A Tribute to my teachers

Today being 31 Aug, and tomorrow being 1 Sept, I started feeling nostalgic. Why? Tomorrow is Teachers' Day. So, I started recollecting my 40+ years of life and the most enjoyable period of my life was ...

My secondary school days (so called the teenage years).

So here goes my heart to my secondary school & all the teachers there! I really miss them.

I studied at Si Ling Sec School from 1981 to 1984. I was in the 2nd batch of the school. So there was no high expectation to live up to, and no baggage of poor performances of earlier batches. I still have fond memories of Si Ling Sec Sch ...

- whole class made to stand outside the classroom for being too noisy (Sec 4A)
- finger kena smash by door closing
- public caning during assembly for keeping moustache
- sweeping most of the book prizes for topping the different subjects & sweeping most of the quizzes
- missed out on getting a medal for athletics in Sec 2 (my only chance - gone)

I still remember a number of my secondary teachers (as if they just taught me yesterday). So here goes - who & why ...

had 2 principals - Mr Lee (very strict; got caning by him) & Mr Bhajan Singh (very magnanimous - but I think discipline in the school slackened in later years). I still think it is good to have caning as a punishment in schools

Ms Lim Li Li - taught us chemistry in Sec 3 & 4. Remember her for her:
a) cheongsam - she almost always wore cheongsam
b) her hour-glass figure
c) she used to repeat & repeat until we could just follow her word for word. But later realised that didn't have to study so hard for Chemistry to get an A1. Thank you Ms Lim.

Mrs Mathews - taught us Biology. Remember her for making a remark that we will never get good results. Spurred me to prove her wrong. Thank you Mrs Mathews for helping me get an A1 for Bio.

Mr Philip - Maths teacher. Never had any problem with Maths. Still love Maths to this day.

Mr Ng - Add Maths teacher. Good teacher. My fault - over confident. Only managed a B3

Cikgu Syed - Malay teacher. He reprimanded the Malay students becos a non-Malay can score A1 but they could not (I think I was lucky as that was the only time I got an A1 in my 4 years). Met him a number of times outside school. Very passionate man who spent a lot of time counselling prison inmates. Met him in 2010 at JB

Mdm Maznah - Malay teacher in Sec 2. Treated me kindly.

Mdm Maimoonah - her favorite personality was Robert Redford.

Mdm Rugaiyah - taught us Geog in Sec 1. Developed a liking for Geog. Took Geog for 'O' levels

Mr Edwards - Arts teacher. I was never good in Art, but he was a good teacher.

Mr Yap - PE teacher. Met him recently in my neighbourhood. Still very fit.

Ms Devi - English teacher & form teacher in Sec 2

Mr Khoo - Physics teacher. & Thanks to him, became a member of Computer Society. My first contact with a computer was Apple & used Basic lang.

Mrs Ngooi - Sec 3 & 4 English teacher. Thanks to her, managed an A1 in English (by a whisker)

Mr Singh - taught History in Sec 1. See him a lot in the neighbourhood. Last I heard, he got a law degree. Still studying at age 60++

I can't remember some of the other teachers, but still can remember their faces. I hope you all are doing well.

Happy Teachers' Day to you all!

The Case about PA and non-partisanism

I find it incredulous that PA claims to be non-partisan and therefore do not allow WP MPs to join the grassroot functions or use their facilities. By the sheer action of not allowing opposition MPs access to their facilities, they are already being 'political' bcos they are discriminating just because of party affiliation.