The Invisible Man!

There is a saying that goes; 'Make yourself a better person and know who you are before you try and know someone else and expect them to know you'.  Well, I have, for umpteen of times tried to better myself and prove my abilities to no one else, except myself.  Apparently those attempts have been futile and have fallen flat on my own face.

I seem to understand, albeit a little too late most of the time, that people only notice that I am visible and that my services are required when things have some how gone wrong or that the situation to be undertaken is on a large scale.  If, however the situation is a light one and it is merely a relaxing ride through, then my services are not required and I, once again become invisible. 

If only I could become invisible from people's recognition in any situation, whether or not they require my services.  I wish I could be invisible so I don't have to give any reply when people ask for my favour for a helping hand.  I wish I could be invisible so that I don't have to confront people who can seem to be friendly in front of me but totally insincere when not.  In fact, sometimes I wish I was invisible per se!

Love Thy Neighbour.

The Scene of the Crime

Some things are easier said than done, like loving your neighbour for instance.  Loving your neighbour or to put it bluntly, respecting your neighbour, is actually more often than not, a two way thing.  It is almost impossible to respect and tolerate your neighbour when you are the only one doing the respecting; and you are the only one tolerating every single thing that your neighbour literally throws at you.

An incident in question that occurred just last night is a clear cut example of loving thy neighbour which requires you to love thy neighbour back in return.  This whole neighbourhood has always tolerated this particular neighbour and swallowed in sheer pain the things that they dish out.  But yesterday, they brought the idea of neighbourly tolerance to a different and dangerous level. 

To Err Is Human.....

Did you see the queue during the Hari Q?

Another formal function was completed today, albeit rather late in the evening; almost 6.30 at that.  Experience would have taught us that, holding a function such as the one held today, and on such a scale, is often prone to glitches here and there, no matter how precise you want it to be and no matter how many practises and rehearsals you have in order to make it run smoothly.

When things go wrong, as they usually do, no matter how hard you try to avoid them, we must not be quick to point fingers at other people.  There is a Malay saying that goes "when you point your finger at someone, remember that your other four fingers are pointing back at you!", which means that any thing that goes wrong may not be the fault of other people but the fault of your own doing!

A Gracious Host!

Our Form 6 students as Facilitators and Motivators

Our form six performed their Social Services today by giving motivational talks to primary school pupils who will be sitting for their UPSR examination in September this year.  I noticed that every one learned a lot through the programme, be they the primary school pupils themselves, the motivators and even me myself.

On the plus side I learned a few things from the headmaster of the school that my group of form 6 went to.  I learned that there are indeed heads of departments who sympathise with the workloads faced by teachers, none of which had anything to do with our core business which is teaching.  She empathised that teachers are burdened with excessive and unnecessary documentation and clerical work and to a certain extent, she even hired teacher helpers for her teachers.  I felt a sudden pain in my stomach and wondered why my head of department doesn't even have, at the very least one percent of that headmaster's empathy!  Teaching life would be a lot more bearable, with or without the excessive clerical work!

When You Wish Upon A STAR!

This famous Walt Disney theme song taken from one of it's famous animations (I have forgotten which one!), is a suitable song to sing when there is something that you really want and the STAR in question here is definitely not where I am.

When you wish upon a star, the only thing you would want to do is shine; and you would never expect people to out-shine you or worse still, snuff you out.  This unfortunately has happened to me, when all the things I initially did was later on taken over by someone else and along the process, managed to out-shine me.  I have always been someone who would rather be in the background than being in the limelight.  I do everything quietly and get things done without making a big fuss of them.  Unfortunately, this trait of mine is seen as a stepping stone for someone to get the credits all to himself by literally being in the forefront of things.  Sad to say, all that I had done went unnoticed by the people concerned and all credits went to the other person.  In short, I have become the stepping stone that has been stepped all over.

Replacement Class? No Class!

Some students cleaning the classroom,
while others couldn't care less.

There comes a time when every one from different fields, should take the necessary steps to rethink about this idea of replacement classes which was introduced to make up for the long holidays for certain festivals in this country; festivals which have initially been given one or two public holidays and later on extended to a maximum of one week to make sure every one has a good time.

Fire drill

I am all for replacing these classes that fall on the days where the additional holidays are given, but I shudder to think when an ordinary class on an ordinary day is replaced with a day where no class takes place.  The replacement classes where teaching and learning should take place is replaced by other activities like cleaning the classrooms, fire drills and other activities.

Practise Session for the Form 6

On top of all this, there is also the fact that on these days the students' attendance is never one hundred percent full, not that it was ever full on ordinary school days to begin with!  So, perhaps it is time for us to go back to the good old days when public holidays really mean public holidays without being added unnecessary extra hole-idays!

Old Friend from UK Days!

If you are fated to meet up with a friend, even after many years, God willing, you will meet up with your friend again.  That is exactly what happened to me this week while being an examiner for a certain

examination for our local Form 6. 

It turned out, that my co-examiner is a friend who went to the UK the same time I did, which was from 1994 to 1996.  And most surprising of all, she knew at least two of my course mates who went to the same university as I did in Leeds, that is the University of Leeds.

Needless to say, there were a lot of catching up to do aside from reminiscing the old times, especially talking about the weather.  The face that she went to Bristol didn't really matter much!  It's funny how you tend to pick up a few of the local (UK) habits when striking a conversation, and that was exactly what we did; talked about the weather!

And it is also nice to know that most of us who went to study in the UK have weathered on as teachers to continue teaching (she has five more years to go before her retirement!), no matter the weather!