Friday, July 18, 2003
Been following the Case against the RJC Teacher / Case Against the RJC Student with interest. I can't believe it's become a major talking point. Everyone's acting so offended because a teacher called a student a crafty old rat? Err. what exactly am I missing here. How does a teacher reprimanding a student become an issue. How does a civilised (albeit loud) chastising imply evil intent? As to the issue of the student surreptitiously filming the teacher - this is an excerpt of a comment I made on someone else's blog. I'm cutting and pasting for my convenience, but it sums up what I think.
RJC was my alma mater as well.
I'd like to say that a teacher is vested with the authority to punish, as well as reward a student, as one of the tools (or weapons?) to be employed in his or her education. The choice is ultimately a personal one, when to dangle the carrot and when the employ the cane? (And well do I remember the days when the cane was still employed...) Often the distinction is obvious; very occasionally there's a grey-area when different teachers would take different approaches. The problem here is we don't even know what the circumstances leading up to the scolding are. And I can't for the life of me find the video anywhere on the net; like most half-baked Singaporeans voicing their armchair opinions out there, I'm just going on hear-say and very-tentative news reports. To the author of this webpage, (grace) do you think you could send me the URL for that webpage privately, for my personal viewing (and not for the sake of public circulation). I'm contactable on the URL above.
As in any career, there will always be black sheep; there will always be bad teachers amongst the good who abuse their positions of authority. The same can be said of doctors, lawyers, and politicians. It is a fact of life. I don't feel that we have enough information to make a value-added judgement in this instance, and whether or not she was over-reacting, or reacting appropriately to the situation (for instance, if what we haven't seen includes footage of the student swearing at her?) is anyone's guess.
What I can say is that the act of filming without consent, and posting that footage onto the internet for public - and international! viewing is unethical and quite possibly illegal, not to mention downright despicable. It falls in the same category of voyeuristic changing-room videos and hidden sex-cams. It is sensationalistic, thoughtless, and doesn't so much make a statement as pander to a depraved (but in this instance ironically self-righteous) public. It is time for our youth to realise that personal autonomy comes with personal responsibility; the price of freedom IS eternal vigilance, and without it comes only decay. If we were to promote (and support!) a culture of senseless, self-righteous rage-against-the-machine angstiness our country is going to go down, baby, down. The ends do NOT always justify the means. The teacher in question, whether good or bad, has now had her reputation irreparably damaged. I can only hope that the pinheaded pupil who posted that video is now feeling remorse, and overwhelmingly out of his depth - as opposed to childish glee at his teacher's predicament.
Where will this go from here? Online voyeur cams of teachers having sex with each other? (I can imagine our public tut-tutting self-righteously. No right for teachers to indulge in evil sexual acts as educationalists and molders of our childrens' futures...) Or doctors in consultation with their patients? (Doctor violates patient with instrument in suggestive manner because he blinked!) Under-table footage of footsy games at business conferences? Are we such a sad public that we NEED to create a scandal out of something as mundane, and as commonplace (come on! all of us have witnessed, or been subject to scoldings by teachers as students) as a teacher holding a student to task for his tardiness - no matter how loudly she shouted? If she'd hit him or knocked him over, I might begin to understand - but are we such a pathetic bunch that we're going to molly coddle our poor underaged teenagers (who, I wonder, will be going into the army next year and facing far worse scoldings than that little trifle we saw on the news?) from verbal chastising? And sly old rat? Come on. Even my parents call me worse things than that, from time to time. :)
RJC was my alma mater as well.
I'd like to say that a teacher is vested with the authority to punish, as well as reward a student, as one of the tools (or weapons?) to be employed in his or her education. The choice is ultimately a personal one, when to dangle the carrot and when the employ the cane? (And well do I remember the days when the cane was still employed...) Often the distinction is obvious; very occasionally there's a grey-area when different teachers would take different approaches. The problem here is we don't even know what the circumstances leading up to the scolding are. And I can't for the life of me find the video anywhere on the net; like most half-baked Singaporeans voicing their armchair opinions out there, I'm just going on hear-say and very-tentative news reports. To the author of this webpage, (grace) do you think you could send me the URL for that webpage privately, for my personal viewing (and not for the sake of public circulation). I'm contactable on the URL above.
As in any career, there will always be black sheep; there will always be bad teachers amongst the good who abuse their positions of authority. The same can be said of doctors, lawyers, and politicians. It is a fact of life. I don't feel that we have enough information to make a value-added judgement in this instance, and whether or not she was over-reacting, or reacting appropriately to the situation (for instance, if what we haven't seen includes footage of the student swearing at her?) is anyone's guess.
What I can say is that the act of filming without consent, and posting that footage onto the internet for public - and international! viewing is unethical and quite possibly illegal, not to mention downright despicable. It falls in the same category of voyeuristic changing-room videos and hidden sex-cams. It is sensationalistic, thoughtless, and doesn't so much make a statement as pander to a depraved (but in this instance ironically self-righteous) public. It is time for our youth to realise that personal autonomy comes with personal responsibility; the price of freedom IS eternal vigilance, and without it comes only decay. If we were to promote (and support!) a culture of senseless, self-righteous rage-against-the-machine angstiness our country is going to go down, baby, down. The ends do NOT always justify the means. The teacher in question, whether good or bad, has now had her reputation irreparably damaged. I can only hope that the pinheaded pupil who posted that video is now feeling remorse, and overwhelmingly out of his depth - as opposed to childish glee at his teacher's predicament.
Where will this go from here? Online voyeur cams of teachers having sex with each other? (I can imagine our public tut-tutting self-righteously. No right for teachers to indulge in evil sexual acts as educationalists and molders of our childrens' futures...) Or doctors in consultation with their patients? (Doctor violates patient with instrument in suggestive manner because he blinked!) Under-table footage of footsy games at business conferences? Are we such a sad public that we NEED to create a scandal out of something as mundane, and as commonplace (come on! all of us have witnessed, or been subject to scoldings by teachers as students) as a teacher holding a student to task for his tardiness - no matter how loudly she shouted? If she'd hit him or knocked him over, I might begin to understand - but are we such a pathetic bunch that we're going to molly coddle our poor underaged teenagers (who, I wonder, will be going into the army next year and facing far worse scoldings than that little trifle we saw on the news?) from verbal chastising? And sly old rat? Come on. Even my parents call me worse things than that, from time to time. :)
