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Saturday, 7 November 2009
Corporal punishment blamed for growing dropout
Karachi, June 20 (PPI): Corporal punishment is one of the reasons behind growing dropout in our schools, as majority of our teachers are not trained in stress and anger management. Sadia Baloch, National Program Manager of Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) said this at one-day consultation program on Corporal Punishment in Schools, held at Secretary Education Office Sindh on Saturday here. Every year 35000 children are dropped out of schools in Pakistan and almost 50percent of them leave school due to corporal punishment, she said, adding 67percent school age children are still out of schools in Sindh province, as sustainability and ...
Friday, 6 November 2009
Bye bye Mr. Sng
I heard the loudest school song today.
In other news, it would probably occur in another 2 years, and 5 years or so.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Our detractors
 Today, 06:54 PM | |||
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 Quote:
Been there. Done that. No use. Waste time. Maybe a little attention from the public might help this time. Don't keep your hopes too high though. |
Dhs seems to be receiving a lot of flak on the Internet of late. It is deeply demoralising when I have this tingling suspicion that some of these keyboard warriors are our very own schoolmates. It should be useful for a discerning user to note that the above email was not meant as a direct response to the student himself (or herself), but a result of many emails asking for help for lost and found items. The email system has been a good way to reach out to our school for help in things like surveys and subject announcements. I am also sure that there is no moral hazard (=> meaning that students become more careless about their possessions because there is a channel to ask for help) here. However, these is a lost and found corner in school.
Also, some STOMP users have taken to hurling abuse at dhs:
| 19-10-2009, 05:32 PM | |||
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I'm from dunman high. I really really hate the school, but I do admit that there are still many good teachers. Some really teach very well, and make lessons rather interesting. Not saying that all teachers are great though. I had a few shitty teachers; the more they teach, the worse my results get  Generally, to me, the school sucks. I can't wait till I have my O's and then I can get out of DHS!  |
| 20-10-2009, 09:19 AM | |||
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mdm xxx xx xxxx should be fired |
| 20-10-2009, 10:54 AM | |||
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As an ex-dunmanian I feel compelled to make my maiden post here. Sad to see people here making disparaging remarks of the school and the teachers. Some of the posts here are bordering on slander and lacks maturity, especially from people who claim that they are in the first year of university. If you are not happy with the quality of the teachers, why aren't you as alumni or a current student doing something about it? Why not feedback to the principal instead of wasting precious time and energy ranting here? Believe me, it is in your self-interest that DHS remains a top-tier school so that your resume will look good to employers. During my time in DHS I would say that generally the teachers are top-notch and I have nothing but praise for the school, even though the school rules are over strict IMO. Now that DHS has a seniorhigh section I think we should cup the school some slack...we just had our pioneer batch of graduates and hiccups takes time to be ironed out! And talking about bad teachers, I have seen more in NUS than anywhere else. Those PhD lecturers can't teach for nuts and speak in incomprehensible chinese-accented English. So are you going to blame your lecturers if you don't do well? JC and senior high is the time where you guys should seriously start learning independently and don't over-rely on teachers to SPOONFEED you! If you do well despite not having good teachers then good for you, you are ready for university. If you don't, please stop attributing all the blame to the teachers and the school and whatnots. Take a look at yourself first and ask yourself if you have the calibre in the first place. |
| 20-10-2009, 12:00 PM | |||
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Quote:
Is the DHS situation something like NJC-IP when it first started? I really think the principal should start firing the staff, there is no such thing as "cut some slack" in this world, if your performance is below par, you're gone, there isn't even the 3- strike rule. Like duh......if I'm in DHS i'll probably find something news-worthy about the staff in the school and explode it in the media, that way maybe the principal will be forced to do something about it. It's the fastest way to get it over with. |
| 20-10-2009, 01:07 PM | |||
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Quote:
There's no need to wash dirty linen in public. Once the complaint reaches the student's parents you can be sure the principal will do something. Anyway my point is if they want something to change, ranting in a forum is not the solution. |
| 20-10-2009, 04:56 PM | |||
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No more lies. No more pretending. Dunman high sucks. I am leaving. |
| 20-10-2009, 05:19 PM | |||
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Quote:
hello senior, easy for you to say, hell for the rest of us to survive mr sng was very useless as a principal for dhs.  .................. to criticize is to volunteer. you read first before spewingyour ignorance and insensitivity all over this thread. http://talkback.stomp.com.sg/forums/...2&postcount=54 |
| 20-10-2009, 06:35 PM | |||
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Quote:
Apologies if what you said about Mr Sng is true. I was too quick to judge....it pains me deeply to see the institution which I have spent the best 4 years of my life being criticized. Sad to know that the school is not in good hands at such a critical juncture which may make or break the school's reputation. Just curious, but are there no other chemistry teachers around? I believe lessons are taught in the lecture-tutorial system. Your Chemistry tutor should be able to clear the doubts that you have during lectures. |
| 20-10-2009, 08:31 PM | |||
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Mdm xxx should be fired. Enough said. I believe in karmaaaaaaaaaa. |
See what you think about it.
