Lesson planning is utterly ridiculous sometimes.

The principle of lesson planning, according to the framework laid down in the official EL syllabus, is such that you teach "behaviours", not knowledge. It defines teaching as the teaching of specific skills and its application, not the knowledge that governs text and artifact production. Want to teach something interesting but impractical? Out it goes; students won't be interested, planners and educators bemoan.

What about subjects such as geography and history? Is it even possible to choose realistic and authentic production skills in say, writing about the history of the bust of Stamford Raffles? How will students use their knowledge of the formation of rivers in real life?

The humanities will always suffer from the lack of relevance. I can see how EL planning principles are designed to overcome these typical complaints. Yet it gets me down to know that even if I can get students to be interested in something, planning principles will result in my lesson being marked down for irrelevance.