PROCESS AND PRODUCT

Test.
" You know ahh, she is hiding the answers in her tudung," Tanya whispered to me.
"Oh? How you know?"
"I know la!"
The next time, she'd tell me that she saw so-and-so copying from the textbook during a short test. Tanya, my colleague, was always on the look-out for copycats and cheaters. Sometimes I wonder why she told me so-and-so was cheating. Frankly, I prefer not to know.

When the results came out.
"Huh, you think they did everything on their own ahh? Get good results as the result of their own hard work?"
"You know why some keep going to the toilet during exams? To copy la!"
I had to admit. I did notice a few students who had become regular visitors to the toilet during the exams.
"Those people practically cheated during the exams, and Mr.X shut an eye."complained Rita.
"Then why didn't you say anything during the exam?"I asked.
"Complain and shoot myself?" Rita glared at me. "Heck, we're going to be in the same class for another 2 years. I don't want to make enemies."
I agreed. I had watched how a few who sat in the same row passed notes to each other during the exam when the invigilator's back was turned. Furious because they were my friends, I had called one of them aside and warned that I wouldn't hesitate to raise the alarm if I caught them cheating again. They didn't dare to anymore but they stopped talking to me for a few months, huuhuhu.

Process and product.
Most of us are the results of the product approach.
We care more of what we get in the end, not what we learn along the way.
That is why we are very concerned about how many A++ we achieve, how much we earn, how many cars we own, how many houses we have.
We have become a materialistic society who cares more about self than souls, who pay more interest to money and wealth than to happiness and health.
When we have little, we want more; when we have a lot, we aim for perfection.
Seldom do we stop to pause and be thankful for all that we have received.
Seldom do we have the chance to learn how to make things work instead of learning how to use things.

"Why do we still use the product approach?"
"That's because the product approach is faster and less tiring. We can just use a sample as the model and we expect the result to be the same or better than the model itself," explained Mrs.Pang. " Like writing an essay. The students just have to write something similar to the sample essay that we show."
"That means we are producing end-users, not innovators," somebody commented. " There's a lack of creativity. We are just giving them a fishing rod to fish instead of teaching them how to fish and where to get the most fish in the river."

"How about the process approach?"
"I know. It's the opposite of product. We have to slog," volunteered Alex.
We laughed. We had learned how to do the process approach to teach writing. It's hardwork indeed; for the students as well as the teacher. A essay may take two weeks to be published because the student may have to rewrite it several times, making necessary changes to the arrangement and taking responsibility to self-correct his/her own grammatical errors along the way. The learning process is longer but the students will know how to write well. sUBconsciously, they will also learn to be patient, disciplined, and work collaboratively with their peers.

The problem is, we are all used to shortcuts. We want things to be done fast and easily. We lack the patience and endurance which is required for life-long learning. As a result, we seldom bother about the process that we undertake to achieve our objectives.
For example, we might have cut queues during rush hour, and deny somebody else rights to go first. We might have cheated our way for the coveted A+ during exams. We might have sabotaged a rival's work in order to beat him/her for that coveted position in the company or n a political party. We could have bribed somebody to gain a multi-dollar business contract.
We could have done a lot of evil, and not bother to correct our mistakes, with the excuse that 'the end justifies the means.'

Yet, SomeOne knows everything we do.
Allah The Almighty The All-Knowing is our witness.
He has already determined the end-product for us, our own rezeki and as Muslims, we should always strive to be the best according to His teachings.
We should care more about the process of achieving the objectives,and not to worry too much about the product.
It is through the process of doing something that we actually learn; be it a new skill, a new recipe, or a new subject. The product is what we have to show as the result of our hardwork at learning, and that we should entrust Him to reward us in this life and hereafter.
May we be protected from any wrongdoings and practices that contradicts with the teachings of the Holy Koran and our beloved Prophet Muhammad as we work towards producing good results in our undertakings in life... amiin.