Some questions
In my online trawls I found a film Hannibal.
Check out the spoilers at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_(film).
There was an evil man (the bad guy), an evil evil man (the 'more' bad guy), the evil good man (the bad guy still), and the good woman. But this is not the point.
It is as though heaven's will for an evil man to commit evil deeds. But what happens when a man expected to be good (a police officer, for example) turns bad? Is he worse, for he could not resist being evil when he is especially supposed to? Then is the evil man born evil anyway? If he is not, is he also a good man turned evil?
What is good, bad, and altruism?
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
News snippets
The cover page of yesterday’s TNP read thus: “PRIMARY SCHOOL KIDS EXPOSED TO SMUT”. Turns out that a contract teacher with the student’s school had uploaded R21 material onto his Facebook profile and a female student was caught watching it.
Firstly, nude videos aside, some have always wondered about the validity of using teachers who have just graduated from junior college (high school) and are waiting for their ‘A’ Levels results. Granted, they have obtained good grades for their prelims, and probably have good conduct, but are they really good at their craft? Some parents recoil in horror when they discover that their JC1 kids are being taught by fresh JC graduates. I don’t think that is an issue. I have been taught by one such tutor in my first few Economics lessons, and nearly two years later, I vividly remember our first lesson, when we learnt about scarcity, opportunity cost and moral hazard.
Secondly, nude videos still aside, teaching is a difficult career. With an increasing number of people becoming empowered with 21st Century Skills, more are inclined to upload and share their social lives - to remain connected with pals even when they are physically separated by the Atlantic Ocean. But are teachers included when it comes to being empowered, while enjoying freedom of expression on the Internet? Do they have a social life that they can share with friends without being labeled “vile”, or making parents feel “shocked and appalled”? We may have lowered our expectations of the next generation, but our expectations of teachers are still unusually high. To be sure, we all have our private lives and opinions that we don’t upload to MySpace or Blogger. Moreover, teachers are considered to be “public officers”. We would surely be scandalized if we see another Wee Shu Min/Wee Siew Kim incident. Please, we couldn’t even tolerate Ris Low’s antics. However, what is the line between private and social lives, and who draws it?
Thirdly, I am as “shocked and appalled” when I read that it was a primary school student (actually, I assume this, as the article didn’t explicitly state it) who was watching the offensive videos. (Sadly, I got my first family computer in Primary Six, and without Internet too.) I am even more so when an unnamed parent stated that “more should be done to bring ‘unhealthy’ websites to the authorities’ attention so something can be done about them”. How many dirty websites are there? Allan Weis didn’t predict that the Internet would be filled to the brim with pornography when he created its backbone. And why push everything to the authorities? The authorities, like MDA, have enough on their plate trying to encourage the use of new media and push for innovation at the same time. MOE has enough on their plate to answer to anxious parents who complain that the latest PSLE Math paper was too tough to handle, while lowering the standards of Chinese textbooks so more people could benefit from sub-standard Chinese. My spirits were lifted when I read the comments from Madam Josephine Ng and Ms Irene Tan.
