What will be shall be

The students of today and yesterday

I went back to my Secondary Sch last week to celebrate mid-autumn festival. My school is always very active in organising such events and with a couple of my friends, we went down to gate-crash the party.

The school is going to undergo some major renovations and while the renovation is going on, the school is going to move temporary to Teck Whyte for 2 years. I believe this should be the last time I am going to visit the school. Because after the new compound is ready, I believe that the feeling of familiarity and home will be gone, which is kind of sad. That place really have a lot of lovely memories for me.

Anyway, most or should I say all the teachers that were present still remember me despite me having left the school around 5 years ago. Normally in this type of cases, it's either I am a very dilligent or extremely naughty student. I believe it's the former. I think it's the former reason. Should be the former reason.

One of my friends went to have a little chit-chat session with our then discipline master(he still is now) and they talked about the changes of the school and the education system. "Times are definitely different" was the summary of what my discipline master said.

The school used to have a corner set aside for detention. Students who misbehave or didn't hand in homework will have to stay back after school till 5pm, sitting there and finish his or her homework. Plus that corner is near to the gate entrance which meant that anyone going home will most likely be able to see your face. It not only served as a purpose for you to finish your homework but also to let you suffer some humiliation.

When we went back to school that day, we realised that the corner had been removed. There is no more detention corner. I was pretty sad more or less because I was a frequent vistor at the detention corner as well way back then. The discipline master explained to my friend the reason why.

"Now ar, cannot lar. You put the students there till 5pm they go back home complain got mosquitoes bite them lar. No welfare lah. No human rights lar. Some even go back home complain say the teachers make them stay back in school and not allow them to go home. Worse still, the parents even dare to call the school and demand that their children come home straight after school. Of course have to remove the corner lor."

Damn funny. The kids nowadays are really damn spolit. Being made to stay back after school for detention is bad enough. They even dare to go back home complain there got mosquito bite. If it were me, I wouldn't even dare to let my mother know that I have been made to stay back for detention.

My discipline master used to have this habit of shouting at students by calling, "That boy there! Come over here!" Now, he told us, he has stopped doing so. "Cannot lar. You shout that boy there later he go complain that you address him like addressing a dog like that. Shout somemore. Later he can even claim that you scare him and thus making him nervous and it will eventually lead to a deep scar in his mind, making him mentally unbalanced. Now really cannot shout liao."

Wow. Discipline master also cannot shout. Then how do you maintain order in the school? In the society today, it seems that teachers are more afraid of students than the other way round. Any complains directed at you could lead to you losing your rice bowl. Furthermore the students nowadays also very smart, they wouldn't talk back to you or be rebellious on the spot. They go home write petition against you and then get everyone to sign. That is even a more vicious way to get back at you. It's like those scenes you see in the movies. "I will get my lawyers to speak to you. See you in court." Cool.

There is also a new policy that one of the teachers told us. Principals must now be under the age of 40 instead of last time whereby principals must be of a respectable age. The primary reason is because younger people have newer ideas which can gel better with the students. I have no doubt that perhaps it's true that younger principals may really have fresher ideas that students will prefer compared to those of older principals. But a school is still a school and some sets of values can never be changed. We are running a school. Not an enterprise.

I do admit some teachers don't really deserve the respect they demand and I have met a few in my school life. I think I have found the perfect way to deal with them. After I leave the army, I will go interview to be a principal. I am under 40 and therefore eligible. It will really be very very nice to have those teachers addressing me as Mr Principal.

posted by malmoncolo @ 12:45 AM