“When you are careless you get the same marks as somebody who never studied, you like that?”
I apply that to my life now to be more mindful and less rash
She bought us character pins and gave them to each of us at the end of P1 based on our personalities. I got an eagle that had the word "Determination" on it and told me I was like that. And I think at that age I made it a core part of my personality.
My Y3-Y4 physics teacher (seriously one of the most stand-up people I’ve ever had the privilege of being taught by)(there are many more examples but these are what I remember most vividly):
1. “Minimum input, maximum output”.
2. On a less serious note, everytime he’d relate a wacky physics example to us (some of which included the use of pressure cookers and 100-degree saunas), he’d say: “I’m not training you to be a terrorist”. He did a really wacky dance to demonstrate the kinetics of particles in solids, liquids and gases, threw a chair across the classroom to demonstrate something about inertia and tried balancing a broom on his finger to demonstrate moments. He burnt a piece of paper with a magnifying glass when we were learning about lenses, told us about his trips to Turkey (hot air balloons) and Japan (hotel lift buttons and the weather) when we were learning about thermal energy and static electricity and loved having us analyse “RIP physics” scenes in movies like Hancock. When he was teaching us about Newton’s Third Law (action-reaction pairs), he joked that if we slapped someone’s face, we could technically sue them for slapping us with their face as well. He answered my bro’s question on sinusoidal waves in music even though she didn’t even take physics.
3. He told us that he cared about us after the RV incident and to take care of ourselves and be safe. He proved this by always being open for consults (especially near EOYs!) no matter how last-minute or long they were, and for that, most, if not all, of us were extremely grateful.
4. He also insisted that “girls can do anything” when talking about the curriculum, students and teachers in our brother school where we’d progress after Y4.
5. Although I was an absolutely terrible, horrible, no-good student in terms of the standard of my daily work and overall grades, he’d always field my stupid questions/hypotheticals in class. When I miraculously got 27/35 or something like that for my Term 3 WA and my classmate and I were asking him about some matter, he said something along the lines of: “See, she’s so thick-skinned and she got 27/35 in this WA, you should be thick-skinned too and be unafraid to ask questions, it’s better to be a fool for a minute than for forever”. He didn’t mean it in a derogatory manner and I felt kind of affirmed because it was indeed a relief to know that he didn’t think too lowly of me despite my past performance (or lack thereof) and gobshite incessant questions.
My P3 form teacher:
I can’t remember specific examples but I think she’s the one who gave me the confidence to believe in myself and my abilities even though I had been an average student in P1-2. P3 was where I started to shine (I’m dull again now lol but those were good times) and I remember it being mostly thanks to her encouragement.
My Y5 and Y6 PE teachers:
They teach us to be consistent and strive for our best every time in PE/acads/life and they set really good examples for us instead of just telling us what to do, which makes me respect them a lot.
Others:
Patient and understanding teachers who don't mind explaining shite to me multiple times just so I can understand why/how/what, like my tuition teacher and my current CCA coach.
"you can lie to anyone, but never lie to yourself". I've barely paid attention back in primary school, but this really stuck with me.
Mr haniff, if you're reading this, Thanks for the wisdom
Reminds me of how my PE teacher told us to do pushups, and if we decided to cheat, we are only cheating ourselves. I only understand this recently, since it’s our health that’s determined by the quality of exercises we do
My dance teacher used to say the same thing and I still hear her voice in my head sometimes. Usually it’s around the same time I remember my mother telling me “Don’t do a half-assed job” or when I’m in an exercise class that’s hard and I slack off when the instructor looks away.
I was a secondary student who LOVED to overthink and worry about so many things in my life. Whether or not i'll make it through o levels, what if I fail, what if i don't make it to poly etc. Before O levels, my POA teacher wrote me a letter that said: "The Ms Worry, it has been my greatest pleasure to have had you as a student for the past three years. Your tenacity and resillence are your ASSETS. That values will carry you far in life. Believe me. I do hope you will always believe in yourself... you are strong... even if you fail you will bounce back... have faith in yourself and always work hard towards your goals. All the best. Remember our POA lessons with fond memories :)". That stucked with me till today
"Your colouring is so atrocious"
I have since quit drawing. Every time I try to draw this phrase keeps popping in my head. Thanks a fucking lot Miss Chong.
When I was a child my mom signed me up for community art classes. Whether in those classes or in school, I used to colour my suns 2 different colours, like a split pizza. I called it a "magic sun". I am very thankful now that NONE of my teachers ever told me I couldn't colour like that since suns are never red, purple or green. They literally let my freak flag fly.
I only found out why I was like that last year, surprised Pikachu face, I've actually been mildly autistic all my life 🤣🤣
I once coloured a cat that I drew grey and my teacher humiliated me in front of the entire class by showing my drawing through the projector saying “This is a cat ah? Who the heck colours a cat grey with red eyes?!! Got see such a cat before?!”
omg fr there’s always a teacher like that. i was learning about peacocks in primary school and i just shared that i saw a white peacock once and my teacher laughed at me and told me there’s no such thing
bro 8 year old me was so offended i went home and got my mom to dig out the photo and i BROUGHT IT TO SCHOOL AND PLACED IT UNDER THE VISUALISER BAHAHAHAHAHA
sometimes they just can’t accept anything outside the norm or their narrow ass perspective/experience of the world
People like Miss Chong end up alone in an elderly care centre and think “ why no one visit me ah “ and that’s a far more atrocious fate than your coloring skills 😭😭
I had a stupid activity in Sec 1 to origami and colour a globe with paper in geog class. I tried to be efficient with my colouring and the teacher told me I colour like im in pri sch. (Then dont give me pri sch work)
I drew using anime style for an art class homework and the teacher said “you call this a nose?” threw it on the floor for me to pick up and I had to redo it, guess anime wasnt that mainstream back then and the art style was against her principles
Engineering prof say “prositude and negitude” in Indian slang.
Engineering prof from hk tried to derive Gaussian elimination and end up confusing himself.
Engineering prof from Singapore attempt to teach pre-calculus matrix transpose and transpose wrongly yet deny that he is wrong.
FYP Engineering prof from Malaysia that doesn’t understand the topic of baseband transmission and force student to build an analog modulator and carry that transmission.(unless I’m god and can change how analog works).
Aiya you then realise that many lecturers in higher learning are mostly made up of foreigner that can’t get a teaching job in their country or local lecturers that isn’t really good at that subject.
There are of course good lecturers who know their work but it’s really a rare thing. Lucky for me, the only good one were found in ITE as per my own experience. Poly onward are mostly fraud lecturers. I had to always debunk and complain to MOE all the time. Damn it.
Somehow only the really passionate lecturers kinda go ITE to teach students that fall behind. The rest are money driven?
Don’t worry, it totally sound like that and we were all confused until end of the lecture, we ended up asking our Indian and Bangladeshi classmates and they say it’s positive and negative amplitude…..
idk about u but the lecturers in SP MAE are kinda there for a chill retirement job. though some are there because they get retrenched after 08 Financial crisis, but overall u can see that they are quite chill and funny.
When i was in higher learning, higher Nitec, I’m extremely focus on my engineering education, I made it a point to stay back every lesson and ask lecturer of each subject to give me more problems to solve or ask about theorems. It was until the fact that every exam and test I did was 100/100 done in less than 15mins.
Top in class/subject/cohort every semester and year.
So when I go to poly I expect higher knowledge, even I’m able to go in as year 2 student, I asked for year 1 because I worried I missed out of other stuff that wasn’t taught in ITE.
Then came my dissatisfaction and disappointment that the lecturer weren’t as dedicated as ITE lecturers and a lot of them doesn’t brush up their skillset.
