And The Student Called the Teacher Ah Gua

So, people are taking sides ... teacher vs student, public vs mother. The kid won’t get too much sympathy for sure. After all, she started it...

Somebody posted out the poor girl’s results. In the midst of all these, obviously many forget that she’s still 13. One tends to do lots of crazy stuff at that age. Emotionally they are also trying to make sense of themselves... 

Then the teacher who lost it. I cannot understand why so many condone caning. The marks on the kid were telling. It was caning done out of control. And he is the adult. If teachers cannot hold their temper or emotions in check, then students’ lives will be in danger.

The SOP on caning is clear. No caning for the girls. Say what we want but the guidelines are clear. And it’s there for a reason. 

Yet, caning... so many seems to swear by it. Nostalgia.

But imagine this...

A school where the cane reigns supreme. You are late. You get caned. You talk to your friends during the school reading time... caned again. You skip your ‘extra class’ ... yup, caned again. 

Then the hair issues in some Chinese conforming schools... 2 weeks after you have cut your hair. You are told it is now too long... lagi kena rotan. Then have your hair cut in full view of everyone who passes by... cane and more caning. The sound of whipping is the one common sound.... over hair which does not break the limits set by the MOE guidelines. 

Should we try this instead? Engaging students, making them understand, moving on with times, staying relevant... would an engaged student be calling a teacher Ah Gua?

Yet, you get bored kids. Those grades.. which have been displayed to shame this kid. You get lots of those these days. Some say it is the good life that’s causing them to lose focus. I think it’s more than that. Most don’t see relevance of what is taught in the class with their lives.

I see kids being lined up and whipped in public, right in plain sight of everyone. Girls being caned too.. now is everyone okay with their kids being dished that in school regularly. 

We desensitise the kids. We normalise caning as a solution to disciplinary problems. It is not. Caning, quick solution for quick adherence.

A walk down my own memory lane. Primary school. I was in Std 2. I always had perfect score for my spelling... cos one mistake ... and the cane awaited. Well, I am human... so like the fallible human... one day, after almost half a year, I made a mistake. The trepidation when lining up to be caned. 😂

Guess what? After that day, I didn’t really care much about being caned any more. It didn’t matter to me any more because my childish mind discovered that I could numb myself to the pain and humiliation. 

Oh! I continued to get perfect scores still for my spelling. But the occasions when I did not, I didn’t think the caning made a difference to ensuring that I hit the perfect score all the time.

Yah.. there might be bad parenting here. But that’s a mother being instinctive. Her language showed her not to be very polished. But put anyone of us in a situation like this... I think most of us would be tongue tied. The school office can also be a very intimidating place... 

There was excessive show of force in the Ah Gua teacher case. 

There was misbehaviour most definitely. 

And you also have a mother who got really, really defensive. 

And yes. The mother viralled it. Good idea? Don’t think so. But years from now, this video might serve as the starting point of a greater awareness for stakeholders involved.

How A School Can Fail To Deliver?

I met an ex-student recently at an event. Taught him in Form 4 last year. I would still be teaching him this year had I not been transferred out from the school over the teacher bullying case. It’s been more than half a year since I saw him. And he has grown taller... and better looking too.

So I called him over, as I sat on the floor and he squatting, we had a conversation about him. Now, this was a boy I regularly reprimanded for skipping classes due to a co-curricular activity. Today I found out that he was one of those given a place in SMJK Keat Hwa 1 for his ability to contribute to the school for that particular co-curricular activity. You see, there were many such kids accepted into the school to boost up the co-curricular achievements... basketball and band mainly. To bring up the school name in various aspects, diversity is required. Other schools have other sports with this same scheme, football, hockey... the chase

These activities actually good for the students. After all, co-curricular activities school a child in the soft skills. It gives opportunity for leadership training and so on. It teaches them sportsmanship, They catch many other skills from playing with other kids. And these skills will be useful when they begin to interact with the world.

However, things do not look so nice once you know what goes on to keep those honours coming in. Lots of training hours are required.

In my former school, KH1, kids basically have no time for co-curricular activities unless you structure it and make it achievement based. Then the kids get wowed and their parents too. Another problem is practice time. To win a world band title is no easy feat. Many hundred hours of practice are required. To enable a brass band to move with the precision required to win a world title would mean a lot of resources as well as man hours. Resources are easy enough to source. The Board and PTA will pay a trainer to do the coaching coach. That is the easy part.

The training part is not so easy. Where do you find time for kids who have tuition packed throughout the week? Enter some creative arrangements. Permission slips are give out to members to practice during school hours. And this is where we begin to see how the delivery system fails our kids.

You give a kid an opportunity to skip classes and bets are all on that they will stay out of class for as long as possible. After all, who would want to sit in the class and listen to boring lessons which many feel they will be able to get in their private tuitions? As long as the tuition centres out there are on the right track, things would be fine. But one can always expect that as mainstream system deteriorates, the same would be seen in the private tuition systems too.

I specifically remember 2 of my students. That was the year when they had a major competition. Both kids were in Form 5. That year both of them were missing from my classes for 3 to 4 months. Each time I ‘chased’ them to attend classes, it was always band practice. And the school allowed it. They are given the permission slip by the PK Kokurikulum, sanctioned by the school. If memory serves me right, one of them failed his history. We teachers, have no say when the kids wave their permission slips.

Now, I wonder how many unsuspecting parents are there who do not realise that their kids skipped classes for all these extra practices. Many students will tell you too that they go to school not to learn. They have tuitions outside to settle that. School is for them socialise, get involved in activities. But many forget too that there are kids who can catch on quickly and kids who need more time to cope with their lessons. And for those who cannot cope, the results can be disastrous.

As the deterioration becomes apparent, I think we have come to a stage where we are seeing kids who  are having real issues of learning. The academically weaker kid from a vernacular school often has dismal language mastery. Because of that, going MIA from classes is bad for them. For those kids who were brought in so that they can play basketball for the school or be in the band, those activities become the cause for the further deterioration in their studies. And the school knowingly allow it. And parents seem to not know any better.

These kids would do much better had they gone to national schools because they would at least leave school being able to use Bahasa Melayu. Being in a Chinese school, they bring glory for the school but they lose so much themselves because they lose themselves in the system.

As for the school brass band, I don’t know how the unsuspecting parents cannot see that they will hardly see any of the school teachers’ children joining the band. That fact should have sent some alarm bells to them.

The constant practices that eat into lesson time is wrong to begin with. Also, outside coaches who are not teachers push their agendas without really understanding their charges’ problems because they also need to show results to be able to continue to ply their trade. For them what matters are the medals, the wins. These are some of the problems brought in by a system that pays its way for everything. In a way, it reduces the teacher’s load but at the same time, it brings in other problems. As for a band member who has been part of the team which may have won a world title.... what use is that achievement if he leaves the school without his SPM certificate or without the required language skills?

It feels like the school has made used of these kids without really seeing into their welfare.

As for our conversation, the teenager had this to say. He knows his basketball prowess isn’t going to bring him any further. I asked him if he passed any of his subjects. He said, how to pass. He has been sleeping in class most of the time and he didn’t even study at all. I told him not to give up yet... with our SPM full of surprises, there is still hope yet.

So, how relevant are our schools really? As schools try to make a name for themselves, it looks like many kids become casualties too... this is one facet of our education which we rarely talk about. Yet I have seen it happening but most will not acknowledge.

I don’t believe that kids cannot learn anything. All kids (unless they have some disabilities) should be able to learn the basic skills set by the curriculum. When they fail to learn those basic skills it can only mean that we have failed to make students see the relevance, either through carelessness or downright apathy.