“ ‘Teachers should not be doing things like that. As parents, it is our constant fear that (students will be led astray) but we just have to teach our children to be responsible.’ ”
– Madam Josephine Ng
– Madam Josephine Ng
“ ‘It is important to control the Internet use of children because you never know what they could be looking at.’ ”
– Ms Irene Tan
Yes, teach our future leaders to be responsible netizens, and use your parental authority to control what your kids watch. Things like putting the computer in the living room are ways that may help to do the former, and they are not extreme methods, unlike using web cameras to spy on your kids, or keyloggers that record what they do on the computer. Also, have a good relationship with them! They would feel guilty when they do things they are not supposed to.
Lastly, I recall reading an online article (can’t remember where is it though) that people have been fired when their bosses see their social life on Facebook, so you might also want to consider who is in your network of ‘friends’, and set limitations on what to show on your profile!
~
Next up, MM Lee “cited the teaching of bilingualism…as the most difficult policy to implement.” Whose fault is this?
If China didn’t decide to rise as the next economic engine, I presume that Singapore’s future generations will never know how to speak Mandarin, or write their names in Chinese, or even have Chinese names to start with.
To be fair, there is still a rather large Mandarin-speaking community here. Notice I didn’t use “Chinese community”, because that would probably include a larger population, and some of this larger population probably doesn’t quite speak Mandarin. We often tell our foreign brethren proudly that we have four official languages and we have good inter-racial relationships, which is true. The 1964 racial riots have been brought up so often to remind ourselves of the important of racial harmony that it has become a cliché. But I digress. Singaporeans are also often regarded as “effectively bilingual”. But when visitors come, they are sorely disappointed. True, we have our role model, MM Lee, whom I believe can speak Japanese as well as the official languages. So what? One multilingual minister does not make up the rest of Singapore.
Are languages important? What kind of importance do they have? Economic significance? Check. Communication? Check. Heritage? Huh? What horitagee? Can eat?
P.S. Do dialects count as languages too? Technically they don’t, so, not important huh?
Sunday, 1 November 2009
A post in passing
Now the examinations are coming in a week's time, and 3 months after the end I am getting enlisted. Then after 2 years I will be studying again, and 4 years later I will be structurally unemployed, then hopefully 2 months later I will be lawfully and happily employed, because I can finally take some of the load off my parents' shoulders. 5 years later I start to think about my career progression. Am I in the right kind of job? Am I really happily employed? 10 years later I am at the peak of my career, and at the age where one is 'too young to retire, too old to work'...
I spent some time watching TV today, not something I should be doing, but anyway. There was this quote:
“不能因为不知道未来，而不把握现在。”
Steve Jobs also said, only on looking back was he able to 'connect the dots'. Looking back he was able to see how his life went from dropping out of college, to being fired from Apple, to going back, and now.
I am no Jobs. The only thing I have similar to him is that our parents are from the working class.
All the more I have to buck up. I cannot see my future. But I will need to hold on to something - is it a dream? A goal? I do, though it is not feasible, not quite possible, but it is something in this crazy world for me to hold on to.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
TQ
I don't have time to update that previous post; all I want to say is that I am very proud that after 6 years of not doing anything for the school and country, I can finally play a small part to do just that. :]
I am also inspired. After doing the school of the future, and attending TQ Live, I wish to do my small part in the world; help people to enjoy the benefits of education. Help them be empowered.
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Return
Day 1
Tried to study on the long flight. Gone through microeconomics only, drifting in and out of sleep when the lights were dimmed and had to use the reading light. Beside me mum was occasionally watching movies or listening to music, or dozing off. If I remembered correctly, SIA crew used to do refills every time your cup becomes empty, so much that the sewage compartment must be bursting at the seams after a flight. Now, they can forget about your requests. No complaints there though; this was a great reward from Oracle (thanks Oracle!), they had to service a full plane, and we were not flying first class.
Mr. Gi was not with us, and his absence was quickly amplified (for reasons unknown). Like the country bumpkin I was, I stood around for a while waiting for myself to be magically checked in. After a few moments nothing happened so I looked around and there! Our assistant coach was the first in a queue at the front desk. I quickly joined the queue.
Room 632:
Later later.
