The Silence in the Air

Today, Ms Soh got really pissed at our class.

Here was the situation from my point of view:

1) Ms Soh was introducing to the class a new part of our LA syllabus: War Poetry

2) Ms Soh was explaining to us about current affairs, pertaining to the current wars.

3) Ms Soh asked us questions about the topic, which nobody could answer, despite the fact that she had given us notes

4)She got angry with us, because she put in effort into making her lesson, while we did not bother to read her notes that she provided.

Therefore, 3 minutes before LA was over, this was the outcome of the lesson.

"Lets all go to sleep now".

"2O1, do you know that if a teacher dreads going to your class, it means that you are in deep trouble? Because she will no longer bother to give you notes and extra lessons."

"Ok? So 2O1, I will make sure you get hell."

And with that, Ms Soh threw her marker on the ground and left in a cloud of ice.

Upon seeing this, I felt shocked, but at the same time could not help feeling that our behaviour in class was perfectly normal. Hadn't it been like this for last term, or 2 terms ago last year, or for the whole of last year for that matter?

I think the problem here lies in our fear of speaking up and voicing out our opinions.

I fear being ridiculed. I fear that "paiseh" feeling when I ask or say something that I thought was intelligent, only to be laughed at seconds later when the truth comes crashing down on me that it was actually an idiotic question or remark. i fear being the "extra" one when this eerie air of silence lingers in the air. However, there are some times when I really do not know the answer, and thus I wait in my seat, expecting one of the more outspoken ones to break this silence. Most of the time, this happens after a while, but sometimes, it just doesn't happen.

Not today, I guess.

Sometimes, I also fear the ridicule that I may face if the teacher asks a rhetorical question and I answer. the heat or red on your face can really make you want to jump off a cliff sometimes. And sometimes, I can't even judge for myself if the teacher is asking a rhetorical question or not. This results in me not answering questions, as i fear that feeling above.

Also, there are times that the questions posed are really quite one dimensional, such that I do not know if the teacher will answer it him or herself. Thus, I keep my words to myself and bide in silence.

Back to the original topic once more, I do not find Ms Soh's actions surprising at all. If I was the teacher, and I provided all the answers to my questions a week before my lesson, yet during my lesson, nobody could answer my question, I would feel insulted too.

I believe that this has happened many times before in the history of 2O1, the more memorable ones being the "Animal Farm Cold war" during LA last year, and the "Javascript Outburst" which happened during a IS lesson recently. This seems so much like deja vu to me, and most likely the rest of the class. How many times do we want to commit the same mistake over and over again? How many times do we want to make our dedicated teachers angry and pissed again?

How long more will we allow this cold silence in the air to linger?