Mission Station: Singapore

My sister and I were talking on the phone today - I don't go visit her as often as I should - and she was reminiscing about her career as a teacher. We both agreed that the best part of teaching really was when old students remember you fondly. It is that which makes you feel your work has been worthwhile, that it is more than a paycheck.

Some of my students have stuck. They talk to me about their dates, their marriage plans, their children... And it is a privilege to continue to be part of their lives. Last week, a bunch of students I taught in 1996/7 met for dinner, got to reminiscing and my name came up. And they called me to give me two hours' notice before they turned up at my doorstep at 10pm with chocolate ice cream, a wife and a toddler and hearts full of memories. An evening like that makes me feel I am blessed.

Increasingly, however, I have been feeling a sense of dis-ease at the number of young teachers who leave the profession. It is a tricky situation for me as many of these teachers leave for what should be considered a noble purpose - to serve as missionaries in far flung countries. Yet, every time one more young person says he / she is resigning, I am disappointed. The question that screams in my head is - "Who will stay?"

What is it that appeals about teaching English / Maths / IT skills in a remote Asian village with the chance to share the gospel ? That those children might not hear the gospel? Neither will many children in our schools. That the government in these countries forbids proselytising and therefore the endeavour seems exciting and dangerous? That's not very different from the local situation. What would working in these rural areas for 5 months achieve that teaching day after day, connecting and getting to know one's students cannot?

I wonder how much of the desires of these young people is for escape from the mundane rather than a call to the wild. The poor are here in Singapore too. The ones who struggle to read and count are here too. The ones from broken homes are here too. Wouldn't the chances of the gospel being understood higher where the children speak the language, are able to read the bible and ask questions? Yet, young teacher after teacher wants to go to China or Tibet or Timore Leste or Laos or Africa to teach children who are struggling with the alphabet while children who can read are left safe in their comfortable Singapore homes with other teachers who have no interest in their souls.

The young teachers tell me they hear a call to go. I pray and wonder - doesn't anyone hear the call to stay?

"he was, but one..."

I was reading a post by a young friend on Facebook, and I recognised a familiar angst, frustration. Unlike the legendary 7-year itch, many young teachers feel a 5-year itch. It is a point at which you have learnt enough of the craft and content to be comfortable in the classroom; but it is also the point at which you would have had time to assess your successes and be in a position to evaluate the impact of your work. Many young teachers feel a lack at this point: what have I really achieved? Does my work matter? What have my students really learnt? Surely there is more to life than this?

Having walked this path, it is a crossroad I recognise. In a way, the Ministry of Education also recognises this and there are processes in place to ensure that those who are more able are offered job rotations or promotions round about their 4th year of teaching, to keep them learning and not stagnate. 

But there are sometimes many who don't get such an opportunity to grow, or choose not to take the path, and instead contemplate leaving the profession altogether. I am very aware that each person is called to walk a different path, but it saddens me when effective, caring Christian teachers leave. Because I ask, who then do you leave the children to? Who will take your place? 

It is sad that the more effective and caring a teacher is, the more quickly he / she gets burnt out. And if the caring teachers who are willing to go the extra mile, and the next mile, and the next mile, leave, then the ones left in our schools might well be the ones for whom teaching is just a Mon to Fri job that ensures a paycheck. 

So, my young friend, yes, there are injustices in the world. But as Jesus said, you will always have the poor with you. Will you always have that opportunity to have these students in your class for you to model Jesus to? The injustices of the world were there before you became a teacher and they will be there after you retire. But how long will you have that 14 year old in your classroom,  maybe thinking about the latest gadget and wishing your lesson will end, yes, but still, in your classroom. Looking at your face, feeling your hand on his shoulder, listening to your words and experiencing the presence of Christ in you in a far deeper way than you will now realise.

So I say to you, don't give up. Remember Abraham. Remember God says "he was but one, when I called him, that I might call him and bless him" (Isa 51:2). 

You and I are "but one". But the same God who saved the nations through the obedience of one, will multiply your efforts. The same God who sent his One and Only to save generations, can and will bless your students therough you. You will never know till you see His face, how he has used the faithfulness of "one".

Conference in Jakarta

So here I am blogging from a university town called Depok, about an hour's drive from Jakarta. The traffic chaos I had experienced on my last trip into this city is still fresh on my mind, and of course, nothing has changed.

I am here on an official trip this time, attending a conference with other delegates from South East Asian countries. There are 4 of us in the Singapore delegation. Mostly we feel like frauds because we don't have even a fraction of the problems that the other countries face. The focus of this seminar is on how marginalised minorities in some SEAsian countries can be helped to access mainstream education. These marginalised minorities usually speak a different language from that used in the schools and therefore the children who do not speak the mainstream language find it difficult to cope in school and drop out early. This leads to succeeding generations being trapped in the same economic state and unable to progress because their mother tongue isn't the language of education.