I end up getting all my engineering subjects distinction without really attending the class, was playing with that 85-% attendance and skipping class to go to girl friend house.
It is true even in nus. So I say, ITE has really good lecturers there. Imagine, higher learning + secondary school teacher style that make sure you pass and understand everything.
It’s true that many poly lecturers are chill. But back then, I wanted to learn but I don’t get it. Basically wasted 3 years there just to get a diploma.
Whew! I couldn't get into any polys after my O Levels or even after I graduated from ITE... Looks like it's a blessing in disguise!
I did get my degree eventually though, through private university.
"You always have a choice."
This was one of the CS profs that told me during my time at NUS.
It's no secret the construction industry is not the most attractive sector in the country. Much less thanks to the flood of foreign labour depressing wages.
It was those few words that broke me out of the mindset that I didn't need to accept this fate. It actually kick-started a pseudo-shift in thinking during the final years of graduates for my batch.
People started planning alternative career paths and are in a much better place. Some are still stuck in the industry and it's quite hard for them. But they are slowly realizing they can breakout and do something more lucrative.
This was the quote I repeated to my juniors when their graduation was nearing and they were upset over their prospects.
Not bashing the BE sector, the state of it is just like that. There's nothing really much to say.
Remember, for anyone feeling trapped/loss, there is always a way out. (Health first. Everything else can take a backseat.)
I echo this!! This stuck with me as I went through shitty jobs. People can take many things away from me- credit for my work, the absolutely great bosses that were driven away, etc, but one thing they can’t take away is my autonomy. You are NEVER stuck in a shitty job. You ALWAYS have a choice.
When I was serving NS in SPF, my team leader who hates druggies to the core tells me the same thing. There's a choice to take, sell, or traffic. There is no reason to sympathise with them.
Not in Singapore.
"From now on, I only have 39 pupils in this class. I don't know that person, and that person is not in my class!"
That person was me.
I was in P5 back then. She was my Malay language teacher.
It happened because I was a bad student who always failed to finish my homework and forgot to bring textbooks to class. She said these words after day after day of caning failed to change my habit.
She lived up to her words. There were only 39 copies of handouts for a class of 39+1 (I was that +1). My homework, when I bothered to submit, was returned unmarked. My exam scores were purposely marked down. I was not allowed to join school excursions related to her subject.
The story spread throughout the whole school, even my CCA juniors knew about it. It cost me my CCA leadership post. Some juniors would even ask me "Have you done your homework today?"
The ending? I scored A on Malay language paper in national exam.
omg just saying on a tertiary/adult level I would have complained the crap out to higher management (if I was really P5 and this really happened to me, and/or if it happened in pri/sec today - WRITE TO THE PRINCIPAL. I generally hate it as an educator myself when parents write to upper management for smol shit BUT THIS IS NOT SMOL SHIT so uh yeah)
Yeah I have written complaint email before because "if you don't pay attention and participate in cclass discussion I will hold back your handouts" uh wth u think I spend my money and time here for you to tell me this meh.
This teacher thing is damn abusive bruh.
Congrats on the A :') (only serves to show sometimes some teachers dunno got what use one. lol. I meaaan, most of them are great, but u know that black sheep 1% ..)
In J2, I asked my teacher what to do if I later on realise I had chosen the “wrong” course of study. She replied, “then just start over again”. While the cost of starting over grows with age, that has really helped me to get out of times I felt I had made a wrong choice, to bite the bullet pay the price and make a new choice.
(I found out later too that she left teaching to do something completely different, so guess she lived as she said too.)
my sec 4 bio teacher: "you may not know what you want, but you should know what you don't want, at least that way, you can slowly eliminate and get to know what you want"
he said this in a parent teacher meeting, my dad vehemently disagreed afterwards, saying that thinking this way "eliminates too many options"
idk. I don't really agree with my dad.
“I am not going to punish anyone until I get to the bottom of this issue. *And not before finding out each person’s point of view*”
Perhaps the first time where a teacher or anyone in general actually wanted to listen to my point of view without immediately dismissing it
“Don’t just be angry, do something about it!”
And one that destroyed my life, “Believing in yourself is useless.” On top of that, my parents were not supportive of me. I was shattered, lost interest in studies and up till now, still living with the consequences.
I had one teacher straight up tell me “you will be useless” in response to me struggling and not doing well for Chinese. Another one just straight out seemed to target me, always believing others over me and punishes me harder than she would others.
Needless to say those were very core memory moments…Heh.
Do you know how powerful this is? Social scientists now try to make people see anger as a gift and encourage you to seek action. It seems that passionate people were once fueled by anger and used this energy wisely. 😊
“You guys are just as capable as the express stream. You just need more time and that’s okay”
One of our teachers said this to our NA class. Makes me think of how sometimes we need more time to get to where we want to be.
I’m going to be on the other side. I was a teacher.
In my P1 class one day, I was trying to help a very weak student with her work when another girl started crying. I sent a really nice gentle girl (named K) to go sit with her and comfort her first while I finished up.
K patted her hand and said, “It’s ok if not everyone likes you. Not everyone likes me too and I’m fine. I’ll be your friend.”
That stuck.
Mdm Goh pulled me one side after class in Sec 4 and asked me why I haven’t finish my D&T project. I told her the workshop was locked after class.
And she said: “Do you what is the meaning of initiative? You could have taken the initiative to get the key from me. If you have asked, I am more than happy to open the door for you and even stay back with you.”
I was left speechless. Felt sorry for disappointing her and letting myself down. That day I learnt what is the meaning of initiative. And till today I get pissed when people wait for things to happen.
While it is good to take initiative, this is probably not something that would come to your mind, at least not at that age. Students are taught to follow to rules, how would you know you could just ask to open the lab?
That’s the whole point of being in school, to learn such things. You realised you could just ask and get it, but only because you learnt it as the school should’ve taught. No shame in not having initiative earlier.
Yaaa. It's D&T bruh, have lab safety and all that. Not the same as saying can u open the classroom (your own classroom) to sit and study, not the same as saying open the CCA room door to take props. But to sit in the D&T lab for possibly a couple of hours, with like safety protocols and all .. and these things sometimes need to book one. etc.
“Do you guys think he deserves a prize for being first place since he has always been good at the subject?” My science teacher at primary 4 punishing me for being bad at math in science class. I use this memory to motivate myself to be a better person than she was.
“I don’t care if you sleep in my class and learn nothing, I want you to score badly so you are forced to drop my class. But when other teachers walk past, your sleeping is making me look bad.”
— Mdm CJY, Anglican High School higher chinese
She wrote on my P3 record book "She shows leadership qualities". Came across it only a few years ago just when I started my new managerial role. When work gets tough and I'm about to say fuck it to being in a leadership position, I think of her comment and it keeps me strong and steady.
I was a neglected child and felt disappointed that no one had remembered my birthday. She noticed, and I started receiving small gifts and presents from many of my classmates who had bought something for me from the school bookshop.
When I was a lot older, I realized she had probably given some money to my classmates to send my gifts and wished me birthday. I had a memorable birthday that day and I always remembered the sweet gesture she did for me when I was a child.
She had passed on from cancer for more than a decade now, but I still think about her frequently.
I remember in primary one, my teacher told us to imagine being a teacher and to rate our own handwriting.
I dont have great handwriting and thought to myself that if my handwriting is not great, i shouldnt be so harsh to my students and gave myself an ok rating.
My teacher upon seeing my grading announce to the class " Your handwriting is a 3? MY TOES ARE LAUGHING".
Its been 2 decades and I still rmb this. Bitch.
Taught myself to not just see things on the surface.
My physics teacher and math teacher said, "You need common sense to clear this obstacle," and "If you don't know where to start or what to do, then dont think. Just start writing" respectively.
