SPM History Textbook Controversies

Unintended/Biased?

Our Malaysian Form 4 History textbook had it's syllabus changed, with 50% of the subject devoted to Islamic history as compared to only 16.6% in the previous textbook from the past decade.

In the previous textbook, “Sejarah Peradaban Dunia – Tingkatan 4”, Islamic history was one of the six chapters in the book:

1. Tamadun Awal Manusia
2. Islam Mengubah Tamadun Manusia
3. Perubahan Masyarakat Eropah dan Kesannya
4. Revolusi: Fasa Baru Kehidupan Manusia
5. Zaman Imperialisme Barat dan Reaksi Masyarakat Setempat
6. Ke Arah Kerjasama Masyarakat Antarabangsa

In the revised history textbook, “SEJARAH – Tingkatan 4”, Islamic history occupies five of the ten chapters:

1. Kemunculan Tamadun Awal Manusia
2. Peningkatan Tamadun
3. Tamadun Awal Asia Tenggara
4. Kemunculan Tamadun Islam dan Perkembangan di Makkah
5. Kerajaan Islam di Madinah
6. Pembentukan Kerajaan Islam dan Sumbangannya
7. Islam di Asia Tenggara
8. Pembaharuan dan Pengaruh Islam di Malaysia sebelum Kedatangan Barat
9. Perkembangan Eropah
10. Dasar British dan Kesannya terhadap Ekonomi Negara

While Islamic history has expanded from 16.6% to 50%, Asian history and civilizations like Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism have been further marginalize and given lesser space. Don't even get me started on modern history.

What were they thinking?!

The people over at DBP (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka) seriously need to look into this matter. Didn't they reviewed it first before publishing? Did they run out of ideas for the textbook?

I don't mind learning on Arabic culture, but spending most the time memorizing religious history is just plain ridiculous! What happened to American, African, Asian and European history? We should learn more about the world than focus on a particular group.

Related info:
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Saturday/National/2534586/Article/index_html
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Saturday/National/2534601/Article/index_html

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Form 4 History Textbook Fail

Errors & typos?

Back in secondary school, I compiled a list of errors and factual disparities in our beloved Buku Teks Sejarah Tingkatan 4. Did reported to the history teachers but being a student doesn't give me much say over these matters.

I'm not sure if the latest editions of the textbook had corrected those errors yet. Hopefully some of you reading this post would have better connections to the Education Ministry than I did.

So, here's the list. Check for yourselves.

1. Pengasas Adat Temenggung - Datuk Ketemenggungan [from Form 1 textbook] or Datuk Tumanggungan [page 199]. The usage is according to context. In Malaysia, Datuk Ketemenggungan is more proper. Datuk perpatih Tumanggungan is from a Minangkabau reference.
2. Zaman Graeco-Rom or Zaman Graeco-Roman? [both found on page 51] This is a mistake due to direct translation. Graeco-Rom is in Bahasa Melayu, while Graeco-Roman is in English.
3. Emperor Shih Huang Ti [page 41] or Shi Huang Ti [page 45]? The former is more accurate in terms of pronounciation and is widely used in many references.
4. Bilal bin Rabah or Bilal bin Rabbah [both are on page 110]? Just keep your fingers cross and hope that the examiners aren't picky.
5. On the Sudut Maklumat column [page 254], the term Sin Kheh or "newcomers" in Hokkien, should be redefined as pendatang baru dari China, not imigran miskin dari China.
6. The Roman Emperor Augustus, reigned from 27 S.M.- 14 M. not 27 -14 S.M. [page 44]. FYI, Sebelum Masihi = B.C. and Masihi = A.D.
7. On the Sudut Maklumat column [page 257], the explaination of the term Komprador isn't accurate. It should be: Ejen tempatan yang diupah untuk mewakili suatu syarikat asing sebagai orang tengah dalam urus niaga perdagangan tempatan dengan syarikat asing.
8. Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) started his search for enlightenment at the age of 29 years, not 39 years [page 65].
9. The explaination for Rancangan Stevenson was repeated twice [page 250, 261].
   
10. Confusing sentence structure: Antara sumber falsafah China termasuklah Kung-Fu Tze atau Confucius dengan ajarannya, iaitu Confucianisme, Lao Tze, Taoisme dan Mo Tzu. To convey the intended meaning, I suggest the correction: Antara sumber falsafah China yang berkembang pada zaman itu (770-221 SM) adalah ajaran Confucianisme, Taoisme, Mohisme dan "Legalisme". Ideologi-ideologi ini asaskan berdasarkan ajaran-ajaran ahli falsafah yang berpengaruh seperti Kung-Fu Tze, Lao Tze dan Mo Tzu.
11. More English-to-BM translation mistakes: Theology is in English, teologi is in Bahasa Melayu [page 61].
12. And minor typos: pentabdiran should be pentadbiran [page 46]; parilineal should be patrilineal [page 199].

Lesson learned

These are all I manage to find, could be more. Maybe I shouldn't make such a fuss over "unnoticable" mistakes in the textbook. But hey, it's a textbook, it's used as the main reference material in exams questions. Someone should at least take this seriously.

Another good reason not to blindly accept "knowledge", just because it's written down and entrusted to you. Historical facts are easily manipulated. History in education is about uncovering the truth. And truth, as we all know, is subject to interpretation

So, do your own research and learn to ask the right questions.

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The Book that should have rewrote History

Achimedes's Missing Manuscript: "The Method"



This is a book that could have changed the history of the world. It containts the revolutionary ideas of a genius who was centuries ahead of his time: Archimedes.

