I got back my A level chinese results today and lo and behold, it's a B again. well, i'm now fairly convinced that B is my limit, and like i said near the beginning of the year, "wild horses cannot drag me to retake chinese again". so yup, no way i'm gonna take it a third time. i'm concentrating everything i've got on the A levels.
For leadership today, the school called back an old boy to talk about the Senior's Gift programme, which is basically the school asking everyone for a small monetary contribution before they graduate: $2, $5, $10 or higher. i think that it's reasonable enough, considering that the school hadn't really bugged us for donations until now. somehow, i suddenly became quite annoyed by people being cynical about the whole thing. i don't mean the usual poking fun at the school management, i'm talking about people who genuinely plan on brushing their shoulders and leaving the school after two whole years and contributing absolutely nothing. if you're one of those people, i have a few things to say to you.
why should we contribute to the school? the school spirit is so thin, i can barely feel it. i don't even feel a part of this place, so why should i care to donate?
when there's a school event, do you participate? i'm not talking about being a hyper little energizer bunny, i'm just talking about keeping your mind open and basically not putting down every little suggestion and effort that the organisers have made, "just because". if you don't, then can you really blame anyone for not being able to feel the school spirit? school spirit is fostered mainly through school events, so don't expect to suddenly love the school if all you've done thus far is play with your handphone and complain about the lack of air conditioning. the relationship with the school, just like any other relationship, is two-way.
the school is pathetic. the facilities are ridiculously run-down. i hated my stay here. no way i'm gonna give anything for an experience as bad as this.
let's clarify one thing here: NJC's pretty good already. seriously, considering its age and the fact that it's government-funded, it's being kept pretty well already, when compared to other government-funded JCs. of course, most of the time we're comparing with RJC and HCI, since together with VJC and NJC they're supposed to be the "big 4" of JCs in singapore. well, here's a newsflash: RJC and HCI are privately-funded, which basically means "they have loads of money". it's a fact we all should have known before we even came here, and it's a fact that cannot be blamed on the school (being the first JC and all, it would have been pretty hard to not be government-funded, yeah?).
if i give them money, they're just gonna spend it on something useless anyway. since i'm not gonna see the changes i want to see, what's the point of donating?
here's the thing: most of the things on our NJC wishlist (material wishes anyway, since we're talking about money) are big: a new LT, a new study area, renovations, air conditioning installed here and there. of course there's nothing wrong with having big wishes (what's the point of wishing if you can't wish big, right?), but in reality these wishes have to be constructed to fruition, and not magically formulated into existence by a genie. and when there's construction, people will complain. already we complain every day about the construction of the JH library and indoor sports hall, so there's no denying that.
so if the school can't do anything involving construction without significant public resistance, they're confined to refining the small details instead: study benches, canteen tables, clocks, et cetera. so do we have anything to complain about then? of course we do. we complain that the changes are small, insignificant, a waste of our money. so basically, we want to teleport from point A to point B without any sort of transition phase. here's a parallel: according to evolutionary theory, when a species evolves from a less adapted form to a more adapted form, it always has to go through a transition phase where it's less adapted than both the initial and final phases. in short, things have to get worse before they get better.
and of course, how does the school even know what we want in the first place? through feedback, of course. except feedback boxes are basically makeshift rubbish bins, and feedback sessions are essentially extended awkward silences. so not only do they have to transform the school overnight, they also have to read our minds to know what to transform the school into in the first place. we might as well ask them to create perpetual power and world peace while we're at it.
we're all 17, 18-year-olds. soon we'll all be technically adults. it's high time "mocking the school just because it's our school" went out of fashion.
and in case you can't stand listening to metal, here's a short excerpt:
All the way from the east to the west
We've got this high society looking down on this very foundation
Constantly reminding us that our actions are the cause of all their problems
Pointing the fingers in every direction
Blaming their own nation for who wins elections
They've never contributed a fucking thing to the country they love to criticize
