Now, I am sure that you all are fully aware of what happened, but here is a brief summary of the incident.
1130: 2O1 entered the Black Box for Chinese Drama Lessons. There was no teacher in the room. People start to get wild and play, like a horse when it sees a large, spacious field. Some highly intelligent individuals start to play with the Black Box's light controls. People start running around the Dark room like the infected in Left 4 Dead 2.
1135: The teacher enters the Black Box, late, and 'A' certain 'Ho' continues to play with the switches, literally "in his face".
And so we got a really stern lecture about cherishing our facilities, and about chinese moral values and the mannerisms of a Hwa Chong Student by our Chinese Drama Teacher.
But that was not all.
1230: The teacher calls for the class to greet him. This command is greeted with slow processing from the class, and a generally rowdy noise. (and to add on, a certain high jumper rolling on the floor for godknowswhat reason)
And we got the craziest lecture from the most idealistic teacher I have met.
The Chinese Drama teacher, angered from two incidences occurring in an hour, Ordered us all to stand in silence for 10 minutes, and if we made any sound or fidgeted a little, another 10 minutes. At the same time, we received the most expressive lecture I had ever heard. It appeared that the teacher's fuse had blown. We would have thought that it would be over in 10 minutes, but the teacher was so enraged that he made us stay for 3 times of the original planned time. His rationale went something like this:
"I want to blow up this matter! I'll make it so big that the principal gets involved in this! Make the whole school involved in the biggest ever search in Hwa Chong for a missing class! I want your art teacher to call everyone and frantically search for you!"
But in the end, after thirty minutes, we were ordered to vanish, and when we reached the art studio, the art teacher calmly replied: "Ok, guys, you must finish your designs for today."
But that isn't the point. From this entire incident, (which Dexter named "the tragedy in the black box" hence my title) our class lost 30 minutes of official curriculum. But then, who do you think is in the wrong? Is it our class for making the teacher angry, or the teacher for making a mountain out of a molehill by robbing us of 30 minutes of art lesson? Perhaps this could have been prevented? Anyone has any insight towards this incident?
Cheers,
LMX
Unless you can instill in those who played a fool some discipline and common sense, I'm afraid there's no way to solve this.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to say out my opinion bluntly, then: We're only going to be together as a class for around 2/3 of a year more. If what these people wanta do 'fore we get streamed is to make 1O1 '09 the most unbehaved class our sch has ever seen, I doubt there's anything that can change the ppl in this class - whom I believe went away thinking that the teacher is the one making the mountain outta a molehill.
If only those people who played around could stop their nonsense and see the limits of messing around in class, then perhaps there is still some hope.
Dear J,
ReplyDeleteI mostly agree with you. However, I do not believe that it is really possible to "instill some discipline and common sense" into the people. I once heard in a leadership workshop that It is not possible to change a person completely, but rather, one should find ways to adapt to the person. Perhaps we just have to bear with our fellow classmates for the rest of the year?
MX
Dear Ming Xia,
ReplyDeleteI do not really think that bearing with those who played a fool for the rest of the year is the best idea. They will not learn from their mistakes. It is true that it is almost impossible to change a person completely. However, I do not think that adapting to the person is the best way. It will probably make them think that they are right in playing the fool, and like what Justin has said, walk away thinking that it was just the teacher over-reacting over a small matter.
However, I also felt that the teacher was rather inconsiderate to punish us such that it ate into our next lesson, and he clearly stated that he did this on purpose to let our art teacher panic and go all over the school looking for us. Maybe if he had really wanted to punish us, he could have done so after school. I also do not feel that it is right for the teacher to think in such a manner. However, it was our fault in the first place. If we had not misbehaved, we would not have been punished and this incident could have been avoided.
Well, Bryan I agree with you that the Teacher was rather inconsiderate by punishing us into our next lesson, but definitely he could not have done it after school, for really obvious reasons that nobody would bother to "stay back after school to get punished" right?
ReplyDeleteAnd also, Bryan, what then do you suggest can make our dear classmates "learn from their mistakes"? obviously, even after this incident, the class is still as rowdy as ever, which shows that lectures certainly have no impact on them. That punishment too, has not affected their behaviour much. How, then can we effectively change their attitude and characters for the better?
MX