Incident for thought (5)

Just something to think about : some time into the future, when you are old and wrinkly and is officially a senior citizen, and happen to hop onto a train with no vacant seats, would you stand right in front of the youngster who is occupying the "Reserved Seating" for the needy and proceed to try to stare him/her down for the rest of the journey?

Or maybe I was thinking too much, maybe the old woman just find the youngster handsome to look at.

And the all-in-one award goes to...

People often asked me why I didn't want to be a teacher, after having gone through contract teaching for almost 6 months, is currently working in a school (but not a teacher), and giving tuition for the past 10 years. And my answer to them is always the same : the times have changed, and so, the role of the teacher has also changed. With both my parents being teachers, it's not difficult for me to see the change as the years went by.

When I was younger, I remembered that my parents would reach home almost about the same time I did from school most of the days. My father still had time to check through my 习字本子 (a book to practice writing chinese characters) and would erase off one whole page that I had just completed coz he thought the characters were badly written. My mother had time to go through my Math homework as well, and sometimes, there were still work from the assessment books.

Back in those days, to be a teacher is to just teach, as what we all thought it should be. But for the past few years, though my mother (now retired) was teaching in the morning session and classes should end about 1 p.m., she would not reach home until after 6 p.m. most of the days. This was one significant change I noticed as the years went by in the teaching world. Teachers have more and more things to do and to take care of. And with the introduction of school rankings and other such things, teachers have even more work to do instead of just concentrating on teaching. I know that to improve, there must be competition. But this also brings out a lot of other problems for the schools, teachers, and even students. Problems that only those working in the sector will know. Problems that the highest of the highest authority will never understand.

Besides school rankings, there are still other awards for CCAs, SYF (Singapore Youth Festival) awards, etc, for the schools to compete among themselves. And when the students take part in such competitions, teachers are the ones who will be 'sacrificed'. Of coz the students will have to endure part of the stress and having to miss lessons. But I personally feel that teachers got the most of it. The teacher-in-charge has to find time to train the students, be around if there are external trainers, make sure the students work hard enough to win. If the school wins gold this year, the expectation is there for the teacher to win gold again the next year, the following year, and so on.

And then there is the competition for best class performance inside the school itself. Again, the stress is on the teachers. Besides worrying for the class, there is still the teacher's work performance review, promotion exercise, etc. So, for those people who do not work in schools, do not think that there is no office politics in school. There are much more going around than you can imagine.

One of the most important thing, is the change in the behaviour of the students. I believe that the streaming of the students is one of the causes of such behaviours. And also, the mindset of the teachers for the different streams of students. Do not think that all students in the special/express streams are angels, and that all students in the normal technical streams are devils. The special/express students can be good-mannered and smart, but they can also be scheming and shrewd in the bid to compete to be a top student. The normal technical students can be irritating and rude, but they are street-smart and can be really nice, with no hidden agenda or whatsoever.

And I believe that it's even worse when it comes to dealing with the parents. Kids nowadays are like princes and princesses at home. Whatever they go home telling their parents about the school, the teachers, the classmates, they will always believe that their precious babies are right, and the whole world is in the wrong. They will never believe that their precious babies will lie to them, and when they are being punished in school, these parents will demand to know the who, why, how, and still think their precious babies could do no wrong. I've even heard of cases of parents helping their children to cover their lies.

Which is why some people who did a mid-career switch to teaching get a shock when they start teaching proper. I strongly believe that nobody in the 'outside world' will ever understand how tough it is to be a teacher. The definition of a teacher had changed much over the years. Honestly, if I had a choice 20-30 years ago, I'll definitely choose teaching. Coz a teacher at that time is a 100% teacher. Nowadays, a teacher is more like 30% teacher, 30% administrator, 10% organiser (CNY celebration, Teachers' Day celebration, Sports Day, etc), 10% student (to clock the number of training hours needed), 10% counsellor, and 10% miscellaneous worker.

So, to all teachers out there, hang in there! Have a happy teachers' day. You all have my utmost respect.

The key to 21st

I can't believe I had forgotten to post about Piglet. Yes, the baby of the family had turned 21 on the 8th of August. It made me feel old just thinking about it, or maybe it was because my own 21st birthday was a decade ago. So, due to this age gap, Yun (3 years younger than me) and I practically watch her grow up.

I know this is going to sound kind of silly, but when the birthday song was sang last weekend, there was a mixture of emotions for me. Of course I'm happy that she is finally 21, and all grown up. But there was also this tiny sense of loss... which I don't know how to explain it. I wondered if this was what Papa and Mama felt as they looked as us celebrating our 21st birthdays, and then getting married.

