent a chopper in Genting Highlands and straight away go to the accident venue. She hits the ferry driver who transformed into Ultraman.

The ferry driver became scared and changes back into a ferry driver, crashing onto the road. The ferry driver broke into pieces. The truck driver is so scared witnessing the incident. He apologizes from my mother. He offers his hand to shake with my mother. But my mother is still angry. She slanted the chopper and cuts the hand of the truck driver with the choppers’ fan. The truck driver shouts “Ouch!” and fell to the Earth. My mother sent the chopper back to Genting Highlands. When she came back to the incident point, she straight away hit the truck driver with her handbag wile scolding the truck driver in English.

The truck driver failed to answer my mother’s question because my mother is talking Western. So the truck driver died. After a short while the cops came. She made her statement at the headquarters about the frightful accident. Every cop in the building became shocked and died. The crowd surrounds the incident area to know what actually happened. The cops in action tried to calm the crowd and then shouted using the speaker. The crowd became shocked and then died.

After that my mother asks me to go to the market to avoid more people from dying. At the market, my mother told what happened to the butcher. The butcher and the other entrepreneurs nearby who heard the story became shocked and then died. I and my mother straight away ran home. Because we are too tired once we ran home, we straight away died. That is the most frightening accident I had ever seen before I died.