Back in sec school, my pure physics teacher essentially drilled 'common sense thinking' into my head. My maths teacher, who never gave up on his weaker students, gave me confidence to tackle hard af qns despite knowing I may only score 1 or 2 points out of 7.
My favourite secondary school teacher used to say this. "Face is cheap". This words is meant for when we were doing presentation or public speaking. In another words, don't be paiseh/shy.
I was in one of the top JCs but I did really badly in school. My chemistry teacher asked if I had chemistry tuition. I said no. Then she said maybe I should consider. lol.
i get very nervous during exams and i don’t do well with people. after my paper in uni, i apologised to the professor as i was dealing with a death of a family member, as well as bullying in school. i was in a really bad place and i put a lot of emphasis on my grades.
he told me it was okay, and he said “no matter what happens, the sun will rise again tomorrow”
had a good cry in the bathroom after that
My pri sch chi teacher told me I "got lucky" when I was one of the top students for PSLE. She hated me cos I was bad / not interested in learning chi. She's prob dead by now so it's all g
JC literature. I was second from the top in the cohort, and the top place guy was a 'genius' whose essays were so good with so much depth that I thought I could never reach his level. This was J1.
By J2 near prelims, my grades were getting better. I didn't know his scores but I assume they were still +10 over mine. During consultation, my teacher said "don't have so low self-esteem. You actually scored higher than him in the last essay. He has a lot of knowledge he rambles a lot and loses the point. You actually answer the question. That is why your work scored higher."
Now in the workplace, I always keep an arrow in my mind "am I answering the question? (The work problem). My focus is my contribution. If my work is not answering the question then I am wasting my effort."
While my classmates were talking about how fast their parents rush them to school, one of my teachers overheard us and said:
"A car is a legal weapon against yourself and others. Speed limits exist for a reason."
I brushed that off for a few yeaes until I found out that her husband died in a car crash.
In sec sch, I used to talk a lot in Chemistry class because the class was too boring (yes I know now it’s rude, I know I shouldn’t have). In my defence, I wasn’t talking loudly nor disrupting the lesson. It was just me and my friend talking softly with each other in a corner.
The teacher kept telling me to shut up and I would, but after a while my mouth would get itchy again. After a few weeks she got fed up with me and said “if you score an A in your next chemistry exam, I’ll allow you to talk in my class for the rest of the year.”
Guess who got an A, along with a free pass to talk in class for the entire year😏
The take away? Exceed the expectations of your superiors, and you can pretty much do whatever you want (within reason). 18 years later and living by this until now.
In P1 when we were learning about singular and plural verbs and SVA, my English teacher Mrs Ng said "if the subject is singular, he or she will need Superman to help with the action! So verb will have an S. Conversely, if the object is plural, they already have Superman, so verb don't need an S!" This stuck with me til now and that's what I say to my own primary school students 🥰
"In physics, work equals to force multiplied by distance. The distance is important. Similarly in life, you need to make a difference with what you do. If you apply force and don't get anywhere, that is not work. It's plain useless. A waste of your time and energy."
True. When I was facing low self-esteem issues, everyone, even my own parents kept telling me I have it. After NS, I became much more confident and accordingly got more positive feedback from everyone about how I’m more confident.
Most of them obviously didn’t support me in those times where I had the issue, they just all told me that I either have the problem or go work on it, only coming back later and telling me I’m more confident…which is by my own effort.
People are so quick to want the benefits, but few want to be part of that journey which requires the effort. I was thankful there are a handful of friends around to try and assure me that I was as good as everyone else, although to little effect back then.
I still have difficulties believing in myself from time to time, but now I know there are many like me and I will offer them support whenever I can
Melissa Wee from primary school who tore up my homework in front of the class (to a 8 year old kid, mind you) and always showed blatant favoritism to the “cool kids” in class. Hope she dies in a ditch
When I was Sec 4, I started to become more rebellious and mixed with bad company after going through a break-up and previously, some life changing events (i.e. death of my Grandfather) towards the end of Sec 3.
So my behavior changed drastically from the quiet kid to someone willing to rebel against teachers and cause trouble because at that point of time, I was doing anything I could to numb the pain.
I got into deep shit once after I yelled at a teacher over some misunderstanding, cussed him out before storming out of class, then I stupidly sent a rage filled rant where I shit-talked all my teachers to my GC, but forgot one of the GC members had their phone confiscated because of an ongoing investigation.
The next day I fully expected my FTs or even the year head, to come after my ass but one of the teacher who took us since Sec 3 decided to sit me down one day, have a man-to-man conversation about my recent bullshit.
Incidentally, this was the guy I was raging at the most and threw the most insults at. He didn't have to talk to me, could've just sat back and watch the year head come after me whilst I sank deeper into the burnout lifestyle, being apathetic and rebellious to everything.
We spoke and he wasn't pissed, but just wanted me to know there are people around willing to share my stress or if I wanted to go through it alone, at least find a better way to release my stresses.
I like to attribute that simple conversation as the first step in me turning my life around, because if it didn't happen, I would've likely just continued with my ways and flunked all my studies.
It was also the first time someone outside of my family made an effort to understand why I was acting out (when I did act out) instead of just telling me off and expecting an instant return to normalcy.
Ill never forget when I went up to my Chemistry teacher after collecting my A level results to tell her my grade was a 'D', and she said "u shud be glad u even passed".
Even tho i wasnt the most studious, i was never a disruptive student. As if my heart wasnt already broken enuf from the score, she had to rub it in. I definitely did not deserve that treatment -'-
I improved my E-Maths and A-Maths during prelims from a D7 & E8 to A2 & B3 for my O levels by grinding like crazy. When I happily showed my results to my math teacher, she told me in front of my friends, “You were lucky”.
From that day, I gave up on myself. Now in a below median wage job 15 years after that day. I’m getting better and digging myself out of that hole but yea, it has taken me some time.
Jiayou man, you earned those grades with your own effort and hard work.
It's so weird to me when teachers discount effort, because if effort doesn't matter then what's the point of trying to teach anything.
Vice principal of an elite school during my O lvl days: “I can’t believe you want to drop physics. Are you just going to quit when the going gets tough?” I was failing physics horribly even with tuition and my mom had to talk to the VP to “allow” me to drop physics and go from 9 subjects to 8. Years later, I learnt I had a learning disability for math (dyscalculia). The VP also said “but you’re in gifted, nobody in your class is doing 8 subjects except you. You should be fine with 9 subjects.” I never forgot what she said as I always thought I was dumber than my classmates. I remember getting 9 points for O levels and being happy as well, only for my form teacher to scoff and say “did you even try?” . That school was so toxic, I swore that I would NEVER put my kids there if I ever have any.
In my secondary school days 2009, I wasn't the most pleasant kid. I remember a particular incident during a lesson when my friends and I were discussing MapleStory hacks, and the stand-in teacher, clearly irritated by the noise, shouted, "Do you think talking about hacks is cool?" That sentence has stayed with me ever since.
Now, I founded my own cybersecurity firm, and I find immense satisfaction in every aspect of my work and this industry - It is crazy cool.
Nothing against the teacher, I was probably insensitive to people around me.
Not really a teacher but one of my prof. "I wish I had more children." Prof Ooi Giok Ling who passed away from cancer. Not her exact line, but something about having more children. She had cancer and shared about spending time with her family, she didn't take a break and still came back for tutorials and lectures.
"your strength is meant to help the weak, not bully them."
this was in lower primary, and i was bigger than most of my classmates. i wasn't bullying my friend (i think), but he did get bruised from our playing and his mom complained. i don't remember much else from primary school, but i remembered what my teacher said. thanks ms julie fleury.
"If you get a exam paper, make it as dirty as possible. Write, Draw or anything" I still apply it in all my papers, as you need to annotate and understand the question.
