Students Power: Where Teachers cant~
"...a few more years, and teachers will no longer have absolute power..."
Recent events have prompted me to write this article. For those who are not with civilisation or are ignorant about Singapore news, we have this really "big" issue about college lecturer throwing her anger at student, and this act was shot in a handphone camera. Ok, you may have been wondering, "Aiyah, it's like this ah?" Well, yah, it's like this. And the authority really made a big hoohaa about it, let's take some analysis about it.

First, the setting was at Raffles Junior College...(correct me if I were wrong). The characters? A GP lecturer (Miss X), a student whose work is not satisfactory to Miss X (Student Alphano) and another student who is always ready with his camera... err... handphone with camera (Student Betania). Miss X was not satisfied with Alphano, she scolded him (not sure if she raised her voice) and tore his work. Betania saw it and took this scene down with his camera.. err.. handphone that is. He then posted it onto the Internet and let people comment on it. Of course, he cant let it be without the notice of the school and relevant authority. (How do they manage to find out, i wonder). And.. the saga begins.

The last I heard of Miss X and Betania is that they will have a showdown at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.... sorry, wrong one. Miss X was been "counselled" and Betania was disciplined. Apparently, the public began to take side for the teacher or the student. Well, I am a neutral party as always. Let's analyse Miss X first.

Yah, she is the teacher. She has the right to be angry with her student's work. But one thing, one major thing is that tearing up the student's work is a humiliation to him, especially in front of his classmate. Also, it's a sign of emotional weakness which the teacher should never display to her students. Unless he did something to her and had an aftermath or whatever, I dun really see any reason to do that. A teacher should be patient to her student, more so when the work is not satisfactory. The student's record may be bad, but with more patience, we should see more results. She scores on the attention seeking category, too bad it's wrong place wrong time.

Precisely when someone is taking a snapshot of what had happened and posted it into the "Teacher's voyeuy corner"... sorry, ignore my last 3 words. Anyway, I dun see anything wrong with his behaviour and he has the right to do whatever he wanted with his handphone, particularly when it is still on his hand. He could easily claim that it was an accident and he was just playing with it. (then he posted onto the Teacher's voyeuy corner without looking through the content?) :-p Nonetheless, things become more complicated if you get the school authority involved. The thing is always "Face, face, face"!

For goodness sake, the school has an unopened reputation about been producing the most arrogant people around at Singapore. And now to expose that footage means you are exposing another of their infamous reputation that is never disclosed.... teachers with an attitude. Therefore, they have to 'discipline' this student involved. The teacher is also been 'counselled' to make sure that they can patch this hole ASAP. Well, anything or whatever, they are still producing arrogant people.

Say I am biased though I mentioned I am not. Yeah, I am a little biased over this. But that leaves us to serious thought about future of relationships between teachers and students. With new technology coming out by minutes, how long would it take before students are having some power over the teachers? Mind you, parents are always on their heel over the teachers and students in actual fact are having some power over the teachers even now! That explains why you dun see your teachers coming in with a real big rotan and start whacking the first person they set sight in. (if they do that, I doubt they will still be in the school's payroll the following month). Teachers are giving in while attempting to use whatever means to tame the students. Enter the "soft approach"... Again, this will also make the students climb over the teachers' head. I wun really be surprised if I see someone openly bring in a laptop and starts playing "WarCraft 6" with full blast. Of course, that's way too extreme, just to quote an example.

Lastly, I would like to conclude with my condolences to the work that was been torn. What is done, is done. The only thing? Do it again lah~ Isnt what Miss X indicating? :-p