Anyway, I must say that, thankfully, the colleagues I am travelling with are a crazy bunch, so we have kept each other in stitches. We raced off to shop and eat the first day we got here before the conference started and booked our massages ;)



The conference started yesterday and I must say we were taken aback by the way the room was set up. I felt like I was a UN delegate, what with the Singapore flag on my table and all.



That look on my face is nervousness - in case we were asked to share our country's experiences with Multi Lingual education ;)

Here we are with the delegation from Malaysia...



And flying our national colours... We almost ended up posing with the Indonesian flag though because they are so similar!

My First Glog

Hey Prav - this one is for you! I created a glog at the workshop I attended today! Here it is. The techno-cavewoman has evolved :)

Visiting Medan

Wow I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since my last tantalising post :) But I have been busy indeed!LArgely, my time these past 2 weeks has been taken up preparing for a workshop that I ran in Medan, Indonesia.

It was a GREAT experience! Although it took up a lot of preparatory time, it was worth it because I really feel I shared my love for teaching with an enthusiastic bunch of teachers. I must say the teachers at the Singapore International School (SIS) are committed and really love their students. Would you believe they don't have discipline problems? I was especially touched by the school's decision to allow the students to paint murals on the new school walls! I can't imagine any Singaporean Principal trusting their students with that. If we did, we would make sure that it was our best students who did this project! But that was not the case with SIS. The quality of the murals varied a great deal and some murals were 'not quite there'. But all these students were given a chance to decorate the school and I think it sent a really affirming message to these kids. I can only imagine what a great sense of ownership these students would have for their school!

It's Time for Change

I want to get back to teaching. I feel really sure of this. I have been thinking about it for a long time and I feel now is the time to do something about it. So I am going to apply to NIE (National Institute of Education) on Monday. Last year and early this year, there were two firm offers made but I wasn't in a position to move. But now I am and I'm wondering if the opportunity is still there...

There are many "but"s about it - chief among them being the sheer distance. Work is just a 10 minute bus ride away now and on days when I want time to unwind, I even walk home. NIE is at the end of the human universe..... It will take me an hour at least to get there as I don't drive. Then I am really comfortable where I am now and I can see myself doing this work till I retire. But there is an itch to get back into the classroom, a feeling that I am now working in a parallel universe and my place is really somewhere else.

I miss many things about teaching, but if I had to name one, it would be being part of the "AHA!" moment when students suddenly get it, when a difficult concept clicks and the student knows that he knows. That really is the best part of teaching. I miss that.

Praying for the Youth

Young people have been on my heart this week. And I’ve been praying that the decisions we make that affect them will really be for their betterment and not for ours. What set me off has been the articles I have been reading on Interactive & Digital Media. The buzz here at work has to do with how IDM is the next big thing – or as my more savvy colleagues would say, the big thing that is happening while other dinosaurs like me are sleeping…

So why does it worry me? Because if it is true that more than half our children are plugged into the world of gaming and that the way they learn is very different from the way the adults do, then I worry about its implications; not on economics, which is where all the attention seems to be, but on human relationships. I wonder what would be the effect on the youngster who is no longer watching violence on TV or the movies but actually participating in wreaking destruction as a player? I remember how Owen’s War Poems didn’t touch some of my students - because they had seen worse on TV or the movies. Words on a page did not move them for they had seen worse graphic images. But now, the young are no longer passive viewers, but perpetrators, the ones doing the virtual killing and maiming and being rewarded for it. What kind of emotional distancing would result from this?

And the thrill of young people being able to multi-task at what is called ‘twitch speed’ (personally speaking that sounds rather epileptic J). What of it? What impact would that have, if we cater to it in the classroom? Would the young then come to expect that the classroom must offer them multi-sensory experiences? That any experience that does not give them an answer or response immediately would be abandoned while they go in search of another? Then what of the value of ‘delayed gratification’ that Goleman was talking of? And what about the ones who are slow to talk? Would anyone have patience to listen? What about the value of reflection? The pleasure that comes out of teasing meaning out of the written word?

I feel I am on the cusp of the passing away of a way of life and the beginning of another. I wonder if all soon-to-be-50s feel this. Perhaps I am an alarmist. But I worry for the young who would be swept away by the speed, for the young who would not feel the pleasure of being immersed in a book, the solitude of being with one’s own thoughts, the ease of relationships built out of long hours of conversations. Yes, they will be having virtual conversations with young people all over the world but what will they learn that would make this person a friend? Yes, they will be quick-minded and analytical but will they know themselves better? Buying land on Second Life is fine; but we need to teach our young people to live this life well first.