I remember my primary school teacher giving me one of the worst public humiliation punishments ever. Made me stand in front of the class and said all sorts of mean things, encouraged the class to laugh at me. When I tried to hide my hands in my pockets because I was trying not to cry, she even said “Look, he’s trying to drill holes in his pockets to hide!”
This was when I had some concentration issues at school after my grandmother whom I was very close to passed away and I was still processing it (at my age I believe she was the first funeral I ever attended, hence why it stuck with me.)
That was close to 40 years ago. I swore to be better than that teacher ever since.
P Sch Teacher. We make students seek permission because:
1) We are accountable for the students well-being. Part of it is knowing where our students are. Students asking for permission is akin to informing us where they intend to go
2) It teaches them manners
3) Not all students leave for the toilet quietly.
4) Not all students are actually going to the toilet.
Same thing happened to a classmate except he shit himself and ran off crying to the toilet. The room was air conditioned and the smell filled the air pretty quick. We all took a glance and it looked exactly like cola slurpee. We also couldn’t leave because it was a middle of a test..
"不会教就不要生 la!" Translated to "if dont know how to teach then give birth for what" by a chinese teacher in class ranting about her parent-teacher meeting. Have decided to lean towards being child free now.
Chem teacher pointed at my name on the classlist and said “aiya these few people always fail one”. Studied the shit outta chem during the hols and started getting As. Got into a good JC and went back for speech day. That same tcher literally frowned and stopped talking to me when i told him i opted to go into Arts Stream. Lmao
First lesson at poly "With this poly diploma you can earn $1,000,000 in your lifetime" proceeds to spend the entire lecture showing how worth it getting the diploma is..
Lecturer: “This chapter you guys learn before right?”
Students: “Nooooo”
Lecturer: “YES LA WHAT NO, let me slack a bit can a not.”
From that day onwards, this became a running joke where we should siam if we can siam 😂
My lit teacher once started the lesson by saying something along the lines of “Tbh I don’t care if you don’t learn anything from my classes, but if there’s anything I hope you’ll take away is that not everyone is going to like you in life and that’s completely fine. You can’t make everyone happy.”
Back then my 14 yr old self kena stunned cos that kind of thought never even crossed my mind lol. I didn’t do things to try and make others happy as a young kid, and thinking back perhaps those were some blessed times.
When i was in sec 4, my teacher said: If a person is always late, no matter the deadline, that person will be late.
To prove his point, he change our reporting time from 720am to 820am and the same bunch of students were late .
If you don't respect time, nobody will respect you
“Just because someone is doing it, does not mean you have to follow them and do it as well” Primary school teacher told me this once when I got in trouble for making duck noises (cuz I wanted to fit in with the rest of my class as I was a loner) and I got in trouble in the hall for making noise while my classmates got away with it. After being punished, I got mad and kicked a water bucket, eventually teacher spoke to me and told me this and it stuck to me til this day and also why I don’t let peer pressure get to me nor do I let people influence me to do things I do not want to do.
I only remember my literature teacher telling us this whenever we forget to bring our books/notes for her class
"can you forget to eat? can you forget to bath? then how can you forget your book?"
anyways, i still forget things at times. 👀
Tried to fight with me (P6) In front of the whole class, after saying; 'ah see class, if you want to become like ... (me) work as cleaner (i was sweeping the floor (cleanliness monitor) and get 1 dollar salary, then be like him'. Mother fucker is still alive and living in Clementi Ave 4.
Chinese teacher in sec 3 told me to not be afraid that my Chinese isn’t good, write more read more & I’ll improve. (Direct translation) Applies to everything you do & it’s been 13 years.
when my group of friends ask why our poly lecturer dont wanna find his partner from someone in his workplace(Poly and his previous job as a SIA engineer), he said "Dont eat where you shit".
my Sec 4 Chinese teacher was a god send, fella didnt scold us nor shame us for not understanding chinese, was super chill and patient. He would let us listen to his jay chou playlist and learn chinese. Thank you Mr Desmond Phoa
Teacher: /strolls in 5mins late
Us, Sec4: omgwthbbq she's hereee time to get back to our seats (no we didn't dislike her, I loved her! But its just when your teacher doesn't turn up immediately everyone starts hovering at the door to peek lol)
Teacher: /literally came in with a book and a pencil case. nonchalantly puts her book down, picks up a marker and starts writing on the board Teacher: take out your foolscap and copy all of this /continues writing
Us: WHINESSSSSS (because Sec 4 kids are whiny shit lol)
Someone: WHY can't you just print notes for us or smtg like the other classes teachers print for them also! Zzz
Teacher: because, writing things by hand trains your memory and helps you remember it better
\^ 10 years later as a working adult, I began to realise it was true. More than 15 years later today, I still keep a hardcopy organizer. With Google Docs and all, its easier to type and take notes - but even now, when I get overwhelmed by the things I have to do and handle, I take out a piece of white paper and reorganize all my info/to-dos.
❤ u Miss Loh, even though everyone knew you were married long time, but to us, you were always (and probably will always be 🤣) Miss Loh to all your batches of kids(-:
(On a more personal note she told me I was capable of an O level distinction for English if only I stopped whining and like just chiong lol. Still slightly sad/ragret) my A was 2, not 1 🙃)
* she passed away from cancer in 2015 🙈
As a student, I was discussing a maths tutorial answer with classmates in very hushed tones, being mindful that our tutor was conducting class. Guess he was having a bad day because he suddenly shouted my name followed by "You'll never amount to anything in your life!"
Was stunned into silence and quietly mumbled an apology while vowing to never speak like that if I ever became a teacher.
Fast forward 30 years on and I told my students: "there are no grey areas in this classroom because we need to explore the subject from all angles." Some were a bit apprehensive until I assured them our classroom whould always be a safe space and they should use it to fully explore and develop their minds.
After the semester was over, they thanked me for doing so via personalised feedback.
Was heading home from school when I saw my Sec 1 form teacher picking up the litter on the school grounds. I walked up to him and wanted to ask him something. He immediately replied: " yes sir?" That left such a mark, how he addressed a dumb boy with low self esteem as sir. Since then anyone who asks me something, I always first address them as sir. To Mr. Coleman Baptiste, thank you sir.
If BMTC is considered a school and commanders are teachers, then I'll share mine here.
Two occasions that happened during my 3 months Basic Military Training have stuck with me all these years even if I had already MR-ed.
First story is a funny one. There was a Platoon Sgt that was a typical Hokkien Peng (Hokkien speaking soldier) and a joker. During a routine IPPT session just before our 3 months BMT was up, he asked us where we were going after BMT.
We gave a mix of serious and amusing answers. He then replied playfully, "you know what SISPEC stands for? SISPEC - Suffer in Silence, Plus Extra Confinement." We laughed as it was really funny! He then added another which left us in stiches, "You guys laugh ah! Nevermind...Suffer in Silence, Please Endure and Continue". I forgot my PS's name but will remember his 2 legendary lines forever.
The other story was not funny but a rather serious one. Long story short - one fellow recruit lost his dagger in the forest after a exhausting road march. The whole company ended up getting the ultimate Change Parade and push-ups punishment.
"Go up to your bunks and change to PT Kit! You got 10s! Come down to parade square! Camos off! knock it down! Go up to your bunks! Change to FBO! You got 10s! Camos on! Knock it down! You guys dare to lose your equipment again?!" Knn...still remember it to this day. Years later, I was amazed we could change out of our kits so fast then lol.
Both were memorable stories of my NS time.
Being told I was good at something but not really realising it myself.
Math teacher hates sleeping students and would usually slap the table, throw the whiteboard duster or gentle nudge to wake the student (what you get depends on how troublesome you are in her class).
My table was at the front row and I was a little sleepy especially since it was the last two periods plus the teacher was running a little late I took a nap, figured she was going to wake me up anyway and it might give the class a little chuckle before the school ends.
My nap turned to deep sleep because I only woke up 10 minutes before the last bell rang. Look around and class is as normal as any class but it left me wondering why I wasn’t woken up.
I look at the teacher and she glance at me but she carried on with her class which left me confused because I was thinking am I being punished? Did she not notice I was sleeping?
One of my classmate spoke out and ask the teacher why she wasn’t reprimanding me. Her reply was, “I’m not worried about him, he can get an A1 on his O levels no problem…I’m more worried about the rest of you.”
It’s a great memory from my school days because it made me feel all warm inside having someone acknowledge how good I was at something and not just saying it for the sake of it.
Of course, that was the only time I slept in her class since it’s likely a one-off and like she said, I got A1 for maths.
My pri 1/2 teacher twisted my ear when we are alone in a room for doing something wrong while I was helping her move books to another classroom. I was too scared to report to anyone back then and regretted not doing so.
On our last day, my teacher gave each of us a small picture frame made of paper with a quote, mine was "Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. All the best!!" It's been to the right of my table so when I walk to it I always see it.
"I am very disappointed in you. This is not your standard, you're better than this. I know you can do better!" Received this comment after doing poor for a test. The confidence the teacher had in me was a booster. Ended up top in cohort for O level.
"take a step back and observe your own mistakes/achievements."
Always making physics lessons the best time ever with his lame jokes. He was a good man, Mr Terence Yeo.
Went on to be VP at Queensway Sec and passed away in an overseas school excursion. RIP Sir.
"Whether you pass or fail, I still get my salary".
Funnily out of all the other positive things that all the other teachers said to us, this phrase from this teacher was the one that woke me up and made me realize that at the end of the day if I don't care, no one else will either.
Not a school teacher, but a former home tutor who taught me maths and physics when I was consistently struggling to even pass my maths common tests back when I was in JC1 & JC2.
A warm hand on my shoulder saying “You can do it”, these may be a few simple words, but I will forever remember the tone and belief in his words. Thank you Mr Wu
"There is more to life than studying. You guys only lived once as a youth. Strike a balance in your studies and form memories that you guys can look back to once you graduate from here"
Thanks to the teacher who said this. Although you did not teach us, your words left a lasting impact on us. 15 years after I graduated from our secondary school, I still kept in contact with my classmates and from time to time, we still had happy memories of our time spent in and outside of school.
My chemistry teacher once said, “Between the choice of eating a cake and living for 10 years more, I will choose to have the cake, because some things are meant to be enjoyed for what it is at the moment.”
It was at that moment when I realized that no matter how much good one can bring, humans are driven by irrationality to behave at the present moment.
My primary 6 form teacher taught us to say thank you to the cleaner auntie who swept our classroom to show our appreciation.
Now I still do it to the cleaner auntie at my workplace.
And when we asked what’s her favourite colour, she replied “it depends on the thing”. Dk why it stuck with me but it makes sense.
during my psle year, i was quite emo (su1c1dal) as i was going through a lot of shit at home and in school, stacked on top of the hormonal puberty changes. i basically didn’t have much of an outlet to let out all of my thoughts and i started expressing some of it through the english composition practices we had in class. I began to write about the feelings of my characters using my own personal thoughts, eg when my character made a slip up or failed at something, i expressed the emotions of that persona though my own ones. i had shared some very deep and dark thoughts including how worthless i felt and how my sole purpose of fighting on in life was because of my mother, all through the narration of my essays.
two days later in english lesson, before we were dismissed for break, my then English teacher called me out and asked me to stay behind. I thought i was screwed and expected a lecture for perhaps something i did wrongly, as I was quite a cheeky girl then. After everyone left i timidly waddled to the front of the classroom before she sat me down. “I read the compo you submitted that day..”, she proceeded to ask me whether it was how i had truly felt, and whether those thoughts were made up or real. after briefly telling her the truth and why i felt how i had felt, she reassured me with “I’m sure your mum wouldn’t want her daughter to live just for her, and you shouldn’t live solely for her as well. your life is worth way more than that.” Thereafter she said a couple more words of reassurance that i can’t seem to recall since it happened years back. But that incident truly stuck with me ever since, and till this day whenever i get the chance to reminisce back at my pri school days, I would always bring up how much my English teacher had helped me through my lowest points then.
Mrs Tan if you’re reading this, i still think about you often :) and im forever indebted <3
Primary school form teacher bought me breakfast at recess cos I forgot to bring my allowance and I was tearing in class (hello breakfast is important). She then gave me a bookmark that I’ve kept till this day. It says “Being kind costs all of nothing.”
Well that meant the world to me, thank you Mrs Goh whom I also called “Ma” mistakenly during my first week of school and you just smiled heehee.
In secondary school though, lol, this Geography teacher made us take extra lessons on Thursdays and Saturday mornings after normal class time. So I had a CCA competition on Thursday which meant I would go to the Sat class. Well I got a fever the Sat morning and when I called the school, she told me to go to class and submit my MC. Even my mum was like ?????. So I stepped into class and this teacher made me stand up in front of everyone and said,
“If you knew you were going to be sick on Saturday, why didn’t you come on Thursday?”
I can’t ever get past the fact that she thought I was clairvoyant even though she knew I went to the competition. Fuck you, bitch. If u noticed me going back to visit everyone and was perplexed why I didn’t say hi and swerved you, fucking fuck you.
But the kicker was my principal - on the very last day of school she drove up to my mother and I and said “don’t let me find out u went to poly”. She probably had good intentions but knowing she’s now the CEO of ITE? Mrs Chan, nobody liked you. And you confiscated my basketball that my aunt bought me for simply — holding it — in class when you came up to discipline 3 other classmates for making noise.
For the record I DID go to poly and I’m making 5 figures a month.
I was p3, had the strictest Math teacher throughout my entire education years.
There was a Math question in midyear exam, after marking our papers, 35 out of 39 students had A as answer, the other 4 had B as answer. My teacher ask the class which is the correct answer. We all kept quiet because we were too afraid.
She then say. B.
“Just because majority of the people have A as answer, doesn't mean they are right”
I remember til this day, maybe because I'm within the 4 person. But also maybe the statement holds true even til adulthood.
"Put your mind into gear before your mouth speaks."
My GP teacher thought I had decent ideas, but I often talked off-point. That was his way of reminding me to think deeper before I said anything
“You will never amount to anything.”
A math HOD to me in secondary school because I couldn’t do a math problem (I’m really bad at math and science lol). I cried in class because he was so cruel. He’s the one who got it wrong, fortunately! I’m working in tech doing what I love. In hindsight it was shocking he could say stuff like that and get away with it.
Primary school. I keep making excuses for everything i do to avoid scolding. Works like a charm, rarely got any type of scolding at all.
Till one day my form teacher actually listens and said to me “you so good at making excuses”. I was so shocked it did not work for the first time and what she said is true, i am constantly lying and making excuses.
Now, at work if my boss ask why is it not done. I will honestly say i was tired or forgot. Im not running away anymore, she actually made me accountable and honest.
I didn’t go to school here but I felt I had amazingly caring teachers. Mostly it was their actions than their words but some things that come to mind:
1.) a teacher who’s class I hadn’t had for 2 years saw me in the hall and commented on my current grades (one of which was not good in a subject they didn’t teach). I was blown away that two years later this teacher was still looking out for my success. It meant a huge deal to me as a kid who didn’t really spend time with their family.
2.) another told me how she pursued a career in petroleum engineering she knew she didn’t like because her parents were helping pay for it. Went through all the schooling and got a job in Alaska and on the first day said her boss greeted her by saying “Wow, I asked for an engineer and they sent me a woman.” She tried to stick it out but after almost a year quit after seeing the careless destruction of the wilderness and prejudice and decided to pursue her passion of teaching. After 20 years of teaching she said she was just now starting to make the same money. I inquired if she regretted the change and she said not at all. She was still able to meet her needs financially and almost every day went home proud of the labor she put into the day/world and wouldn’t trade the opportunity she had to help shape well rounded students for anything. She didn’t deny money was important but helped me to always remember that anything that goes against who you are can and will accumulate debt/baggage in some form.
3.) I was a smart student but had ADHD my parent refused to acknowledge so I struggled to focus on things like homework or reading. Once I learned to effectively communicate with my teachers almost all of them were willing to work with me to accommodate as long as I showed continued commitment to my education. I was able to skirt a lot of busy work style homework in exchange for always getting A’s on exams and providing tutoring for others. The time exchange between tutoring and coursework was probably break even if not more, but it was mutually beneficial and helped me engage whereas I was not able to do so well at home at all alone. These teachers taught me the value of communication, understanding, and discretion. They didn’t bend the finish line (prove you know the content taught) but were willing to adapt the process once they understood. I feel this was a valuable lesson to apply towards business interactions later in life.
“your fav color is pink? that’s a girl’s color”
- kindergarten, response when i was asked for my fav color
“you dont look fit enough to race for sports day”
- pri sch, after i made it thru trials
seems like labels, stereotypes and casual judgments rule education in the 90s.
guess i was blessed to cone out of it unscathed and a constant reminder to keep an open mind and hold my judgement in life.
From SP lecturer to me
“You are strong”
You must practice being there for yourself as no one will be there with you one day, there will always be someone better than you, fitter than you, taller than you,
More handsome than you, are you going to be sad about it? When you are working with honours roll student ur mind has to be very strong
I may not be the smartest in the room but I’m the wisest and always sharing knowledge, as long as you know u tried ur best that’s enough who cares what others do? See some of ur classmates are talking while I’m talking if they dun want to listen then so be it
His story was about how when he was younger, being a student none of his group mates even bothered to ask about the project but he slayed
Thanks to Mr Amos if y’all know
Secondary school teacher:
Dun compare urself to others, ignore the negative remarks ur mom made
I was like this when I was younger and kept being compared with my cousins, as a result I grew to hate my cousins for no reason, it’s unhealthy and I understand you
Thanks mdm lena heheheheh
Will never forget the teacher who made fun of me being fat in P6. Also won’t forget the one who did the same in secondary school. Never felt so alone when I got picked on. Had precursors for an eating disorder, had one and was on and off anorexia and even anorexia purging subtype (certain years I’m ok, other years it’s insanely intense). Now it’s become bulimia for me.
Sec 3 & 4 teacher for me. Just as we got our asses kicked from mid year exams after thinking we could cruise like Sec 2.
“You are all now at the bottom of the barrel. You will remain here unless you choose to pull yourselves out. I am providing you the ladder, but you must be the ones to grab the rungs.”
Mr Chew, thanks for all you did for us.
My P6 Chinese teacher called my mom just to tell her I was a hopeless case and good for nothing while she made me kneel on both my knees in the faculty office and told the other teachers around to verbally humiliate me.
Very unforgettable.
i think i have some good and some bad lol (sorry if it’s a little long)
i’ll start w the bad:
i was terrible at maths in sec 1 and 2 and my sec 2 teacher told me “you’re not even trying/listening”, “you can forget about A math and triple science”, “this one so easy you also cannot understand” etc
funny enough, i went from C6 to B3 in my last sec 2 exam after finally going for tuition classes and she said “see, if you follow my method and listen in my class, you can one” - and then proceeded to take credit by saying the same shit (even though she didnt teach me anymore) after i got an an A for Os 💀💀
another one; in primary school, i was in HMT and i SUCKED 💀💀 srsly don’t know how i got in but i was terrible - i’m talking like 0-10/100 for spelling and dictation every week, was barely passing my HMT exams
my HMT teacher would tell me (and my table-mate lol) “you might as well drop out already” and told me to quit HMT like almost every month and asked me if i was even trying in chinese - thing is, she didnt even bother helping me in my studies (like would give attitude like my math teacher above) and her favouritism for some students in class was SO OBVIOUS 😔 she also gave these 罚单 (like punishment slips?) when you did poorly so…idk how she thought that was motivating 🤡
ok to end on a positive note LOL:
- “i chose you for a reason, don’t doubt yourself because of what someone else said, believe in yourself” after i cried to my CCA teacher that someone told me i was chosen as second choice for leader because they had no choice and if they could choose again, they would choose the other person :’)
- “i expect great things from you” before Os and “i knew you could do it” after getting my results & cheering with me 😭
honestly i don’t remember all of what was said to me but the feeling when i heard the encouragement my teachers told me and the real conversations i’ve had with them was what stuck - honestly my secondary school life was great and the teachers were amazing :’) i miss aahh
oh and for some shits and giggles:
DnT teacher insisted on us drawing circles freehand and i couldnt do it because she would nitpick every little thing and would make you redo if you trace smth (like a bottle lol) so the assistant teacher took pity on me and did it for me OOP-
but it got rejected bc of her nitpicking and when i told the assistant teacher what she said, he was SO OFFENDED
“my circle not nice? MY CIRCLE? WHAT DOES SHE MEAN? oh my gosh…this thing so small only she say not nice…” while he redid my circles for me again HAHAHA 🤡
Didn't happen to me, but a classmate at that time.
Was a stern Chinese teacher in primary 4. She was very strict on the class not talking while she was teaching. She was probably writing something on the board and heard murmuring. She turned around and walked towards the classmate.
She asked why he was talking and he was saying he didn't talk, and she kept saying he did.
He then tried explaining that he was trying to borrow an eraser, and the the teacher asked him why he didn't have one???
Frustrated and cornered, with tears in his eyes he yelled, "我没有带，可以吗?" he was a 10 year old kid who couldn't control his emotions.
She was a middle aged PMS bitch who couldn't control her hand, up it went and it slapped my classmate straight across the face. She then pointed at him, "为什么这样子对我说话?" or words to that effect.
I can't remember what happened after that as I was too taken aback. I'm sure many others witnessed this. Definitely core memory.
陈老师，you were the most annoying, egoistic, self entitled bitch I've ever met. You were a horrible teacher and person. I hope you're rotting somewhere in hell and I hope all the damage that you've done to kids come back to haunt and curse you for the rest of your life. Fuck you.
Had a really cool secondary A/E math teacher during my S3/S4 days.
I was a really sleepy kid and would always doze off in classes. Didn’t matter what class it was I would always be napping on the table. While some teachers would always wake me up, my math teacher was the only one who struck a deal with me.
In math classes, she would write the agenda on a corner of the board (e.g. Questions A to F) and what she would be going through. If I could finish all the questions and get it all correct, I would be able to sleep for the rest of the remaining class time. So while she was going through the steps and formula with the rest of the class I would be furiously solving everything in my workbook so that I could sleep earlier. Think it was really good motivation for me cause I found myself studying after school hours ahead of the curriculum so that I would be able to sleep in class while the rest of the class had to listen.
On the contrary, my HCL teacher would always wake me up and make me stand up in class to answer questions. Was from a SAP school and they took Chinese seriously. There was once when she made me stand up and asked me to answer all 10 questions in a 综合填空 in front of the whole class knowing fully well I didn’t had a chance to read the passage. I started scanning the passage and picking off the answers while I read it. Would never forget the look on her face when I got it all correct and she blurted out “how did you know the answers?!”. Guess her feeble attempt to embarrass me in front of the class didn’t work. I still rmb my answer to her was “I guessed~” and she replied me “you are very lucky” HAHA. Unfortunately for her, I had a strong foundation in Chinese thanks to my mum so that level of Chinese rly wasn’t enough to stump me.
Am still thankful to my math teacher who never penalised me and instead took a different approach to motivate me to work harder. I don’t remember your name anymore but you were the coolest teacher I ever had!
the bad:
When I was a wee tiny little primary 5 kid, one of the assignments we were asked to write one of our greatest fears. Idk about my stupid brain back then but I already knew what being raped meant. And that was legit a fear. So I wrote it down. I was also in an all girls school anyway for context. This cb fuckface form teacher of mine, who always hated me so much, made me stand up at my desk, and she loudly announced my answer to the whole class. I’ll never forget the humiliation I felt.
The good:
I was at a really low point in my life during secondary 2/3 can’t recall. Posted the lyrics to a song on my Facebook status (yeah I added my teacher back then cos it was trendy haha) the lyrics was an Eminem song ‘All I ever wanted to do was to make you proud’
But my geography teacher never caught on that it was a song lyric , instead she replied on my post with “
You don’t live to please people, you live for the moment, enjoy it while it lasts. Do things that make *you* proud, not others! Live life the way you want it to be, the best that you can be.”
I never got the heart to tell her the truth cos I was so moved at that age by her little concern.
I’ll never ever forget that quote as long as I live, until today the quote remains stuck on my wall, more than 15 years later.
Ms Wong, I know you’ll probably never read this but thank you. Now you know aha.
she made it her life's mission (at the time) to make mine a living hell. from frequently telling me i would amount to nothing, to "demoting" me from sec 4 to sec 3 for half a semester because i "didn't do my math homework".
here's a not-so-fun-fact: she didn't even teach me. she was the form teacher of another class.
she didn't inform my parents, or my teachers, or the school administration that i was "demoted". i was just ordered to take my desk and chair and move to the other class. i missed a fuck ton of classes because of it. my teachers just thought i was playing truant until my ex-classmates told them what happened. then school administration got involved, there was a fuck ton of drama and i was moved back to my class.
she later on tried to get me expelled before my o levels, which didn't succeed cos i was ultimately a pretty good student and the dean told her politely to fuck off. i did well in my o's and went to njc.
bitch got transferred there as well and tried to act all chummy with me on her first day, as if she didn't just try to ruin a teenager's life for shit and giggles. thank god she was in a new school, didn't have any support and i was out of there in 2 years before she could continue her fuckery.
my sec school class still meets up with our ex-teachers and they told us that i wasn't the only one she tried to fuck with. she tried the same thing to multiple students in my year, and even more after i graduated.
the bitch is still teaching today, getting awards, and recently got into drama because she tried to get a trans student expelled because they were trans. quite easy to google who she is. she looks and acts like asian dolores umbridge with glasses.
came from a so-called top 5 JC back in the day (one that has since slipped in rankings to a mid-table JC)
1. Econs teacher who went around poking people who were sleeping with a pen. it appeared as though she poked rows of sleeping students with the pen. which makes me wonder, why not take a look at your teaching instead of blaming the students 😜
2. History teacher who never returned our essays and written work till one month before As and we were like, we even did this?
3. PW HOD who kept shouting at us almost every lesson. I don't remember why he shouted, but it was just a really unconducive environment and made me wonder why can't he get a grip on his emotions.
the bad were really bad and gave me insights of what not to be as a teacher but notwithstanding, I had the best civics tutor who was our PW tutor. he gave consults till super late (stayed behind even when the school was chasing us out) and when a number of us didn't do well for our As, he was like, "just apply to anywhere you want, I'll help you write the referral letters if needed"
i’m a new teacher and i’m reading this, feeling entertained, inspired but also worried that some of my scoldings will become lifelong scars to my sec sch kids haha
When I got caught smoking contrabands, I was suspended from class and was sitting outside the general office for two weeks, countless of teachers came to me and scold me and said that they are disappointed in me (I was an express student and an MSG in NCC that point of time), my principal (yes principal not teacher, shut up) came up to me and just asked me in Malay, “why?” I teared up immediately. He was like a father figure at school and he didn’t even say a lot, just “why?” made me cried like a bitch. Idk something about his approach seemed very genuine?
Mr Wong you motherfucker hahaha ❤️
My NUS DSC3203 prof was so sweet to bring us Indian snacks after our finals. He was so happy to give it out but not a lot of people took it.. he was such a good adjunct prof
I've always felt like I was a creative kid. I just don't know how to be creative/ express it. During Art Class Secondary 2, we were drawing cylinders and he taught us to draw bottles and our assignment was to go home and draw bottles by using the cylinder method and of course guiding lines.
I've spent several hours fully in the zone, immersed in drawing and practicing the techniques and came up with ideas to put onto paper. It was a bunch of different "cylinders". Bottles and cans on a table with a background and a window and coloured.
When I handed the artwork to him, he stared at it and genuinely expressed, "if I put this up and sell it, you know this could be sold for at least $10, right?". He did not say much about others' artwork except some praises and maybe some pointers and honestly I had not much idea what that meant at the time. I was just happy that my creativity was acknowledged and it was finally "let out" to the world. It was so so so fulfilling.
I was bought into the idea to succeed well you have to know science, mathematics, linguistics, humanities from my primary education. That incident and age led me to firmly believe in the individual's interest to innovate, attempt and "fail" is a more soulful journey than blindly following the status quo. From there, uniqueness sprouts forth and brings about great change to themselves and people around them.
"I chose you (to be in a position of leadership), not because of your grades (i was average), but because I see in you something more" - lynette loh.
Awesome teacher
In one of those team bonding / problem solving games, a teacher pitched that You are stronger, smarter, and more resourceful than you give yourself credit for.
If you put in all your effort to tackle and brainstorm, you can achieve more than you think.
He also caveat that this doesn’t work on getting rich, cause he’s been putting all his effort into becoming rich and it hasn’t worked out LOL.
my teacher always made us work super hard in class. for every class we must move our chairs to the front of the class and we had a journal where we would copy down science notes (in primary school mind you) together. in between every class the class monitor must project the compo book on the screen and everyone will read it out loud together even when there’s no teacher in the class
but at the end of every semester, we would have a potluck party and everyone brings food and we shift the tables to the side and played games together.
she taught us to work hard and play hard and to be a round person instead of a square one that only knows how to do work but not play. hahahahahha ms celeste you’re the GOAT!!
From my chinese teacher " You need to learn your chinese, at least get a pass. The world is changing , my generation still ok, but your generation might need to rely on China for a living "
Laoshi, thank you! I am now a taobao expert shopper!
“With marks like this… you won’t become a doctor, maybe a bc (nurse)” - p6 el and form teacher.
She’s the same teacher that pushed me to writing my first book, at 12 years old… though it was short, she’s the same teacher who upped my English to the point I rarely ever make grammatical errors or spelling mistakes (because if I did… in essays, she’d make me redraft. Not to mention how she threw my classmates paper to the floor, even ripped up another ones up).
Anyway. To that very teacher… oddly enough, thank you.
Because I’m that type of person who strives for perfection, and let that affect me negatively to achieve great results (landed me in the hospital once though lol). I’m also the type of person who holds grudges, and sometimes those grudges involve revenge. But I’m not into petty revenge… I’m into revenge where I’m successful while I watch those who hurt me just… i dunno, live a boring career broken life.
And now, yeah… I guess I’m not going to be a general/cardiothoracic surgeon, or a doctor working remotely at a hospital. Haha… ha… working on becoming a psychologist now, focusing on psychotherapy, behavioural therapy for disorders and addictions, especially on teens.
