Can students be given their own autonomy to develop their own curriculum?

The curriculum in school nowadays is developed and converged by the teachers and the principal. If the curriculum had been developed by the students, school life would be much different from what it is now. How different it is will be another thing: Is it good, or is it bad for the student population? I strongly believe that it’s good for the student population. I will be stating three reasons why the students would benefit from the right to develop their own curriculum.

For a start, we are currently Secondary Two students, and are mature enough to settle our own studies. At our age, many of us are already capable of handling our own studies. They are independent enough, and to proceed without the help and support of parents or anybody else. When we are able to handle our studies ourselves, why not give us the rights to develop our own curriculum? In that case, many students would be able to fit various commitments into their already stock-piled timetable. For example, students with heavy CCA time commitments would have trouble keeping up with the curriculum due to heavy time commitments. If the curriculum is modified to give these students a chance to recover, I think it is best for the whole student population. Therefore, I think at our age we have the ability to settle our own studies, and therefore should be given the autonomy to develop our own curriculum.

Besides that, we are also in the best position to understand our own studies and conditions. As the learners ourselves, we are in the optimum position and perspective to understand our own studies and our standards. With this substantial advantage, paired with the right and autonomy to develop our own curriculum would be doubly effective. For example, a student himself or herself might know how well he is doing at a particular subject exactly, but is having troubles voicing it out. If they are given the rights to develop their own curriculum, they can solve a prominent majority of their problems, and at the same time they can learn much more, either based on their interest or their strengths. Thus I feel that at the optimum position to understand our studies, we should be given the autonomy to develop our own curriculum.

(Lastly, the students that develop their curriculum will train various skills. Through the process of developing their own curriculum, these students train not only their life skills, but skills like research skills and organizing, etc. For example, when students are coming up with their curriculum they will need to strive for accuracy of facts, and the precision of other aspects. To achieve this they will need to conduct extensive research, as well as organize the gathered information before designing the curriculum. In this manner the various skills of these students are trained repeatedly, and therefore the overall standard of the school is improved. Thus, the students' skills can be improved because of the skills that can be trained.

As a conclusion, I state again that when students develop their own curriculum there are many benefits along with it, and therefore they should be given the autonomy to develop their own curriculum.

Propaganda Analysis

The picture shows 3 children, and 1 of them has an American flag. The other 2 children are holding today, just playing just like a normal day, until the Germans came. In the background, there's a 'demonic' and 'evil' shadow of the Nazi's cross. In the caption it says 'Don't Let That Shadow Touch Them', and by buying War Bonds they could protect the children from the Nazi.

This poster is powerful and creates great impact in it's portrayal. The children, besides themselves been iconic American, what they're holding also has a significance for the US. The children are innocent, and this poster is meant appeal to the caring side of people and their instinctive protection for the young and those who do not have the strength to fight back.

This poster is one of the most common and one of the best posters (in my opinion) made. It's iconic, and it's impactful as well. As we all know, Uncle Sam was the government personification, as an old man in a goatee beard with clothing the imbued with the colour of the US flag (Top hat, jacket, etc).

The purpose of this poster was to attract and gather soldiers for the US Army. This poster carries this out very well, with the iconic American Uncle Sam, with the stern look on his face which signifies seriousness; the finger pointing at you, involving the reader. Readers also tend to think about who Uncle Sam actually is, and overall this is an impactful, and as much powerful it's also impactful.

This poster is from China. It's quite simple, without any words whatsoever, and the it depicts the portrait of Mao (Founder of the Republic of China), and several children. These children seem happy, and are all wearing a different costume. In my opinion, each costume represents a race, a culture. What this poster tells me is that the future China would be one united country, and all the cultures and races living in harmony, each with different 'expressions' and will live in happiness.

This poster is similar to the first 2, it's about war. The only difference is in possibly the message, and obviously the target audience. The character in the poster is female, and therefore my assumption would be the target audience is for women during the war. From my contextual knowledge, women during the war a that time were housewives, working at home and doing all the cooking and cleaning. The poster is trying to show that women are strong as well, and can do something for the nation. As this was a war poster, the intended outcome was to convince the women to help with the making of ammunition, etc - An impactful poster.



This is not exactly a propaganda video, but it achieves its effect. In the video, there are the infantry on foot, the tanks, and the helicopters. The SAF are clearly portrayed as 'ready' and 'equipped'. Inside the video, the soldiers' expressions are determined and show confidence and enthusiasm, alongside determination. All these are quite impactful, and it shows how ready the SAF are, as well as Singapore as a country, including all the other 'defenses' in 'Total Defence'. That is the message this video is trying to bring across to it's readers. Impactful, creative, entertaining and technologically effective.