but the kids nowadays are not respectful at all of the teachers and what they have done for them. trust me, i have done a few tuitioning before and this coming from a fellow teacher who i believed was having quite a tough time in school struck a chord in me.

how can parents nowadays be so protective of their kids? i was surprised to see a pri one student, with his uniform on, playing with his psp and his *coughs* girl was sitting beside him in the bus. What the f$#@?!?! i didn't remember whether i was even thinking of having a gurl at that age!

whats more, because of the globalisation and the widespread powers of the internet, porn, violence and all the other BS are coming through so fast that you don't even realise that your beloved son / daughter are exposed to it. it does and you better watch out for it lest it makes your beloved son / daughter the gremlin he /she is.

i do not abhor change, or progress or parents protecting their young ones. that i noe is the basic human neccesity and capacity of growth and safety. in fact, i welcome the growth that our country has done, but just like the administration in the highest level of governance, parents put on a cloak over their child thinking that it is preventing the child from facing all the crisis that the parents had faced. but do they check on the child? i think not.

they blame the world world including themselves except their offspring. just look at the incident in the bus. oh i tell you, if i was in that bus, seeing that idiot of a JC student punching the driver, i would have tackled him a la Goldberg, punch his face and throw him out of the bus kicking his ass! a freaking JC student!! like what the F@%$! and what does the dad do, begging forgiveness on behalf of the kid. i can't believe such stupidity exist in Singapore. and we are what, a first world country? (or did i get that wrong?)

heck, if i was you when that Sec 3 kid mocked you, i would have said out loud, "what stare stare? you think its funny right?" and promptly bring him to say what he did at the school PA system and let everyone know what an idiot he was.

anyway, hope you do put this up. i'm sick and tired of whiny kids and whiny parents.

the first year is the most crucial year as that is the year when you get CONFIRMED. if you don't get confirmation from the school (in which case, its endorsed by the PRINCIPAL) within a year, you would be reviewed again of your performance before that year ends and you would be given the choice to either stay for another six months and get yourself confirmed, or u can request to go to another school and get yourself confirmed. Now what happens if the school refuses to confirm you? YOU WOULD BE FORCED TO QUIT AND PAY BACK THE BOND. and that is over SGD$30,000. So why the heck did they make u sign the bond first before the confirmation period? if you are not sure whether your employee will perform, then put him under probation but do not bond him. That is a lose-lose situation for him/her. Which is not fair. The bond thing is VERY UNFAIR AND IS NOT BENEFICIAL TO THE EMPLOYEE. What is the purpose of training your employees if you have no intention of retaining them? Stupid right?

And of course, your confirmation is subject to how you suck up to your HODs and Principals. The politics is one aspect which i was not prepared to face when i joined the school. My HOD does not like me, cause i had trouble keeping up with the amount of work that was given back then. AND I DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO PLAY POLITICS. For me, i will not suck up to anyone, even if it earns me a few hundred dollars more. I will just do my job, whether you like it or not. Can you imagine, i had to prepare lessons every week (lesson plans to be handed in every friday) for 8 classes and mark (basic job). Then, the department gave me extra work like handling departmental duties like planning and executing programs for some school events in which i have to hold quizzes for the whole school, train MCs, prepare quiz questions, train kids for public speaking skills and making announcements every morning. On top of that, i have CCA in which i have to plan for activities. PLUS i have classroom observations every month in which i have to prepare for and this is the main determinant of my confirmation status. I also had to attend courses every now and then and even on sundays, have to bring students for some stupid field trip. And i have to carry out remedials and extra classes EVERY DAY. its crazy. i only have 24 hours a day and how to do all these? its really crap. just because i am new, they dump all kinds of unthinkable duties on me and i tell you, i lost weight and almost became crazy. my normal school hours are from 7.30am to around 9pm at night. I stayed in school late every day cause i can't finish my work. i even came back on sundays just to catch up on my marking. and even then, with 8 classes, how to finish? i am not a robot and i need rest, i need to relax. with that kind of workload, i suffered A LOT.

