Friday, February 4, 2011

When I first get to look at my school timetable for the semester, WISP caught my attention. I was wondering what it is all about. Initially, I have heard from my schoolmates about the module, which was said to be a History lesson. As History was not my interest, I got very worried even before I got into contact with the module personally. School eventually commences, and the journey on WISP begins.

First Lesson:
When I first enter the class room, I was mentally prepared for some History lesson. However, Mr Don asked us what our first impression on the module is. Trying to make the situation more fun, I tried to be honest by saying that my first impression was History. Mr Don was rather positive about the feedback and he answered in a rather humorous way which made the class burst into laughter. It somehow changes my perspective on the module itself and began to show more interest on the module.

Second Lesson:
Prejudice & Discriminations:
Our second lesson was the session of ‘Dialogue in the Dark’(DiD), which I heard from my friends even before going for the session. It was a place located in our school which was operated by a few visually impaired adults as the guides for the journey in the premises. The place was in pitch dark and we were supposed to tour the area with the guide of the guides. This was the most memorable experience I got from WISP. It really made me learn a lot and benefitted from the experiences. From the journey in ‘DiD’, I felt that the guides were impressive and they deserve every single respect from us students. They were able to move around in the area smoothly while we students were facing a lot of difficulties in the area. This gave me the feeling that nobody is useless or should feel disheartened when they face obstacles in life. Everyone is born for a reason, and definitely every single individual will possess something that is different from the rest. Obstacles are things everyone will face in life and most people will give up when they face such knockbacks, but if they are able to experience the ‘DiD’, it will change their thoughts. Guides from ‘DiD’ faced the obstacles of unable to see their surroundings which may lead to the difficulty to move around and they even face discriminations from some people in the society. However, none of them gave up in their life and this made me salute them and respect their attitudes. That session at ‘DiD’ taught me to be determined and do not give up so easily which is a great help. As a student, we will face all sorts of obstacles, one good example is stress, ever since the session I felt more motivated than before. From the experience, one very important lesson was that the world should not have any discrimination on people who are different or less fortunate. Without discrimination, the world will be better in every form. The ‘DiD’ guide – Calvin said “When the lights are off, everyone is equal. Nobody is better than the rest.” That is the most encouraging sentence I heard and I agreed to it.

Third Lesson:
Conflicts around the world
The third lesson that I found interesting during the course of WISP is the session that we did the war games. It gave me the idea that how the world works and how countries work towards the ability to remain safe against the threats by other countries. It is very important to remain harmonious with the countries in the world so that no conflicts will affect any country or even disrupt lives of humans. From the war games, it showed us the ‘magic’ of alliance. With alliance, it somehow creates a shield around a particular country. We understood the logic that lies within the relationship among countries. With a stronger alliance, no other country will threaten or attack the country. The game gave us the idea of the impact of conflicts and how it will affect the lives of any people. However, from the topic itself, we understand that there is a need to avoid conflicts with others which will benefit both countries. This taught me the need to avoid conflicts with people around us which will make our lives even better.

Last lesson:
Looking things as a whole
Discrimination, conflicts or even world issues was caused by a factor. If we are able to handle the factor well, we may prevent the negative issues from happening. Discrimination is the way a person perceived the others, if we are able to change the mindset in everyone, discrimination will be reduced.

Thoughts on WISP
WISP is a fun and interesting module and I benefitted a lot from it. Personally, I feel that there should be more activities for WISP, activities will make the modules more interesting.