TEACHERS AND PUPILS

As Catholic nuns, they did not put any pressure on us to convert. As qualified and salaried teachers, they excelled in their vocation. In their combined roles as nuns and teachers, they placed academic success of the pupils as their main aim. (What       did baffle me, though, was the splendour of their life-styles and surroundings). There were only 4-5 nuns who were qualified teachers, and therefore, the only ones with         whom we had any real contact. They were great teachers of English Language and English Literature. Any of you remember the words ........"he was unruly within and         without" (Liter. book about Albert Schweitzer .) or "Out, damn spot, out" (Macbeth, of course !) In the upper forms, Sr. Lawrence used her talents to open our minds to the vast and magical world of Literature.  .........As all can remember, our Head was Rev.Mother Vincent, whose stature terrified us, especially at the end of each term when she handed out the report cards according to our academic achievements. Did we not pray secretly that our report cards were piled amongst the top ten ?.......Sr. Pius, the gentle and highly sensitive one, I wonder where she is now . The other nuns were busy with the boarders, "orphanage", the school chapel,the "uniform room" where we bought our uniforms and the nearby St.Louis Church. The non-compulsory   attendance of mass at this awe-inspiring church was always fascinating, though many a time, some of us nodded off because of the heat.

NUNS AS TEACHERS

They sowed the seeds of knowledge of all ten subjects into our keen and receptive minds. Miss Yoon, our Science teacher, Miss Lee (Maths) , MissChang (Art  and Craft) , Mrs. Ang, Sr. Pius and many others had that special quality to teach in a fruitful way. (As I recalled , only one teacher weakened towards favouritism.) Besides studying all the main exam-subjects, we had a choice of attending Civics, Catehism and Etiquette  classes. One year, we went  beyond even these non-academic subjects. The whole secondary school had to learn a song  which was wholly in French, so as to sing it as a welcoming song to a visiting ? Bishop who did not understand English. It was fun. Years later, I sang the same song to a French person, who remarked that he could not identify even one French -sounding word ! Mmmm .As it is more than thirty years since I left school, I am sure I have misspelt the names of some teachers and forgotten  the names of others. All reminders welcome.

TEACHERS

Even though our earliest friendships started at school and flourished through the long period of school life, few managed to survive for long beyond  the last day of school. Like me, some of us went abroad while others settled within Malaysia, perhaps even in our beautiful Taiping. If Siew Chan, Vasantha, Prabavathy, Wan Su and others from Form V, 1965 read this page, do contact me at the address below. It will be great to organise a re-union of CLASS '65.

CLASS MATES

My name is         A. Yoges...Also known as Yoges Philpott... School nickname -Yo-yo.

mail to:  yoges100@hotmail.com

The hazy figures in the photo are my two kids & my sister.........

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