Marking's done!

Well, that was pleasant. 42 scripts last Thursday was quite a feat. I managed about 17 in school and 25 at home, accelerating towards the end to finish at around 11 pm. Now I just need to get the debriefs done by next Monday. I won't have time to go through all the questions in great detail, given the administration's ruling that teachers cannot mention the promos at all in the two weeks before the scripts are returned. How silly.

I'm more than halfway through Bayly and Harper's Forgotten Wars, the sequel to Forgotten Armies (which I haven't finished). It's an absolutely thrilling read, and I plan on incorporating chunks of it into my teaching of decolonisation next year; it really does explode the claim the British were quite happy to let go of Burma and Malaya. They really weren't, and the only reason that I've been promulgating this claim is to artificially "balance" the topic with the A-Levels in mind. As I will explain next week, dear students, it's about relative reluctance: you've got to draw a distinction between the Dutch and the French on the one hand, and the British and the Americans on the other. I hope I'm not causing you undue mental stress by revealing this.

The two Barzun books arrived via vPost today, and, taking a break from Bayly and Harper, I am halfway through The Modern Researcher already. Another book which I should get around to finishing, and which will also be directly useful next year, is Indonesian Destinies, by Theodore Friend, which is a history of independent Indonesia from someone who was there during the height of Suharto's New Order.

Forgotten Wars, Indonesian Destinies, and The King Never Smiles (banned in Thailand for lese majeste -- all the more reason to read it) should put at end to the belief that Southeast Asian history is boring. Don't let the constraints of time and syllabus get in the way of learning and intellectual pleasure.

On a rather sour note, I was involved in a car accident today. No fault of mine, as you might expect. A stupid taxi -- why is it always taxis? -- cut abruptly into my lane two cars ahead of me, forcing the guy in front of me to apply the emergency brake. I did the same thing, but couldn't avoid slamming into him. Said taxi scooted away hastily -- the cretin! Luckily, someone got his license plate number down. This is going to end up costing quite a bit; it looked as if the coolant was leaking. In the meantime, I hope the traffic police nail the bastard and the insurance people are kind and understanding.
Posted by kungfuzi at 9:02 pm |