quaintly - Latest Comments in Attitudes and Absences

Re: Attitudes and Absences

eunice — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:31:14 -0000

before PMR, my headmistress spat at my classmates and i. throughout the years we have been deemed as reckless, mischievous and hopeless. but that year, we broke the sch record for PMR results.
before SPM, once again, they pushed my class down despite us being 5sc1. we were always absent, mondays, thursdays and fridays to avoid the "be absent for 3 days and you get a warning letter". that year, half of us got straight As. don't think we broke the record but we did good enough.

none of us were invited to go back to sch for the usual motivational talks. i wonder why hor.. hehe

Re: Attitudes and Absences

Karen — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:06:10 -0000

I'm currently teaching in a school in UK and the teachers here are very professional. Considering this school is one of the worst schools in Britain, I'm amazed at how patient the teachers are. If you want to know how bad, the school hire police officers to control the students. However there are mutual respect and trust between teachers and students and generally teachers seem to have a good relationship with students.

In Asia we are too scared of teachers that we don't even dare to answer/ask questions in class. I remember when I was in school if my question was too 'dumb' the teacher would make fun of me and the whole class would laugh at me. If my answer was wrong, the teacher would punish me. Teachers in Asian countries also tend to ignore the fact that some kids come from disadvantaged background e.g. broken home, abusive family. This affected their behavior a lot.

Re: Attitudes and Absences

Teddy — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:09:45 -0000

Hi Jade, from IMU I assume? :D

Hey pinkpau... still remember meeting you in Little Penang with Darren

Whatever they might think, what I saw was a friendly person who had the courage to stand up to take up the duty as the SSG alumni Vice President...

And that itself, is a statement of her love for the school itself...

Heard of stories about you that you mentioned... but from your blog, and the personal experience of seeing you in real life...

I would say... you can be proud of yourself... you're great for the person you are... you shine because you are genuine...

And never be afraid to stand up for what you feel is right

Have a nice day :D

Re: Attitudes and Absences

Samantha L. — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:41:35 -0000

Dear Su Ann,

I'm an avid reader of your weblog and I thoroughly enjoy all your posts. I thought your posts gave me deep insights into what life meant, and what it was all about.

This post opened my eyes to more than I thought your writings did. I've always been quite a nuisance with my teachers, and although most of the time stand on my side of the line, I give in and often agree that I am a somewhat disappointment and disgrace. But this very post of yours has taught me otherwise, that I should always believe in where I stand.

I extremely enjoy reading your insightful posts and I'm looking forward to more!

Re: Attitudes and Absences

voooooon — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:00:47 -0000

oi. where are u? well you'll be coming back. i can wait =)

Re: Attitudes and Absences

快乐 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:23:09 -0000

Pink Pau Dear!!! =)
Don't be frustrated over it k =)
We will all still be right there for you.
Eventhough we are not really very close friends in high school, due to my ignorance.... I am sorry... But if there is anything that i could help you I would!! =)
I love those time when we organise the IU carnival!! Sadly we didn't win the best IU Day! ARGH curse them!! =)

Anyway good luck!

Re: Attitudes and Absences

pinkpau — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:43:10 -0000

jade : haha you are an anarchic doctor! yes, we haven't done too badly.. :)

cindy : it's ok :) we all deal with things differently

mrbherng : i am in awe!!!

nyrac : i had those teachers who loved me too :) at the end of the day, those are the only ones who matter, yes? haha like jade up there, you're an anarchic doctor too!

jeff : wow where in asia did you teach? ah yes this asian meekness is going to disappear one of these days. with globalization, slowly but surely.

dr tan : hou yee tan you are ze devillll !

mchllchn : enjoy your high school experience while it lasts! you must do that :)

YM : yes it's unfair how people always impose their own standards and definitions of success and what's 'good' on others. haha eh actually i know some pretty cool nerds!

chm : no lah not all of my classmates were like that. maybe two or three.. but i dont talk to them much these days anyway. desa pandan for donuts?! wtf you must study super near me. are you from SAB?

KY : APPARENTLY I DIDNT!!! *proud

kennysia : hahahahaha why are u tokking like this!

samantha : sigh :( we all swam through darren's puke :(

rupert : unfortunately, competition is in our nature :\

the faux fashionista : your comment really moved me :) thanks justina.

sweatlee : DID YOU EVEN READ MY POST!

shaolintiger : i guess it's a system where they wanna force people to work. most people would take advantage of an ROWE to do sloppy work so that they can leave quicker

nat : we are all good in different things :) academics arent everything. but that doesnt mean we dont have to try and kick butt in it!

ronin : harakiri hahahaha that made me laugh. yes it is for this reason that i cant wait to go to the states. hehe ben and fred did that for kicks. they're cool

quin : i think our teachers here have an issue with being challenged. i dont know. maybe teachers in the west are the same, but i find that malaysian teachers are so quick to be indignant when students point out a mistake or ask questions. ahh you were teacher's daughter :D haha. i understand!

myst88 : yes :( at home too :(

reallybites : the one where i had that fight with the teacher and none of my friends stood up for me! forever burned into my brain i tell u...

ben : hehe dont worry everyone knows you love women!

yeah : that's good advice :) i guess it's true that i still havent really let go of all the anger i felt from my high school days. in many ways i am appreciative that i am now a better person because of those experiences, but i think that i could have been and done so much more if they hadn't been so .. oppressive towards me.

grace : wow. i'm sorry to hear abt your primary school experience :( but you must take things into your own hands. change the way things are :) stand out, be bright, prove them all wrong :)

realgunners : grades are important but i think not the be all and end all. not much fun being smart if one is like a twat or is just plain socially inept and hated by all

daniel : i wish you were our minister of education :) what you just said is exactly what every school should be. maybe then everybody would love school, would study hard and there would be less dropouts or people with sucky high school experiences.

nicholas : hahaha wow. i think our high school experience is very very similar. congrats on your awesome spm results! i bet it must have made all those teachers and your classmates eat their words :)

LJY : no i was not joking :P

mandylogy : thank u :)

sheon : no no cannot like that say :) i believe in change from within.

almost loved : i will :) thank u!

joize : wow thank u so much for ur kind words. i've always believed that we must stand up for ourselves and the people that we care for. and you are very lucky to have been in a school that encouraged creativity :) we had a lot of bureaucracy in our school.

kei : i remember the exact date i started studying seriously! it was hari kemerdekaan! 31st aug. BUT PLS DONT START SO LATE!!!!

anonymous : hear hear :)

michelle : we all hate it. *pat pat* s'okay, you are in a better place now :)

christine : i will :) glad my post inspired you.

doreen : i echo your sentiments on the respect thing, but i've come to learn that sometimes we have to make the first move and be generous with our respect. and THEN if they still dont respect us, they can go fly a kite :D haha yes i got the drama queen statement before. most unfair, but i suppose it is to be expected when you're dealing with people who are scared to stand up for what's right. hey your observations on msian students are so spot on! i guess it comes from years of being brainwashed on what 'the perfect student' is. kudos to you too, doreen.

chimpanzee : thank u :) i hope you find the encouragement that you are looking for. oftentimes it is in the people closest to us.

gin : haih you and i, we are in the same boat!

kimberlycun : see! we all win in the end

anon : yes :) i agree. i wish you all the best in raising your kids in the future. they are already so very lucky to have a parent like you. not many parents out there place this much importance on their kids having a happy life with good memories as they do on perfect scores and high paying jobs.

cept : stick it to the man hahahaha that made me laugh out loud! thank u!

k0k : horrr you were one of those naughty prefects!! LOL YOUR AWARD DAMN FUNNY!!!! narcoleptic hahahahaha what a sense of humor. mm lovely quote :) thank u for sharing. imma put it on my facebook now

jamuuna : you and me both, jamuuna, you and me both :)

huai bin : hahaha no more pictures of me. or my foot!

tze : and we both went out with similar guys from lower classes! and we both got flak for it! sigh! and we both read sweet valley!!!!

thegeekinpink : omg i'm sorry to hear that :( that must have been so hard to go through. i'm so glad you proved them all wrong with your spm scores in the end. in their faces!

xiao : your bf is one cool guy :D

ex teacher still a parent : 100% true :) i agree whole heartedly

bryan : i was from sri garden. they peed in the sea cos lazy to walk to the bathroom. haha

ap : yes that is exactly what i was NOT trying to tell them :P i dont think its right to disrespect teachers, but i also dont think that it's right for teachers to disrespect their students

lishun : from the feedback i've been getting, i think a lot of them actually did get what i meant :) it's just these teachers walking around twisting the context of my words after i had my talk. i think kids are maturing a lot faster than our time :\ i agree with your hindsight. a drone culture has already been firmly implanted into our heads as the idea of what makes 'a good student' - someone obedient, polite, never talks back, is calm, etc. while some of us are naturally like that, i dont think all of us are, and it's unfair to try and squeeze us into these moulds that we dont even fit into in the first place. hehe i'm glad you were a cool head prefect :)

foreverjas : i heart you too!

vvens : hehehe! perhentian sea is like that!

summer : no i dont think we have to just accept it and be grateful and stick to it :) im sorry but i totally disagree.

nick chhan : i actually know some people like that chess playing guy you mentioned. it's very sad. my heart really goes out to them because they dont get to see the freshness and excitement of life as the rest of us do, but my guess is that they prolly look down on us with disdain and contempt at our indiscipline :) thank u nick. i was feeling like i really shouldnt have made that speech in my school, but reading your comment and all the others is making me feel like i did the right thing.

cia : yup

voooooon : and i am notttttt :(

felicia : i'm glad to have helped :) all the best for PMR!

david santos : thank u :)

estherbobester : i'm so proud of you for standing up for yourself about your english paper :) i dont think what your teacher did was very kind. instead of marking you down like that, s/he should have guided you properly and imparted knowledge to you one-to-one. your comment made me smile :) exactly - we dont need validation from them. i really hope you kick everyone's butt in SPM. it doesnt matter what else you do right.. to them, stellar grades are the only way they will sit up and realize how wrong they were in all their judgments about you. sad, but still fun to see the look on their faces when you collect your cert with results that trumped all the other mindless drones :)

;D : ahh you are in a tough situation. my advice would be to navigate the minefield and play the game well :) you dont have to cut school or talk back to shine :) you dont have to suck up to get everyone to like you, either. friendliness, warmth and people skills always triumphs. trust me. do this one step at a time. popularity is something that can be gained, even if a bit late.

smartypants : what about YB PINKPAU!!! hahaha :D

Re: Attitudes and Absences

smartypants — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:34:25 -0000

imagine a world of teacher Ms Pinkpau, Cik Pinkpau or Youth Pastor Pinkpau! ..hehehe...

Re: Attitudes and Absences

smartypants — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:28:21 -0000

wahliao...dun u get 'motivated' by ur numerous grateful readers to be a motivational writer/speaker?... u relly rock lerr ! .... mere twist n turn of ur pen/fingers .....ur bitter, sweet or sour memories also can inspire other ppl !

Re: Attitudes and Absences

;D — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:00:45 -0000

Hai... i can emphatise with you very well Su Ann. people like you inspire people like me. only, i'm not as accomplished as you were in high school yet teachers generally dislike me la. what to do. my school, though it's supposedly one of the top schools here down south, has loads of crappy teachers that waste my school time... and teach nothing. i don't even dare to skip school, because i'm so scared it'll leave this disciplinary record down in my record in the system... and i don't even get a chance to get into top unis or something. i wish i had guts like you, but in a school like mine, i would've been suspended or expelled long ago. i don't dare to show open defiance to the teachers. i did it once. i got into alot of shit. i was very vexed for months, none of that drama but i actually confronted her and she gave me shitty sarcastic remarks. my parents constantly tell me to get on with it i have to kiss their asses. yet i don't want to kiss their asses. get into their good books. i somehow fear i'm losing a bit of myself in this process of sucking up, just to not get into any problems with these teachers. i am in some kind of dilemma... i can't like show my true self or smth to them.

i admire how you participated in activities and were popular despite the teacher's dislike of you. haha i very unpopular in school leh. i don't stand a chance of doing any stuff which people like you have done. please don't bear all these burdens in your heart anymore okay? it's not very healthy... what you have gone through has just made you stronger. i know this is a stupid cliche used to justify shit that people put us through... but i think our pinkpau would not be the pinkpau of today if not for these experiences. ;D

ps. I really don't dare to leave my name, but anyway i've emailed you before la so you know me. apparently one class made this class blog which was hilarious (like 400 hits everyday or smth not sure haha) and the administration made a big fuss out of it. they seem to have eyes everywhere.

Re: Attitudes and Absences

estherbobester — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:22:22 -0000

i'm in form5 now and i'm like a milder version of you =) being in school really drains me and the only time i actually come to life is during extra-curricular activities.

i remember reading about how you used to skip school alot and got picked on for it before despite your good grades and always organizing events and fundraisers. i've never known anyone who'd done so well without being a teacher's pet, perfect attendance and perfect everything under their belt and it gave me a great deal of motivation as i'm absent very often but still do well.

currently i'm being picked on by my English teacher who's been giving me horrible marks just because my essays are 'too descriptive' - my English isn't fantastic or anything but cutting off 20marks off a 35mark essay is pure prejudice. i've shown my paper to the English department teacher and it's sort of stained my teacher's rep, having her own student go behind her back and request for another teacher to mark her SPM trial papers. it's also my first time going against a teacher after years of consistent 'good morning's and smiles.

i earned the frowns and disapproving looks from not letting teachers stop/get in the way of how i ran our interact club and even though it's a hefty price to pay i'll never regret everything i did to make sure we were never taken advantage of (they'd guilt us into doing things for the school because we're a 'service' club) just cos we're young and supposedly mere teenagers.

sorry for being so long-winded, just wanted to let you know here's someone else who's different and being - in a way - penalized for it but is still determined to finish her last few months of schooling life with a bang - with or without validation from the goody-two-shoes and teachers.

thankyou. =)

Re: Attitudes and Absences

David Santos — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:30:00 -0000

Excellent post! I love it! Happy day

Re: Attitudes and Absences

Felicia — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:07:48 -0000

i'm from KL and i will be facing PMR soon, i feel the way you felt. i'm in the top class but i'm never the top student. and my teachers too, has a problem with my 'attitude'. our form attended a motivational seminar recently, and they said it was a 'failure' because they could not change our bad attitudes. thanks for sharing your past, it helped me realize something.

