A Little Thankfulness

Technically, yesterday was the last day of school for some students. With the advent of the O'levels, many secondary school ends earlier as compared to those in primary schools. But lessons will still carry on for another two weeks or so unofficially so that a lot more of in-depth teaching can take place.

There were two things that I want to reflect about as the academic year comes to a close.
Firstly...the exam results and moderation.
I do not want to go into the validity of papers set. That I trust...and most teachers I know would have prepared taught what is needed, and prepared the students for the exams.

Yet we spend many hours debating over 'poor academic performance'.
We become the judge and jury...debating on whether on not some of the students would really be ready to move on to the next level...when it is obvious that some of the reasons for the bad results stem from the child's own attitude and apparent lack of interest.

Enough said here...there is enough great debate out that about exams and its whole plethora of shortcomings when it comes to evaluating a person's worth....

But here is the crunch.
I know that there are teachers who care enough to want to help these students move on.
We evaluate each case carefully, and most of the time, the teachers will speak up for the child.
...and they do it with sincerity.

Which comes to my second point...
One of the last exercises I had to do yesterday with a class was to encourage them to write a nomination for a national 'award...which is to recognise the teacher for his/her contributions in the line of duty. All the students had to do was to simply write a few lines to thank any teacher whom the child think is caring.

While some dutifully filled up the form, there were many who stared blankly.
"I cannot think of anyone," was the common phrase word.
"Must I really do this?" another whined.

I know I had no right to be upset with the attitude. Perhaps gratitude is the last thing these children want to display. It may be presumptuous of me to say that this display of apathy is payback time for the amount of nagging and scolding they remembered...and of course, the ones...that we helped push up despite the poor results...had also skipped class.

But...the classic line was this.
"For what, cher? Isn't caring part of your job? ... Teachers are paid to do it, right?
After all, you are just a civil servant...we pay you already!"...came the 'joking' jibe.

Ouch...ouch...ouch...
I failed as an educator....