Children in the Darkness

There are children in the darkness
Who have not seen the light
There are children in the darkness
Who someone will teach to fight

Chalk and blackboards will not be
To this door there is no key
From this life they can not flee
And these children are not free

Could we simply light a candle
Could we give them half a chance
Could we teach them how to read
Could we teach them how to dance

Or will a war consume them
Their body and their soul
Will their life and blood be poured
Down some endless thirsty hole

Back into the darkness
From which there is no flight
Back into the darkness
Into which there shines no light

Henry M Bechtold

Poem Task 2 Part 1

POV:

The point of view is that of an adult who is mature enough to understands the plight of the children in Vietnam and the horrors of war.

He wants to free the children from all the suffering they are going through. This could be seen from stanza 4, which describes the horrors of war. The repeated use of 'could we' in stanza 3 seems to be suggest that it is a must for us to help these children.

Situation and Setting:

The setting is in Vietnam. Children are taught how to fight and then sent to war and usually to their deaths. Stanza 1 line 4 - 'who someone will teach to fight' tells us that the children were given training. It could be inferred from Stanza 2 ' there is no key' and 'are not free' that the children were unable to escape the horrors of war and that they would never be free from this abuse. 'their life and blood be poured down some endless thirsty hole' shows that the number of children dying would increase infinitely.

Language/Diction:

The rhyme scheme follows the ABAB style.

This is evident from:

Stanza 1: darkness, light, darkness, fight
Stanza 2: be, key, flee, free
Stanza 3: candle, chance, read, dance
Stanza 4: them, soul, poured, hole
Stanza 5: darkness, flight, darkness, light

Personal Response:

After reading this poem, I have learnt to pity the children in Vietnam and realise how lucky I am in Singapore where there are no war. I also learnt that children should never be dragged into war. In the first place, there should never be war.

Poem Task 1

Children in the Darkness

The poet was in Vietnam from 1967 - 68 and again in 1969. He was sitting in his hotel room in Saigon just before Christmas 2009 and he was trying to write a poem about the girls who worked in the park and how badly men treated them. He was angry and as such was unable to write anything. Then, he looked at the TV and the news was on. According to him, he did not understand what the news reader was saying but he said in the background was a photo of a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle. All of a sudden the words just came to him and he typed as fast as he could to get it all down as the poem flowed out

Projects Work

I love Science. That is why last year and this year I have chosen to do Category 1 Projects. This year I am investigating the plant-fungal symbiotic relationship through the production of Ascorbic Acid in Arabidopsis thaliana.

My team consists of Wee Yong, We Boon and Yi Fan. I am the leader. Honestly, we are quite laid back but we always make sure that our research is done on time.

Based on last year's experience, experiments take up a huge portion of our holidays. When our set ups get contaminated by bacteria, we have to redo the whole experiment. Also, we need to go back every two days to record data.

Our mentor is non other then the wonderful Mr. Tan Kai Yuan Zachary. He is very knowledgeable. He was our mentor last year. As such, we knew him better than most other students did. However this "special" relationship did not really put us at an advantage as compared to other students. This is because he treated everyone equally at the start of the year. When we approached him to be our mentor, he made it clear that he would not agree until we gave him a "solid" proposal. Thrice we failed. However, our team persevered nonetheless and we eventually managed to win him over :)

As quoted by Michael Jordan:

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed...

ACE Work

Now that the tests are all over, I have been doing a lot of ACE projects. This term I have chosen English, Chinese, Maths and Integrated Humanities.

For English, I have done a few article explorers, two short stories and a movie review on "Dear John".

For Chinese, it is nothing but newspaper article reflection after newspaper article reflection. This gets kind of boring at times. I think the while point of ACE is that we should be allowed to do research in things that we enjoy and expand our knowledge at the same time instead of just doing ACE just for the sake of doing. For Chinese, our teacher only restricts us to just newspaper article reflections!

Maths is more interesting. We can do virtually on anything we like except that it has obviously got something to do with Maths! We are set tasks to find out more about certain topics. Plus I am a Math guy so Maths ACE is an enjoyment. However, Ms Low please don't get the wrong idea... I really enjoyed doing the movie review for "Dear John" too!

Integrated Humanities is kind of fun but at the same time not exactly very enjoyable. That is because I do not really like the Humanities. Ok I know you are staring at me again. But honestly, I like literature though at times it gets hard to understand the text. If only literature could be enjoyed without it affecting my marks.

ACE last year was so much of an enjoyment. Now it is just a chore... ok maybe not so bad but close to a chore.

Track and Field Finals

I am sctually typing this in the computer lab now. I feel so disappointed that I got 7th for my 400m Hurdles. I was first for the first 300m and for the last 100m I just could not find any energy to carry on at the same pace. Anyway tomorrow is the 51st Track and Field Finals. The C Boys should have no problem achieving the title for 10thconsecutive years tomorrow as long as we do not screw up. The B Boys are going to face a big challenge from SJI tomorrow. They need to win the title as this year will be their 20th consecutive year they will win it. I do hope that our B Boys can defend the title tomorrow.

I will be running the 4x100m relay tomorrow and I will be running the first leg of this race. If all goes smoothly, we will be the champions for the 10th consecutive year. Do wish me luck!

New Personal Best for 300m

Yesterday I took a 300m timing as instructed by my coach. A track is 400m long. I ran 2 straight routes and a curve route which totaled up to a distance of 300m (3 quarters of a track). As my nationals event is nearing, he wanted me to really do my best. My previous best timing was 43.2 seconds which is not exactly very fantastic. I badly wanted an improvement too, so I channelled whatever energy I had in my body to my run.

As usual, I would run my first 100m (straight route) at a fast pace and the second 100m (curve route) at a slightly slower pace before sprinting the final 100m (straight route). However, this time I decided to do it a little differently. I ran my first 100m at a slightly faster pace than usual, followed by the second 100m at a slightly faster pace than usual also before finishing off with a 100m sprint at the end.

My timing: 41.7 seconds

Many people do not know the pain of running distances above 200m. Usually when u sprint distances above 200m lactic acid starts to build up in your body which is extremely painful. You will start to go numb in your hands and arms and sometimes even your feet! 300m is a 200m sprinting race and a 100m mental perseverance. one must have good mental perseverance in order to finish the run in a good timing.

I am proud of myself and I hope to improve in the future. Also I hope to be able to help Hwa Chong Institution earn some points in my nationals. I am running the 400m hurdles, 4x100m relay and the 4x400m relay. Wish me luck!