The book was lost to the world for about 2000 years, passing throught the hands of scribes, monks, forgers, and shady scholars. Yet no one seem to know the book's true value until it surfaced at auction in 1998.

Archimedes pioneered the use of infinitesimals, showing how by cutting (or dividing) a figure in an infinite number of infinitely small parts could be used to determine its area or volume. The ancient theorems found in the manuscript is probably the oldest and most authentic copy of Archimedes' major works to survive, and contains transcriptions of his writing on geometry and physics.

The manuscript also contains the text of his works “On The Measurement of the Circle”, “On the Sphere and the Cylinder”, “On Spiral Lines”, “On Floating Bodies”, and “On the Equilibrium of Planes”.

The Age of Ignorance

As writing material was expensive, it was usual practice to washed off the original text so that the parchment could be reused. Archimedes's original text was likely erased in the 12th or early 13th century when the parchment was reused to make a Church prayerbook.



Religious text were written over important mathematical theorems. It was because of this act, the greatest knowledge of Greek mathematics was hidden from the world for centuries. The book's re-discovery at the 1998 Christie's auction was merely a small portion of Archimedes's original work. Sadly, the rest of the manuscript was already lost.

Personal thoughts



Archimedes was working on the basis of Calculus, more than a 1000 years before Sir Isaac Newton had developed it in the 17th century. Archimedes's work on a "early Calculus" system was recorded in the missing manuscript.

Almost all of the world's knowledge in engineering, technology and science requires mathematics, especially calculus such as Integrals and Differentials. Imagine if the Achimedes's manuscript was not lost over a 1000 years ago, the world would have a very different place today. Everthing from satellites, computers, gravity to navigation, construction, etc. would have been invented much earlier.

More info:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/archimedes/palimpsest.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,490219,00.html
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QR Code

Have you seen something like this before?



If it looks familiar, you have probably seen it on a product packaging.

This is a QR Code. A sort of matrix code or 2D bar code created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. It is named "QR" short for "Quick Response", as it was created to be decoded at high speed.

Another quirky invention of the Japanese?

Why not stick with using bar codes?

As we all know, bar codes are widely popular because of their reading speed, accuracy, and superior functionality. As bar codes became popular and their convenience universally recognized, the market began to look for new ways of storing more information, and could be printed in a smaller space. As a result, the QR code was born!

It then became an instant hit with the Japanese popular culture. Most current Japanese mobile phones can read this code with their camera. QR Codes are now used in a much broader applications, including commercial tracking and convenience-oriented servives aimed at mobile phone users.

QR Codes can store addresses, URLs, emails, phone numbers, SMS text message, and many other functions. These codes are usually printed in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or on any products that users might need information about. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct software can scan the image of the QR Code.

Here's a tool to create your own custom QR code: QR-Code Generator
Download and install this QR-Code Reader onto your mobile phone.

PS: Try decoding the above image with your own camera phone. Yes, it even works on LCD screens! Special thanks to Dominic for the reader links.

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Top Air-filtering House Plants

Feeling lethargic lately? Is the air to stuffy in your room? Want to save money on air-conditioning bills? Well then, just get yourselves some potted plants for your home's interior.



The people over at NASA has found that living indoor plants are so efficient at absorbing contaminants in the air, that some of them will be launched into space as part of the life support system aboard future space stations.

Common indoor plants may provide a valuable resource in the fight against rising levels of air pollution. Those plants in your office or home are not only decorative, but NASA scientists are finding them to be surprisingly useful in absorbing potentially harmful gases and cleaning the air inside modern buildings.

Research into the use of biological means of solving environmental problems, both on Earth and in space habitats, has been carried out for many years by researchers at NASA. Plants take substances out of the air through the tiny openings in their leaves, but research also shows that plant leaves, roots and soil bacteria are all important in removing trace levels of toxic vapors.

NASA research has consistently shown that living, green and flowering plants can remove several toxic chemicals from the air in building interiors. You can use plants in your home or office to improve the quality of the air to make it a more pleasant place to live and work.

A list of air filtering plants was compiled by NASA as part of the NASA Clean Air Study, which researched ways to clean air in space stations. As well as absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, as all plants do, these plants also eliminate significant amounts of benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene.

TOP plants - Most effective in removing air pollutants:

1. Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum)
2. Peace lily (Spathiphyllum 'Mauna Loa')
3. Janet Craig dracaena (Dracaena deremensis 'Janet Craig')
4. Warneck dracaena (Dracaena deremensis 'Warneckii')
5. Bamboo palm/Reed palm (Chamaedorea sefritzii)
6. Pot Mum/Florist's Chrysanthemum (Chrysantheium morifolium)
7. Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
8. Cornstalk dracaena (Dracaena fragans 'Massangeana')
9. Red-edged dracaena (Dracaena marginata)
10. Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina)
11. Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica)
12. Gerbera Daisy/Barberton daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
13. English Ivy (Hedera helix)
14. Selloum philodendron (Philodendron bipinnatifidum, syn. Philodendron selloum)
15. Elephant ear philodendron (Philodendron domesticum)
16. Heartleaf philodendron (Philodendron oxycardium, syn. Philodendron cordatum)
17. Snake plant/Mother-in-law's tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata 'Laurentii')
18. Golden pothos/Devil's ivy (Scindapsus aures/Epipremnum aureum)

These are plants that you can find anywhere, at the florist or even at the roadside. Using living plants is an environmental-friendly way to reduce air pollution. So please do Earth a favour, put some plants at home to keep the air fresh, and plant a tree while you're at it.

Visit: www.treehugger.com
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