Unless i worked smart (by playing politics), maybe i can get around the system. But i guess i was just a hard-worker that i just tried to cope. The stupid thing was, my confirmation is subjected to only classroom observation. so all those hard work that i put in in other things is not counted lah. if i don't do, i get a bad remark. if i do, i can't seem to manage my basic work. so i tried to juggle. On top of that, one of my colleagues was backstabbing me cause i trusted him. and this made it worse for me. until at last, my P refused to confirm me. i almost wanted to quit and pay back my bond, but i don't know where to get the money from. so i decided to leave that school and was posted to another school in the same zone. Thanks be to God, this school is wayyyy better and i am so happy here. the management and the Principal who confirmed me are really people with a heart. i am so thankful and happy to be in this working environment. and i have completed the bond finally!

And another complaint i have of the school are the students. every morning, the school compound will be filled with cars. somehow, students here are pretty rich (but not so smart, and spoilt). i was given 2 2NA classes who are so rude and foul-mouthed that hearing the word c**&% and all those vulgarities is very commonplace. my lessons are spent just trying to manage the class. the discipline master is not effective and i don't see students changed even after i sent them to the department. i tell you, during the first 3 to 4 mths, i went to the toilet and cried after my lessons with them ended.

cause it hurts so much to hear students hurlting vulgarities at you when all you wanted to do was to share your knowledge with them. that there isnt even an ounce of appreciation for all the things that you've done for them. preparing lessons and all. when all i get at the end of the day is not a 'thank you' but a f*** u, k***** and c****. i even have students throwing chairs at me. i don't know where these creatures come from. back then, i truly regretted joining teaching. moulding the future of the nation? its not MY JOB! its the parent's job, not the maid or even the grandparents'. Its no use providing these 'creatures' with all the comforts (big cars and all) when the parents don't even teach them what basic manners is. and they want to blame the teachers for their child's red marks. goodness...i almost gave up on our society. and i myself am scared to raise a child in this type of environment. I was truly jaded. my noble intention has been jaded by the harsh reality of working life.

Anyway, the reason that i was NOT confirmed was because 'YOU DON'T HAVE GOOD CLASS MANAGEMENT'. GOODNESS!! WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN? WHY DON'T YOU SHOW ME THROUGH EXAMPLE, MR PRINCIPAL. NOT THROUGH OBSERVATION. in fact, i see experienced teachers having problems with the same kids that i have problems with. come on, teaching is a life-long skill, its not an overnight thing. how can you measure a young, inexperienced teacher against a much older and experienced one? What kind of assessment is that? I truly hated the management of the school, not to mention the politics and students there.

Although I understand that it is practical to set up different classes to cater to special students with special needs like a kid suffering from dyslexia or attention span problems, discipline problem; micromanaging and splitting up the kids into different levels of Normal, Express, NormTech streams have NO SIGNIFICANT BENEFIT. And more importantly, streaming did not proved ANY significant results.

I can say that the MAJOR BULK of our University students (the supposedly the best of what the education system have to offer) are working with the GOVERNMENT right now. Even though they have gone through the current administration style of education system, they are INCAPABLE in creating world recognise brand names like Yamaha, Google, EA Games etc. Do explain to me why this is so apparent cause I have yet to find a reason. Another thing is, those who support streaming are cultivating a culture of arrogance and thus DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD in the long run.

"TALKING AND RATIONALISING is what get these students to behave." << Of course that would be the 1st approach for EVERYTHING. But you fail to mention is that this approach is not the ultimate solution for all destruptive T classes. Whats the alternative for students who won't budge with talking, rationalising and countless "reflections"? That is the point of the 3 part article I wrote. From having a discipline team to straight expulsions.. thats my take for students who refuse to conform.

Or let me explain in diagram form on what I mean: