2008-04-14
Is it any wonder.
Out of pure procrastination, boredom and curiosity, I've stumbled across a very interesting tidbit in the vast, electronic world we call the Internet:
_________, a Singapore Government Teaching Scholar who has just graduated from the London School of Economics, was actively involved as a volunteer in various community projects in the UK. She served as a mentor to teenagers in a career programme called Insightplus, offered home tuition to A-level students for free, volunteered at a hospital to care for stroke patients, and rolled up her sleeves to build homes for the homeless in a project called Habitat for Humanity. I presume she did find some time to study in between. But I am sure her experiences and the heart behind them will be a big plus for our students.
I've blanked out her name for the sake of privacy, although since she was mentioned in a speech by none other than our Minister for Education, I'm presuming privacy (and modesty) doesn't play a very big part in this. Plus, I'm presuming that a sizeable number (well, at least of those who read my blog) can guess who she is, what with the glaring hints glinting through the entire paragraph. But hey, it reduces the rate of googling, so what can I say?
It didn't come as a gargantuan shock to read something like that, particularly over the Internet (where histories of people resurface!), but it still gave a little twinge of surprise to come across it. It comes across as almost surreal to know that day after day I'm just meters away from someone who's achieved so much and done practically everything a Bao Zhang Bao Dao / Cliched The-Person-I-Admire-Most essay exalts, but still keeps quiet about it. To use a bad analogy, you could say she resembles the proverbial Wonderwoman - sure, you know her kind exists, somewhere in the land of Newspaper Clippings and Marvel Comics, but you don't expect to be anywhere near someone like that. Meanwhile, the rest of us exist in the universe of Higher-Average-Scores-Than-Thou, cut off in our enclosed bubbles of academia & points. Selflessness is not exactly an issue to contemplate if you want that glorious CV. The realization that people do things out of passion rather than out of the neccessity of getting your good side out in the cameras, tends to come as a great smacking haddock in our current dog-eat-dog society.
It's humbling, to say the least, because that's right kids! Such people do exist! And even as the Newspapers and Inspirational Books may detach them as people we may never reach (regardless of how many times they're described as "Friendly People Who Will Easily Strike Up Conversations With Small Fry Like You", it tends to be a wee bit difficult to actually believe such claims), they tend to surprise you that way - popping up right next to you, waving assignments in your face and rattling off strings of oddments and anecdotes just to keep you awake after a long day. Talk about life being a box of Marks and Spencer's chocolates - goodness knows what's in the filling.
I guess it comes as a sense of quiet pride to know that I have the privilege of being taught by such awesome people, not just this singular teacher but several others - the many who have imparted not only textbook verbs and nouns but a variety of other little things that tend to stick - a memorable quote (please see SS and Elective History Lessons), an outrageous story, or just a quiet, resonating lesson - the kind that won't find its way into the examinations.
And for each time I feel the urge to get out of the current Educational Instituation, there'll always be something - someone - holding me back.
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"You want to cry then you come to me. Then we cry together, and after that we move on. Okay? We move on together."
~ Mrs Hee.
inquisite at 11:10 p.m.