She burns
The Secondary threes are having their exams now and finally I get to fill up my blogs with some more nonsensical blabbering!!

It had been almost 1 month since I started on this blog. I must say the experience is quite therapeutic, kinda of doing a whole entire Add maths paper in double quick time. Though this will meet with extreme criticism and protest from the girls. I shared in class about 2 days ago about my O levels days when I did my Add maths TYS thrice, front to back and back to front. I am sure there were a couple of surprised faces from the classes. Come on the very fact I am standing in front of the class and teaching Add Maths would be evidence of my credentials (*ahem*)

Since my last post on the incident of the principal ( please read previous post), the world in Singapore especially with regards to the teachers' well being remains relatively unsafe... A traumatised secondary school teacher had her hair burnt by a student who obviously had nothing better to do. Instead of doing constructive things like studying and copying down notes or even s-m-sing, the girl, apparently bored with the lessons walked up to the front of the classroom and set fire on the teacher's hair with the lighter she had been playing in class all this while. This got me thinking about the following questions:

1) what colour was the lighter? was it the cheap type or expensive one?

2) why was the girl allowed to bring a lighter to school, and even to class as it was claimed by the rest of the class that she was playing with it during the lesson? Does she goes to school early that she need to use a lighter to find her way around? Or is there going to be a birthday celebration and she was responsible for lighting up the birthday cake?

3) why didn't the rest of the students stop the offender? Were they really as what the newspaper stated "stared in shock?"

4) what shampoo and conditioner is the lady teacher using?

5) and of course the most important thing is why the teacher sport long hair, isn't it hot in Singapore?

The crux of the matter is nowadays teachers are not protected against possible means of assault from the students. With the autonomy of students to complain about the teachers at every conceivable situation, I am not surprised if there will be more of these stabs on the back (either literally and figuratively). There was an unfortunate incident of a teacher who got her blouse tainted with ink marks by students who decided to express their creative artistic talents on the seemingly white motif. The teacher was aghasted with the students' boldness and rudeness and of course the horrible drawings, that she came back to the staffroom sobbing, carrying the marker mark on her back like scars. The students were unrepentant. And the teacher quitted anyway.

I find it almost ridiculous to justify the "Joan of Arc"ish action of giving her teacher a new hairdo. As the people at the top expressed "concern" to the apparent inability/disability of the teachers to engage the students in an interesting way, so that they can be on task, it set me wondering whether they are hinting that is it the teacher's fault that she cannot engage the student, and it was HER fault that her hair got burnt. So I guess the maxim "The customer is always right" is right huh??

Need to keep the hair short and proper. And by the way, got to write it in my organiser to get a survelliance camera so that i can keep my eyes on the back of the classroom while I am writing on the whiteboard.