Saturday, 17 October 2009
回来
So I'm back. And I got this desire to stay outside as long as possible, to escape from the reality that TQ Live 09 was over and everyone had left a quickly diminishing footprint upon me and left... The same feeling was there on 070707 POP, and Inner Mongolia 08.
"I thought I didn't like routines, but the wake-up-at-six-and-go-occ was a routine after all. And I kinda like it. I had to say bye to hearty meals, nice people like Albert and Jomay (stylo name), and return to hot humid Singapore and stop promoting Singlish because it is bad; and the stress and things to do come rushing back in a tidal wave. It doesn't matter; I shall wave them aside casually and sit down to work.
"On this last night half of me longed to rest, and the pillows are so cooling and soft, too! The other half didn't dare to sink into transient unconsciousness, not daring to see the night go by, and it does go by fast enough for one to crick one's neck while trying to turn to see what is going on.
"I woke up with the feeling of loss gone. The excitement of getting the silver notebook housed in solid aluminium was long off."
I don't like the sudden acceleration a plane makes when it is on the runway. It makes me feel I am leaving behind things and people.
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Black tar
I have decided to keep a diary, then I have neglected that intention; then I retrieved it from its lonely corner, and dusted it off, looking at a sprightly cover that hid the melancholy inside. There was no real sadness, but no authentic joy either. It was a book which I relegated to my darkest thoughts in my darkest hours, which are marred with bright spots. Because there exist people who refuse to let one of their kind go to waste, or darken his hours with a charcoal pen.
But similarly there exist people who not only give you thick charcoal markers but also spray fixatives such that your whiteboard is vandalised, and permanently so. It would seem as though their lives depend on it. They may not do it intentionally, rather, most of the time they spread their pessimism around them unknowingly, marking their territory, and invading yours.
P.S. 小明还在休假。
But similarly there exist people who not only give you thick charcoal markers but also spray fixatives such that your whiteboard is vandalised, and permanently so. It would seem as though their lives depend on it. They may not do it intentionally, rather, most of the time they spread their pessimism around them unknowingly, marking their territory, and invading yours.
P.S. 小明还在休假。
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
今天，风和日丽，阳光普照。小明踏着轻快的脚步上学去。
不过以上的小明是我，今天也不是风和日丽，阳光普照；我踏着的脚步也没有半点轻快。
今天，并没有很特别的事情发生。不过俗话说：“人生无常，不可虚度” 云云。所以虽然虚度了这一天，也必须把它添油加醋一番，弄得好像趣味无穷。这不叫诈骗，只是精彩的叙述。所以呢。。
今天，我踏着轻快的脚步回家，摸了裤袋里的皮夹一下，突然心血来潮。你们一定很自然地以为我从摸皮夹的举动或皮夹本身得到了某种启发，像写作的灵感，或”人生无常”这样一个信息。错了，我只不过想到要搭几号巴士。于是，我就很奢侈地花了四毛半（好奢侈啊！）乘搭一辆十分豪华（太豪华了！）的新捷运40号巴士，目的地是阿裕尼地铁站对面的巴士站。好不容易，费了九牛二虎之力，找到一个舒适的落脚处。有点闷，便持书阅读。
下个站，竟有美女上车！我憋着气，希望她注意我。最终，这憋气的功夫是白费了。嗨，真没 Lady luck! 今天搭巴士，还以为会有艳遇，哪知没有艳遇，倒碰上了瘟神一个，我埋怨着。什么瘟神，你好奇地问。美女坐在我前面后（到底是前还是后??），本来想叹气，突然身旁出现一个怪叔叔。
〈小明太累了，明天在继续。。。〉
不过以上的小明是我，今天也不是风和日丽，阳光普照；我踏着的脚步也没有半点轻快。
今天，并没有很特别的事情发生。不过俗话说：“人生无常，不可虚度” 云云。所以虽然虚度了这一天，也必须把它添油加醋一番，弄得好像趣味无穷。这不叫诈骗，只是精彩的叙述。所以呢。。
今天，我踏着轻快的脚步回家，摸了裤袋里的皮夹一下，突然心血来潮。你们一定很自然地以为我从摸皮夹的举动或皮夹本身得到了某种启发，像写作的灵感，或”人生无常”这样一个信息。错了，我只不过想到要搭几号巴士。于是，我就很奢侈地花了四毛半（好奢侈啊！）乘搭一辆十分豪华（太豪华了！）的新捷运40号巴士，目的地是阿裕尼地铁站对面的巴士站。好不容易，费了九牛二虎之力，找到一个舒适的落脚处。有点闷，便持书阅读。
下个站，竟有美女上车！我憋着气，希望她注意我。最终，这憋气的功夫是白费了。嗨，真没 Lady luck! 今天搭巴士，还以为会有艳遇，哪知没有艳遇，倒碰上了瘟神一个，我埋怨着。什么瘟神，你好奇地问。美女坐在我前面后（到底是前还是后??），本来想叹气，突然身旁出现一个怪叔叔。
〈小明太累了，明天在继续。。。〉
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Lapses in Living Memory
I felt a great and intense inclination to post, and the paragraph formed like this in my head (if I used 'brain' here people will snidely question the existence of one), "In this life of many ups and downs..."