And since this is a very special year for her, I won't be digging out any silly-looking photos of hers like what I did last year. Luckily I was in the mood a while back to scan in some old photos, and looks like they have come in handy...

So, once again, happy 21st, piglet. May this new journey of yours be filled with love, laughter, fun, and good health.

"Sisters don't need words. They have perfected a language of snarls and smiles and frowns and winks - expressions of shocked surprise and incredulity and disbelief. Sniffs and snorts and gasps and sighs - that can undermine any tale you're telling."

~Pam Brown

To the cinema : Up

Before I start to talk about this movie, I want you to meet the latest love of my life...
(click here and here to see him in action - can't decide which one I like more so decided to put both)


Isn't he adorable??!! I can't think of any other animated film character who is as adorable and huggable as Russell here. Also, the boy who voiced him did a wonderful job.


Ok, now, back to the movie. And I got to say that this had to be the best animated film I've seen so far. I thought it was good because it touched on 2 extreme areas.


Fantasy : By tying thousands and thousands of balloons to a house and making it fly.
I felt that it somehow brought out the child in every adult, made us recall the impossible and childish dreams that we used to have when we were young.


Reality (1) : The story of Carl and Ellie.
Their dreams of adventure when they were young, when they grew up, fell in love, and got married. And then there was the part when they realised that they could not have any children, they still stood by each other and made the most of everyday. I think this was the first animated film that made me teared up more than once. The first time was when Ellie died, the second time was when the bad guy tried to burn down the house and Carl was torn between saving the house or the bird, and the third time was when Carl was looking through the adventure book and found that Ellie had put their photos in it.


Reality(2) : There was no happy family for little boy Russell.
Most animated films would have a happy family, with the father, mother, brothers and sisters and maybe a pet dog or two. However, for Russell, his parents were separated and no, there was no happy ending where the father comes back to the family.


Despite it being an animated film, I think this is much more suited for adults than children. There were so many areas in the film that sets me thinking about my own life, and how I could really relate to some of it. This is definitely one of those movie that everyone should watch it at least once.

To the cinema : G.I. Joe

A quick search through Wikipedia tells me that, G.I. = Government Issue, therefore, G.I. Joe = Government Issue ... Joe? Why Joe??

Ok, that is not important.

The important thing is, with a movie like that, where all the characters are all acting cool and super smart and almost Superman-like, why are there NO cute guys???!!!!!

And the more I thought of it, the more I felt that the movie somehow resembled Transformers in some way, and so the husband mentioned it too. To me, it was also a mess of fight scenes, except in this movie, there were real people using sophisticated and a little unreal technologies and equipment. And honestly, there is really nothing else that stands out in the movie. Somehow, not even the ending builds up any anticipation for part 2. I'll patiently wait for the DVD release.

The only interesting thing about the movie is, with the use of such high-end technologies, it makes me wonder if some of it are not already being developed. I could use that invisible suit if there is one to spare.

Da Vinci Exhibition

We finally found time to visit the Da Vinci exhibition at the Singapore Science Centre, with one more week to go before it ends. Though the $15 entrance fee, in my opinion, was a little on the steep side, the experience was a good one. I would recommend a trip down to the Science Centre soon (exhibition ends 16th Aug 2009) coz this is something that is not to be missed.

I have to admit that I don't know much about Da Vinci, other than him drawing Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and the Vitruvian Man, and whatever I had learnt from reading The Da Vinci Code novel. So what made me want to go to this exhibition? I might sound like an idiot here, but honestly, when I first heard about this, I thought it would be like an art exhibition, showcasing all his paintings. However, thanks to the power of advertisements, it made me realised that there were much more than paintings to Da Vinci.

I was really surprised by the things that he invented, and the husband was just as impressed. Da Vinci's inventions didn't just focused on one particular area, instead, many of the things on show were widely spread and somehow related to our daily lives. Like the pulley system, the hang glider, a parachute, a bicycle, a very big and bulky odometer, the flippers and the diving suit, weapons and machines for war, and even the skiing equipment used today were an idea from him, though Da Vinci's initial idea was to be able to walk on water instead of ice. No wonder he was called a genius. Click here to see more of this inventions.

The only disappointing thing about the exhibition was that no photography was allowed.

Note : Discovery channel is coming up with a show : Doing DaVinci, where a team of expert builders will try to construct these unique inventions using only materials available in da Vinci's own time.