Re: Attitudes and Absences

voooon — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:00:12 -0000

wooo.. exactly what i feel as well =) well done! haha on another note, im in kl!!!!

Re: Attitudes and Absences

'cia — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:50:06 -0000

It's the never-ending situation where those who dont conform to what is purportedly "acceptable" behaviour, are ostracised and deemed "bad" by the very narrow-minded society that we lived in.

Re: Attitudes and Absences

nickchhan — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:05:51 -0000

No one should ever be drones to society, a certain amount of conforming standards is necessary, but not a full drone that has no self-esteem, opinions, and most importantly creativity. This causes people to just get jaded over time.

I recall one guy in school who played chess with himself, and has never gone to a local shopping mall - trapped in his dungeon, his elitist parents has shaped him into a soulless robot. I think compassion to him was a theory even. Anyway, this guy although the most studious, never got the top spot. The top spot year after year went to a radical, outspoken, confident, funny, witty guy that hardly studies at all.

People need to be spunky, and be self free in order to battle the harsh hard times of life. I agree with your 'rant', and I don't think it's something you should ever regret. G'luck in the states.

Re: Attitudes and Absences

summer — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:41:02 -0000

:) i confronted my teacher in std 3. I agree with some points u mentioned... After being a relief teacher for 3 months nearly 3 years ago, I sort of see the two sides of the story.
My conclusion: Its not easy to be a student nor a teacher.

Now studying overseas, I really see how rigid Malaysian education system is. Its hard to change it. To tackle the root, thats too much to do. So, just have to accept, be grateful (others may not even have such opportunity to study) and stick to it.

Re: Attitudes and Absences

vvens — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:03:17 -0000

yer! why are the pictures so nice one. the colours of the sea damn chun!! yer yer yer! tipu one.

Re: Attitudes and Absences

chm — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:09:10 -0000

dis is turning out 2 b a bloody gud place 4 high skul stories lmao!
k0k: RESPECT U !!!!!

Re: Attitudes and Absences

foreverjas — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:31:30 -0000

well written :) i'm so proud to be a reader of your blog.
i heart u pink pau!!!!!

Re: Attitudes and Absences

nyrac — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:04:47 -0000

# kok: i heart you! but probably i could give you a run for your money for that most narcoleptic person award though~~

Re: Attitudes and Absences

lishun — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:13:20 -0000

haha i was one of the head prefects with perfect attendance (i missed a grand total of 5 days of school in 5 years...lol) who disdained students who skipped class, debated well and still did reasonably well in exams almost every time. =P

but that was then, when high school was all i had and i blamed everyone but myself for not making better use of my adolescence. guess my character was never really that strong anyway.

to be honest, i doubt most of the students understood what you meant. there aren't that many individuals like you who dared to be true to yourself. i don't think some of them even know who they are yet. however, 15-17 isn't the most mature of age groups and most of them, like me, would probably only see the wider end of things once they leave home for college and develop a passion.

on hindsight, my teachers in school were probably nice to me because i was a conformist. they encouraged me to be a drone because it made life easier for them that way.i think of them with fondness still but it was really my tutors in college that spoke about building character and helped me find my calling and encouraged me in the areas i showed interest in, not the subjects in which i needed better grades.

i hope teachers and parents will realise that their role is not to make sure the children and adolescents under their care get lovely report cards and perfect attendance during hari terbuka every year. their role is to build character, instill values and mould us into people who live out a meaningful life.

oh, and just as being rebellious didn't deny you success, being a rule-obeying head prefect didn't make me a boring old jane. hehe. =)

Re: Attitudes and Absences

ap — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:51:12 -0000

hey cheers to having spotty attendance! i'd never have guessed... muz say that i've always admired your attitude towards life, your infallible spirit in the face of the things that really matter to u....... thx to u i dun feel bad abt annoying the shit out of my teachers with my marathon slumber sessions back then anymore. tsk tsk isnt that exactly what u're trying to tell us schoolings, right :)

Re: Attitudes and Absences

BrYAn — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:12:41 -0000

wat a post.... anyway which school were u from?

n btw y wud the guys pee in the sea!?!? o.O hahahah wtf!

Re: Attitudes and Absences

ex teacher, still a parent — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:46:01 -0000

correction *responds*