Douglas and Chong has just dropped a bomb on me.
"Eh, when you become Judo club president (or vice president, whichever is cooler), you have fun, kay? Me and Chong leave St Thom."
"What? NO!"
"St Thom sucks." Chong interjected, leaning against the dojo bag racks.
"You see lar - almost everybody leaving St Thom - Ali next year leave for Semenanjung!" Douglas continued, oblivious to Chong's rants.
"What? NO!"
"St Thom sucks like hell."
"Why does St Thom suck?"
"Everything lah - the administration without *this teacher or that teacher*, the discipline too tight like shit like that."
I sat down on the tatami mats, too stunned to say anything (and also probably too out of breath - had sparred earlier with Desmond, who had gained 5kg more muscle from National Service). I felt torn between my loyalty to the school and the fact that my feelings did not apply to this generation. Things were different for them.
The great people at the top were gone, replaced with an administration yet to prove its worth still finding its feet. A lot of the good things that I remembered about St Thomas was gone, leaving me with no grounds on which to argue on. I couldn't pursuade them. The only thing I could think of is the fact that the teachers are mostly the same, caring ones I knew. And this too, is liable to change. Discontent with the leadership at the top will affect performance, no matter how great these teachers are.
Andrew tells me at least half his class is planning to move after the PMR. Ben is moving, he is moving, so is Charlton. An image of an empty classroom, fan spinning lazy circles over the tables and chairs, appeared for a brief moment in my mind's eye.
"Stay lah," I said.
But my words sounded empty even to my ears.
9 comments:
It's disappointing to hear that so many Thomians are leaving. Using the administration as an excuse to leave St.Thom is probably the best reason for all of you who are settled in mediocrity. All of you fail to realise that you and ONLY YOU can make the school what you want it to be. Leaving the school and going to another "better" school with the hope of doing better in your studies is just an excuse for your shortcummings. Yes, all those who do these are weak, they are dependent on competition and will become satisfied and compleasent when put in an uncompetitive environment. To those who leave, you are not leaders, you are just followers and you can't lead your life without depending entirely on others. Leave,we, I wouldn't want such lousy students to ruin our school anyway.
The current administration isn't all bad. You, all the quiters are. From my experience of being in St.Thom both in the times of Mr. Peter Foo and Mr. Wong. I have noticed a drastic change. Basically, all of you are saying tha Mr. Wong sucks but i think he's more down to Earth than you think. Just last week i sam him teasing a few form 5 or 4 arts stream students about how they did in their exams. He has good people skills better than Mr. Foo i might add with the lower ppl. Now, i know some of you who are apparently "MORE" educated with your strong enlgish background and all think that he isn't good, well, all i can say is that your not even giving him a chance.
Sure, there may be new councellors now who may not be as good as Miss Chong but have you ever had a chat with them? They are good ppl trying. Anyway, enough with the long winded explanations already. Cedric said that some of you claims that "St.Thom sucks" but do any of you realise that when you say this, you are actually shouting out that you in fact SUCK. Remember, this school are dependent upon it's students like many of the great universities we all dream of. HArvard, Yale, Cambridge, Oxford, yes, all of these world renowned univesities all depend on their students. So remember kids "St.Thom sucks" becos YOU SCUKED AND COULDN'T WIN THAT DEBATE, IT SUCKS BECOS YOU COULDN'T WIN THAT ESSAY COMPETITION, IT SUCKS BECOS YOU DIDN'T STUDY HARDER FOR THAT EXAM, IT SUCKS BECOS YOU DIDN'T PRACTICE ENOUGH FOR THAT SPORTING EVENT, IT SUCKS BECOS YOU DECIDED TO SKIP THAT CLUB MEETING,IT SUCKS BECOS YOU WERE HANGING OUT IN THE CYBER IGNORING THAT VOICE IN YOUR HEAD TELLING YOU TO DO GOOD THINGS, YES I'M TALKING ABOUT THAT VOICE, IT SUCKS BECOS OF YOU,YOU AND YOU.
Looks like you ran out of fingers to point at someone else.
-KOBE-
Hence the downfall.
*Glances down in silent salute as the once great ship sinks*
How sad, all that we burned for eh kenny, ced, aldrin, all the other school leavers? Where are our remaining 'leets? No more?
Ced, all the best ;p.
yea, many use to say that the current administration is bad. This is an idea from those that feel like gods compared to thomians(it originated from outside). Remember that St Thomas' administration was recognized nationwide as being one of the most efficient among Malaysian schools? A good thing is fairly hard to remember I guess.
