Being very discontent with school hours, quality of time spent, and general student well being, not to mention that I was very bored, I’ve decided to informally conduct a survey of what people think of school in general now, compared to 2 years ago. An informal setting was used so as to attempt to achieve a personal response, without much ‘observer effect’.
Although the sample size is tiny, 100% of the respondents declared that school has been a drag and dragging themselves to school is a daily chore. There is no longer the joy of schooling nor ‘learning’. Productivity with respect to time is at an all time low. All, relative to two years ago. Though the results need not be representative of the entire population, I am confident that it will not vary much from the population mean. Inductively, the implementation of the IB curriculum is, in the words of an esteemed teacher, “very traditional”. No doubt, the general discontentment, frustration, absenteeism rate of the general school population.
As such, if you are willing, do try conducting this exercise for fun and let me know what you find.
My second observation is on the sleep rates of the last period of the day. Based on an observation of the last 1 hour period, subject independent, there has been a mean of 2 people sleeping at any one time throughout the 50 minutes of the 1 hour period (5 minutes at the start and end is excluded).
From this, I can only come to 3 conclusions. One, the teacher is not engaging at all. Two, school hours are too long. Three, students do not have time for quality sleep at home.
The first is highly unlikely as if true, the percentage of people sleeping would be way higher than just a mean of 2. Conclusion two and three are more likely.
In other discovery, my sister’s school sells digital thermometers at $0.80 each. I guess the school can do better at sourcing for more valued vendors. Same applies to Fujitsu.
I have 2 hours and 40 minutes worth of free periods today. Thanks to the Life Science Symposium, we will have two class tests on Wednesday, one after another, with one extending way past school hours.
I need some genuine entertainment. Real soon. Now.
Meanwhile, be entertained by this nice news article by the Straits Times. It authenticates the YouTube video that is floating around the net like wild fire. The one about the MRT suicides. Here comes the conspiracy theories. As for where to locate the videos, I will not link them; search in YouTube if you want to see the cover up for yourself.
I’m glad that during this Lunar New Year, through various games of Mahjong, I was able to net approximately $10, with a base of $0.10. Really, mahjong quite an interesting game; it requires memory and bridge playing skills, guessing and blocking opponents’ tiles, and probability calculations come into play too. Amusingly, in 8 rounds, I’ve experienced 2 draw games. Apart from that, my red packet collection has reached levels similar to that of last year even though I’ve visited less number of households. I’ll leave my collection from Hong Kong to the next time I fly back for housekeeping in June.
That aside, ‘The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook’ series is quite hilarious. Talks about cool and nifty tips and tricks that you might just need when it is the most inconvenient to read.
In other news, I’m very glad that Mr Chiam See Tong, MP for Potong Pasir, has finally accepted the school’s invitation to grace Founder’s Day as a Guest-of-Honour this year. At least, he is publicly acknowledged as a true blue school alumni, I wonder just when will they be updating the honour rolls near the staircase. This shall be the most remarkable Founder’s Day yet and I believe this is a once-in-a-lifetime motivation to ensure attendance for such a school event. It’s worth it to wake up early just to hear him speak, without the distortions from the mass media.
The weekend is finally here; this has three implications. Firstly, the school term is about to end; secondly, the EE and ToK deadlines in-your-face; and thirdly, the barrage of tests are here to ensure that every last drop of your life is spent with school related activities, such as studying (if there is even time).
Meanwhile, here is the list of books that I currently have in my tiny book shelf. Feel free to borrow anything from there; just let me know.
What light-speed, the lunar new year holidays have abruptly come to an end, demonstrating a live rehearsal of how the March one week short school holidays might end up being spent. Believe it or not, the first school term is about to come to an end; EE and ToK deadlines are springing up, zapping up any element of life students are supposed to have.
Happy Chinese New Year guys! May the good Lord continue to shower his blessings upon you all for the years to come.
A few days back, we had a meeting with the cool tsar of it. He holds credentials that matches what he knows he is talking about. Smoke and mirrors are part of life and I guess, his capabilities in handling administrators and vendors is a positive thing. The downside of course is that the administration has too high inertia to get things fixed, like Administratium. With some form of qualification from MIT, I can’t see how his wit can fail him from the “logical” Turing Machine administrators.
It’ll be a whole new world if he get to do what he wants.
Yesterday was a blast. 1 hour off from school due to “fantastic” results; a great concert which almost everything was a joke or made a joke; and simple free periods from start to end.
This beautiful photograph was taken by Jake Chia. It speaks of much confidence stage people have.
Being a good senior class, we gave our junior class pratas, 1 for each student, totalling 25. Amusingly, the feedback I’ve received was that there wasn’t enough. Their response, or the total lack thereof verbally, was hilarious also.
After school, I went back to Junior school together with my graduating classmates. That school building is a living reminder of the symbol of a river (Siddhartha). Most of my teachers are still there and really, it is something indescribable, especially the canteen.
Then, it’s the new; a class BBQ. Great times, fun times, wonderful food too. Alcohol too.
There already are plans for a Chalet one next, real soon.
Hi there. Welcome to the mind of an INT{J,P}, CDIS. I hope you can find your way around without getting lost.
The pensieve is messy to the untrained eye. That's life isn't it. The fun part of life is to untangle the mess you've gotten yourself into.
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Their response, or the total lack thereof verbally, was hilarious also.