...
First I wanted to say something that was inspirational, in the midst of the struggling that I see in this cold, dark reality.
...
Then I realised that I was ill-equipped, and poorly positioned to pen such motivational writings as I was not very personally involved in jihad - the struggle for survival in life. Also, my great and intense inclination quickly fades away, leaving an equally great and intense void in its place. You ask, how can an emptiness be great and intense?
It could be. Only recently I took a short glance back at the road I was treading sometimes cautiously and sometimes recklessly and regretted a waste of four good studying days! Yes, I did attempt to complete all hypothesis testing questions in revision package 4 and studied part of my economics notes for the next lecture, but the supposedly most bountiful moments of these four days were irresponsibly spent in naught!
On hindsight, I decided to consider these four days one of the many lapses in my life. Then, I made the most shocking discovery in 18 years. These four days were nothing, for I had spent these last four years in naught. The memories were a blur, and they were not all very pleasant ones, for I had not actively sought to make them so. Edit: Though, there were good ones, which tether me to the past, being unable to move on sometimes. Unfufilled promises and hopeful regrets. The gravity of this thought hit me hard. At this point in time, I rightly felt the greatness and intensity of the void in my life.
How about you - any gaping holes in your life journey?
At that point, have you been able to make the connection to what you are now?
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
- Steve Jobs, commencement address at Stanford
But then again, that's Steve Jobs.
Sunday, 26 July 2009
Doorman Link 02 '45
"Student, 17, suspected to have used a gas explosion, blew up half the canteen, killing 13 people, while duelling with chemistry tutor. The educator was claimed to have labelled student as gormless moomoo*."
"The student in question had failed a record number of 23 chemistry tests and examinations in a period of 2 months, and is believed to be suffering from schizophrenia, paranoid personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and erotomania at the time. (He is also a 3H2 1H1 student.) The tutor berated him in front of an audience of 500 and publicly told him he was a "gormless moomoo" and should drop out of school altogether. The student did not seem to be particularly affected, but suddenly whipped out a wand and pointed it at the startled tutor.
"The tutor regained his composure quickly and disarmed the student before conjuring a shield charm which was so powerful that knocked the student off his feet. The fight escalated into a brawl when the student whipped out another dozen wands and fired all of them at the tutor, breaking the shield charm and leaving a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead.
"A friend of the student, Grace (not her real name), said, "It was really scary. He looked demented and was going to strike out at all of us. A schoolmate, Wynne (not her real name), said, "I always thought he had a screw loose. Another bystander at the event snidely commented about the lack of a screwdriver, but was ignored.
"The fight was broken up by a member of the public (MP) who happened to be a parent of a Primary Six student applying for Direct School Admission (DSA) and the school's entire PE Department. The parent commented afterwards that "he will be thinking twice whether he wishes to enroll his child in this seemingly prestigious school". However, other parents present applauded the students' courage in standing up to his pernicious tutor.
