A Reunion To Remember

It wasn't my reunion, but the one I attended yesterday was one I wouldn't have missed for the world.  I say this because for someone who has never had a reunion of any sorts (except family reunions) this reunion between old students and old teachers of this school where I am teaching in, has indeed left an indelible impression on me; one that I will never be able to emulate in any other kind of situations.

To see the former students chatter in excitement with their former fellow students and former teachers, catching up with thirty years (at least!) of lost time, really made my heart swell with amazement as to how these people can go to every extent to get this group of one hundred and eighty people together in the aghast hall!  I tip my hats off (or my my case, my 'songkok'!) to the organizer!

I was even more at awe when I noticed that some of them actually made the effort to attend even though they came with the help of a walking stick and one even had to have someone else to help him walk!  However, a dusting of grey hair and a few weak bones, did not dampen these people's spirits as I heard rapturous laughter and shrieks of happiness from the crowd!

I may not get a chance to experience such a gathering, but at least I had the chance to attend someone else's reunion.  For now I know how it feels to meet long lost friends and teachers live!  I guess meeting these people in Facebook will never be the same!

Small Sacrifices

My friends often asked me why I waited so long to join the teaching profession when I could have done so when I turned eighteen right after my SPM examinations.  They asked me why I waited seven long years before I finally decided to enrol into teachers training college.  In fact, the biggest question was why I waited until I was twenty-five, the maximum entry age, to enrol.  The answer was always the same; that I wanted to check out all my options before I committed myself to becoming a teacher.

The answer I that I have held on to all these years is far from the truth.  In reality I hesitated from embarking into the teaching profession at that early age, merely because I found myself holding back my desire from achieving that ambition and making way for my younger siblings to achieve theirs first. 

Nobody actually forced me to make that choice.  However, I realised, at the early age of seventeen, that I had no choice but to deny my own ambitions because I realised that my father, the bread-winner in the family, could not possibly send so many of his children through tertiary education with his salary, all at once.  Thus, I patiently waited until my second sibling graduated and my fourth sibling was about to graduate. 

I guess, not pursuing my own tertiary education before my siblings, made it financially easier for my father.   And, even though my contributions may not have been much, at least what salary I got working as a clerk, helped to ease my family's financial burden.  At least, then my father did not have to worry about spending extra money on me.

I have never regretted that it took me so long to become a teacher.  In fact I am glad my siblings graduated well before I did.  My sacrifice may merely be a small one.  In fact, it may not even be suitable to be called a sacrifice.  But I'm happy I did it.

A Whisper of Love

Someone once said that the best inheritance a parent can give to his children is a few minutes of his time each day.  A wonderful statement when looked at carefully, can somehow only be applied in the days gone by because as everyone very well know, in the present day, your time is not something your children would want to inherit when you die.

On the one hand, as a parent you do all you can and sometimes go out of your way to provide for your children that little bit of that materialistic satisfaction that your children want other than demanding that you also set aside some of your time and attention for them.  Children nowadays don't live on love and attention alone.  In fact they thrive on the worldly things that life, and their parent, can offer; things that seem to make them feel more alive and apart of their community; things that make them less ashamed to be a part of the community. 

On the other hand, worldly possessions and love do not flow well on one-way traffic because it takes two people to make either one succeed; and more than that they require a lot of give and take.  True when it comes to materialistic gains, the parent seems to be doing all the giving while the children do all the taking.  It would be nice, once in a while for either situations, for the parent to be on the receiving end.  After all a parent has needs too.

A parent can survive if the children in all honesty and reality cannot, or do not, give him any kind of gestures in the form of materials.  However, a parent, like any normal human being will not survive if his children, after demanding that he showers them with love and attention, does not get those two things in return from them.  In fact, unlike the children when they were young, a parent does not really have high maintenance.  A mere whisper that he is still needed by his children will make his day.  Anytime!

Modesty Blazed!

OWC sex book a cheap stunt, say women¿s groups - Yahoo!

Once in a while you get situations that cause shame to a larger part of the community due to, as the title suggests, cheap stunts by a small (and perhaps insignificant) part of the society. But no matter how insignificant that small number of people may be, the things that they say and do can, in some ways, implicate others who have nothing to do with them what so ever!

I feel these small groups of people have the right to say what they want, and to a certain extent, do whatever it is they want to do, as long as they don't say or write things that make other people think that they represent the vast majority of people around them. Try to be precise in mentioning that what they say or do is specifically targeted for their own small community and does not involve others.

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, what you say can actually affect the people around you and later on in life, people whom you hold close to you. These people may one day not share your idealism and indeed rebel from them for they would by then recognise the idiocy of the things that were done and written by the elders and by that time they would have caused them so much damage and shame.

Again, I implore to these people, think a thousand times before you say or do something because the future, which you may think to be far ahead in front you, will be at your doorsteps before you know it!

The Pen Is Mightier...

I guess it is true when we say that everyone has the right to speak his (allow me to use this pronoun throughout this post and don't blame me for being politically incorrect!)  But I am sure that in the process of practising that right, people can express what they want to say in many different ways.  People can be straight forward, people can be blunt, people can beat around the bush and people can be subtle; all are means and ways of using words to get ones views across in order to be heard or read.

However, in the midst of doing this, some people have no qualms or reservations about using abusive language to express themselves.  I think in general, some people just enjoy using them and in a way it can be a form for them to let off some steam and even some of that pent up emotions.  Of course, when requested for a reason why they use such vulgar language, they would quickly and unashamedly say that, that is the way they are and that is the only way for them to get their opinions, which in the first place are personal, across; fast!

No doubt using such language does have an immediate impact on whom ever the opinion is targeted upon but do remember that anything said, worse of all written and engraved in time for posterity, can indeed have a lasting impression; one that, in future, will be read by their children and their children's children.  There may be a few of those offspring who may share similar emotions and expressions as the writer, but think of the impression that those writings may have on the future offspring who do not share your ways of expressing your views and the consequences that may arise from them.

Don't ever be comfortable in the knowledge that some people enjoy how you write your views just because there are those who do, but think of those people who don't.  True, you cannot satisfy everybody but I guess you can make an effort to be a little less scathing and in a way be more impressive in expressing those views of yours.  You may even increase your readers!

Fare Thee Well, Tn Hj Mazlan

A retirement ceremony is never a happy occasion (even though the retiree gets many farewell presents!)   There is always a sombre feeling when one's friend has reached the ripe old (sic!) age for retirement because of the things that once were shared and mostly so because of the faults and mistakes that were made.

Today, on this beautiful Friday October the 7th 2011, saw the retirement of a senior teacher, Tn. Hj. Mazlan Abu Zaharin, Senior Assistant (Academic) of SMK Tuanku Abdul Rahman; a man who first brought me into the world of exam invigilation in 1996.  And I suppose through his confidence, I later gained enough confidence of my own to become a Chief Invigilator myself.

I also remember him most for that small favour he did for me way back in 1997.  I wanted to take my wife who was at that time about five months pregnant to the clinic for her routine check-up, but since I had just started teaching, I did not have my own car.  Besides, the public transport was quite unreliable then.  So, I asked him if I could borrow his old Datsun LY to take my wife to the clinic.  Instead, he offered to let me use his new Proton Saga NAF 9526 (if I'm not mistaken)  I tried to refuse but he did not take no as an answer.

These are but two of the many things that may be insignificant to others but which mean a lot to me.  I have learned a lot from him and for all that, I thank him.  I wish him all the best of health and prosperity in his retirement Insya Allah.

Bringing Up Children

It goes without saying that children nowadays are totally different from children of yesteryear, in all sense of the word.  My argument may not apply to a small group of children but it may in a way, apply to most children that you and I know.  Of course, this entry will be one of my many entries in future about this topic.

One great difference that I notice is that children nowadays simply love to wake up late sometimes late in the afternoon.  No matter how many times you tell them to get up from bed early, it always falls on deaf ears.  Of course, once in a while they are allowed to sleep in late if the night before they had been studying or the likes.  Otherwise I fail to see the reason why they should lie in bed, when every one else is up (don't get me going about sharing the house chores!)

Worst of all when they do get up, just in time for lunch, they leave their beds undone with the slightest effort to try and make their beds.  The room is strewn all over with soiled clothes, books everywhere and gadgets galore on the cold floor.

Of course, it was different when I was a child.  My late mother only needed to tell me once to do my chores and I would do them immediately and for the rest of my days, my mother never needed to remind me of my chores ever again.

What is it then about the children of yesteryear (some I guess) that they never needed to be told countless numbers of times to do things when compared to the children of today (also some I guess) where they need to be continuously told (then they would say that the parents are nagging!)  Were the parents of yesteryear better than today's parents?  Is there something that is lacking in the parents of today take makes their children care less about them?  I wonder!

Found : Radziah Abdul Yamin!

Saturday is never a good day to hold activities in the school especially those that require teachers to adhere to formal code of ethics for their attire and also conduct and especially so when they have to attend professional courses like the one my colleagues and I had today.

I really did not feel like attending the course (a few of my colleagues actually did not!), this morning most of all because I was tired from the travelling I did yesterday from Port Dickson after attending a two-day meeting (yes, at THAT resort!)  But I went nevertheless, albeit with a huge rock of laziness on my shoulders.

When I got to school, I saw the person who was going to present the course materials and I thought I recognised the face, different but in similar in ways that I can vaguely remember.  My hunch was right when during the 10.30 break, I walked up to her and asked her if she went to school in Port Dickson during her primary and secondary school.  She didn't answer but straight away asked me for my full name! 

That was when we realised that we were childhood friends who had gone to the same primary (standards 5 and 6) and secondary school (forms 1 and 2)  We did manage to catch up with old times, but the course schedule was so tight that there was no chance to continue the conversation.  And by the end of the course she and her two children were in a hurry to go back (to Port Dickson, no less)  that we merely bade each other goodbye and hoped that good fortune will give a chance to cross paths again, hopefully in a more unhurried circumstance!

Radziah Abdul Yamin.  One of my close school friends, have now become an Excellent Teacher (Guru Cemerlang)  I feel happy for her.  I am even happier that I have had the chance to meet her once again after thirty six years!