Ayahanda, oh ayahanda.....

There are school heads who refer to themselves as Ayahanda or Bonda to the students. You have one school starting and the rest soon follow suit. I don't know but maybe they find it chic. Schools also ape and compete with each other. 8) Anyway, this Ayahanda Pengetua or Bonda Pengetua thing is probably another attempt to project a caring image.

I don't quite take to the use of such terms cos I think they demean the concept of mom and dad. What does a dad do? The image in my head says this.... He goes out to work and brings home the dole to put food on the table, clothes on our back and whatever other things that the children need.

So, if you call yourself an Ayahanda or Bonda to the students, shouldn't you be doing that also? We are called Principals and Teachers principally because we are supposed to fulfill the task of educating those kids who are placed in an institution called school. Mom and dad?? They belong to the institution called home.

Moms and dads have their duties too... and I think we should not get confused over it.

I always wonder why they don't even want to use the term Ayah or Ibu (Bu) which strips the formality and 'nobility' out and probably make them sound more like your everyday mom and dad. Could it be maybe the terms Ayahanda or Bonda, probably also subtly remind us that like the orang istana, they have the orang suruhan to do the taking care of the students. Cos seriously, do you think a Royal would actually soil his/her hands to wash their baby's poo? Real moms and dads do that, don't they? But then again, with kakak (maid) these days, they also don't. LOL!

So, I wish they would just cut out the show of such terms and get down to the job of being heads. We need good, upright and principled Principals; not Mom or Dad to run the school. Else we might just as well home-school our kids. School is school... so is home, home. We should cut out all the pretenses and get down to the real business of educating and teaching....