" 'This clearly shows the school's success in inculcating the school values of moral courage and loyalty; the boy explicitly displayed 上勇 in enduring the tutor's hurtful remarks and standing up to him when many would just quaver in their socks in such a situation, as well as loyalty to his own principles. I would have done the same. He deserves a standing ovation', a bystander parent noted.
"The PE Head of Department was amazed at the raw strength the student had such that the whole PE Department was needed to restrain him, given that he could not do more than three pull-ups for his physical fitness test.
"Investigations are pending."
*Gormless moomoo?
From the Urban Dictionary
1)A pre-pubescent adolescent boy with a nasal voice and an attitude to match
2) A person who is wasted, acting like a fool
Saturday, 25 July 2009
In today's Straight Times, there exist crooked crooks...
"Mr. V.C., jailed for 177 years for operating a multi-national multilateral multi-billion pyramid scheme and mis-selling high-risk structured products like the Lemon Mini-Bombs."
"All I wanted was to get rich and give my papa and mama a good life," says a sobbing Mr. V.C., who owned up to all charges levied against him. More news continued on Prime page 4.
Friday, 17 July 2009
Doorman Link 01 '45
"Doorman Heights School (DHS) eliminating all 3H2 1H1 subject combinations by end of 2050"
"Veteran principal Mr S., 79, said that 3H2 1H1 students, on the whole were pulling the school's standard and its position on the non-existent 'top 5 JCs ranking' down. 'This batch of students also do not adhere to the Doormanian Code of Conduct strictly, leading to a degradation of the general public's impression of the school. 本座只是在清理门户。'
"However, ex-discipline master, senior counsel for Partly-Retired-And-Cast-Aside Teachers' Welfare, Mr. K., commented that he was deeply disappointed in Mr S.'s teaching methods and accused him of inventing a pack of lies (一派胡言) just to better the school's great academic reputation. He also expressed sorrow that the school is no longer at lofty Heights and felt too ashamed to meet the forefathers of DHS after moving on to the underworld.
"It turned out that Mr. S. was not the popular headmaster he was made out to be. Throughout the murky years in DHS, there were many outspoken dissidents who were either expelled due to undisclosed reasons, or worse, disappeared off the face of the earth forever. (Rumour has it that the round field in the campus was a burial place --> see report below.) Ex-student G.K., currently working in the P.R.I.M.E. Mini-star's Office, who was fortunate enough to graduate in 2007 after his 'O' Lvels, said, 'I always thought he was a 小白脸.'
"V.C., friend of G.K. and ex-student, currently a janitor in the P.R.I.M.E. Mini-star's office, expressed disappointment. 'I thought he was a great educator. He was a good role model for us. Also, his door was always wide open so that we could approach him when we were in dire straits... Sadly, things turned out to be this way. His supporters must have felt the same disappointment as mine.' "
"Round field in campus a burial ground?"
"As one walks into the campus, the first thing that enters one's line of sight is a round field, affectionately termed <正新猿>. Zheng comes from the Chinese idiom, 上梁不正下梁歪, Xin simply means 'new', and Yuan is a sound-alike for 'garden' in Chinese, and also means 'monkey' - referring to our primate ancestors. Rumours are afloat that the field was actually a burial ground. But the real secret was that there was a way of opening up the burial ground.
" 'I think you are supposed to walk three rounds around chanting November Papa Charlie Charlie. At the end of your three rounds apparently someone will reply. Do not turn back,' a senior student revealed.
" 'Us campers have been warned not to approach the circle field at 3.30 a.m. It could be a bluff, but anyone caught will be punished severely, so no one actually tried to,' a student told this reporter during his annual camp.
"Could this be real? Could such a long-standing spot in the campus have a dark history? Insider sources confirmed rumours that outspoken dissidents against the reign of the dictator-like headmaster were done away discreetly and dumped in the circle field during full moon nights, on specially selected days that were supposedly auspicious burial days. Feng shui masters reportedly advised Mr. S. to have a Confucius statue erected there to circumscribe the yin qi in the field itself, so that the rest of the school remains safe from the troubled souls that lie there.
"School officials repudiated all accusations and condemned them as 'poor methods to sabotage the institution.' "
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