Unfortunately, the administration has lagged, but what turned fiction to fact?
I've had good talks with my former teachers. The lack of inspiration is due to the students themselves. most students refuse to learn, and as one teacher said, all tactics simply do not work, even blackmail. Students from the "top" classes DO NOT WANT TO LEARN! I wonder how the staff can feel motivated if they're on a lost cause. If only u knew, and I knew, how their feelings are when all their effort produced nothing. It's like a slap on the face!
To take it a step further, some smart talk is going on behind their backs.
The culture has really disintegrated. all I hear are derogatory remarks about the principal and teachers. Where were the times when there was good repo between students and teachers? Whereby we were FRIENDS? Where's the respect due- to one who has tried so hard? Who thought it was their prerogative to remark so negatively about the school? And as KOBE put it, students of the school provide a clear imppression of what the school is. If the image in the mirror is criticized, do you blame the mirror?
KOBE's rite about the current principle. He is trying his best. I think that alone deserves respect. Try find some other principle in some other school that has that commitment. He and Mr Ho even tried to convince the retired state coach to take in Thomian athletes for training(which he succeeded, as you can see St thom got 7 medals out of 8 athletes in MSSM this year, even with our star runner down with chicken pox). we only sent Form one athletes(exclusive of their capt).
A lot is happening behind the scenes but ppl dun know that(or are ignorant?). Does it take one who has left the school to discover that and know things happening inside better?
Who am I talking to? Just wanna compete with Kobe on post length I guess.
Too tired , hentam jak..wanna sleep..
I understand how you feel. After being together in a school so long they decide it isn't good enough anymore.
It's a bit...Disappointing? To think that all the experiences you all have gone through amounts up to a word "sucks".
A friend of mine told me if she could, she wanted to leave St Mary's after this year too. And I wondered if St Mary's was that bad. If other schools were THAT good.
Discipline is a stupid excuse to leave the school on though. Most rules were made with reasons behind it. Can't bring handphone? So what. We can't use them anyway.
So on and so forth. All the comments here are pretty long. LoL.
You guys are right. I have to admit that I was all too keen on jumping on the 'blame Wong' bandwagon, but in the end reason prevailed.
Who says Wong hasn't tried his best? He has. And we've got to give him credit for that - he isn't all that bad.
But remember that this is a school reknowned for many things. In such a high performance, want-to-achieve-excellence environment trying your best isn't enough.
It's the development, and the clear sense of leadership and movement that matters to both teachers and students.
So therein lies the teachers' (I'll not say who) and the students' (too many to say anyway) complains about the current leadership. There is no development. No sense of achievement or accomplishment.
One teacher said to me: "Mr. Foo made us feel good whenever we did something well. Mr Wong ... not so in creating this environment where everyone wanted to do their best."
Mr Foo did not try his best. He achieve the best, over a period of years. That's the difference between the two: one good, one brilliant.
That being said, I have to agree with Kobe and Paul. We may not be able to do anything about the leadership. But the teachers are still excellent, and we CAN change ourselves.
For the better.
@Sam, short is usually sweet. Thanks for the support - I'll need it when I enter form 6.
wow...
Well, I guess everyone would have to complain about the admin and the rules and everything, I had my own fair share of disagreements back then.
But now I am out of St Thom for 6 years already.
Time sure flies, but I cna honestly tell you that I deeply miss my times there, the friends, and of course, the AWESOME teachers !!!! I know there are some bitchy and fucked up ones... but yeah, u get those everywhere dun u? but its the truly precious ones that were rare.
I think my school life was great. I would go on longer if I could.
Maybe things are different now, I don't know.
But yeah, just enjoy ur time there while you are at it.
I loved my time in St Thomas. I can't see why some people simply hate this school. When they put forth their accusations, I wonder if they do it in front of their own reflection or not.
p/s: I found out that many of my Swinburne friends (usually Greenians, not generelazing, mind you) brand St Thom as a 'gay school'. Sad~
@Robin, I completely enjoyed my time in St Thom as well. And I'm going back there - not without some trepidation, but I'm still going back there.
I'll try my best to enjoy it. ;P
@Aldrin, the greenian calling us gay school is actually very common. But I get that a lot too from lodgians.
:(
Sometimes I feel like throwing them.
Well, in contradiction to that, many of the gay friends I know, are greenians. Odd eh?
Very odd indeed.
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