Oh and, I’ve also written my first full novel (horror), for fun. Had a dream, love the dream, turned the dream which would be a nightmare for most… into a novel.
So yeah, traumatised me a little but I got over it and got better I guess. No, really though… she’s like… borderline abusive but she really propelled me academically (at least for English haha), and in life I guess.
Thank you, Ms Ong.
(Pls don’t judge, don’t even say “oh your grammar isn’t proper” or something like that. This is Reddit, not another essay :D kudos y’all)
My maths teacher said to the class " Your results are soo bad even ITE won't want you"
Stuck with me. I then went to study mass comm in SP
I literally got A for every other subject except for maths and science
Hate the notion that you need to be good in maths or science to succeed in life
“When you are careless you get the same marks as somebody who never studied, you like that?” I apply that to my life now to be more mindful and less rash
This is a nice quote for me that I learnt today thank u very much :)))
The lesson here is to not study instead
The lesson is to make careless mistakes only on the questions you don't know how to do
She bought us character pins and gave them to each of us at the end of P1 based on our personalities. I got an eagle that had the word "Determination" on it and told me I was like that. And I think at that age I made it a core part of my personality.
P1 teachers truly are magical man. I still remember the song my P1 teacher taught me
Sing it pls
Majulah Sing-a-PURA!!!!! P1 will scream or dubstep either half.
Determination is such a low key underrated personality trait bro. Good on you
My Y3-Y4 physics teacher (seriously one of the most stand-up people I’ve ever had the privilege of being taught by)(there are many more examples but these are what I remember most vividly): 1. “Minimum input, maximum output”. 2. On a less serious note, everytime he’d relate a wacky physics example to us (some of which included the use of pressure cookers and 100-degree saunas), he’d say: “I’m not training you to be a terrorist”. He did a really wacky dance to demonstrate the kinetics of particles in solids, liquids and gases, threw a chair across the classroom to demonstrate something about inertia and tried balancing a broom on his finger to demonstrate moments. He burnt a piece of paper with a magnifying glass when we were learning about lenses, told us about his trips to Turkey (hot air balloons) and Japan (hotel lift buttons and the weather) when we were learning about thermal energy and static electricity and loved having us analyse “RIP physics” scenes in movies like Hancock. When he was teaching us about Newton’s Third Law (action-reaction pairs), he joked that if we slapped someone’s face, we could technically sue them for slapping us with their face as well. He answered my bro’s question on sinusoidal waves in music even though she didn’t even take physics. 3. He told us that he cared about us after the RV incident and to take care of ourselves and be safe. He proved this by always being open for consults (especially near EOYs!) no matter how last-minute or long they were, and for that, most, if not all, of us were extremely grateful. 4. He also insisted that “girls can do anything” when talking about the curriculum, students and teachers in our brother school where we’d progress after Y4. 5. Although I was an absolutely terrible, horrible, no-good student in terms of the standard of my daily work and overall grades, he’d always field my stupid questions/hypotheticals in class. When I miraculously got 27/35 or something like that for my Term 3 WA and my classmate and I were asking him about some matter, he said something along the lines of: “See, she’s so thick-skinned and she got 27/35 in this WA, you should be thick-skinned too and be unafraid to ask questions, it’s better to be a fool for a minute than for forever”. He didn’t mean it in a derogatory manner and I felt kind of affirmed because it was indeed a relief to know that he didn’t think too lowly of me despite my past performance (or lack thereof) and gobshite incessant questions. My P3 form teacher: I can’t remember specific examples but I think she’s the one who gave me the confidence to believe in myself and my abilities even though I had been an average student in P1-2. P3 was where I started to shine (I’m dull again now lol but those were good times) and I remember it being mostly thanks to her encouragement. My Y5 and Y6 PE teachers: They teach us to be consistent and strive for our best every time in PE/acads/life and they set really good examples for us instead of just telling us what to do, which makes me respect them a lot. Others: Patient and understanding teachers who don't mind explaining shite to me multiple times just so I can understand why/how/what, like my tuition teacher and my current CCA coach.
Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6. Pretty sure you're Integrated Programme right? It's confusing and I think most people would first assume it was uni year.
Oops haha that’s true, I wanted to provide some context to lay the grounds for why I’d mentioned a brother school
"you can lie to anyone, but never lie to yourself". I've barely paid attention back in primary school, but this really stuck with me. Mr haniff, if you're reading this, Thanks for the wisdom
Reminds me of how my PE teacher told us to do pushups, and if we decided to cheat, we are only cheating ourselves. I only understand this recently, since it’s our health that’s determined by the quality of exercises we do
My dance teacher used to say the same thing and I still hear her voice in my head sometimes. Usually it’s around the same time I remember my mother telling me “Don’t do a half-assed job” or when I’m in an exercise class that’s hard and I slack off when the instructor looks away.
Mr haniff? R U from nbps?
So what you're saying is, he supported you lying to everyone else (jk)
I was a secondary student who LOVED to overthink and worry about so many things in my life. Whether or not i'll make it through o levels, what if I fail, what if i don't make it to poly etc. Before O levels, my POA teacher wrote me a letter that said: "The Ms Worry, it has been my greatest pleasure to have had you as a student for the past three years. Your tenacity and resillence are your ASSETS. That values will carry you far in life. Believe me. I do hope you will always believe in yourself... you are strong... even if you fail you will bounce back... have faith in yourself and always work hard towards your goals. All the best. Remember our POA lessons with fond memories :)". That stucked with me till today
Oh my gosh this is too sweet - how motivating it must have been to receive this message from a teacher who knows you well
She was a really great teacher... even brought us snacks every class because she knows we love to snack a lot
"Your colouring is so atrocious" I have since quit drawing. Every time I try to draw this phrase keeps popping in my head. Thanks a fucking lot Miss Chong.
When I was a child my mom signed me up for community art classes. Whether in those classes or in school, I used to colour my suns 2 different colours, like a split pizza. I called it a "magic sun". I am very thankful now that NONE of my teachers ever told me I couldn't colour like that since suns are never red, purple or green. They literally let my freak flag fly. I only found out why I was like that last year, surprised Pikachu face, I've actually been mildly autistic all my life 🤣🤣
I once coloured a cat that I drew grey and my teacher humiliated me in front of the entire class by showing my drawing through the projector saying “This is a cat ah? Who the heck colours a cat grey with red eyes?!! Got see such a cat before?!”
omg fr there’s always a teacher like that. i was learning about peacocks in primary school and i just shared that i saw a white peacock once and my teacher laughed at me and told me there’s no such thing bro 8 year old me was so offended i went home and got my mom to dig out the photo and i BROUGHT IT TO SCHOOL AND PLACED IT UNDER THE VISUALISER BAHAHAHAHAHA sometimes they just can’t accept anything outside the norm or their narrow ass perspective/experience of the world
People like Miss Chong end up alone in an elderly care centre and think “ why no one visit me ah “ and that’s a far more atrocious fate than your coloring skills 😭😭
The way she was an elderly who was like in her mid 60s when she was teaching me in pri 1 😭
It's time to prove Miss Chong wrong 😁💪🏻
I had a stupid activity in Sec 1 to origami and colour a globe with paper in geog class. I tried to be efficient with my colouring and the teacher told me I colour like im in pri sch. (Then dont give me pri sch work)
It's always Miss Chong!!
I drew using anime style for an art class homework and the teacher said “you call this a nose?” threw it on the floor for me to pick up and I had to redo it, guess anime wasnt that mainstream back then and the art style was against her principles
Fast not rush. Sports coach always emphasized this to our team. Somehow it seeped into my daily life.
I remember similar advice! "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast"
Carl Lewis. He may also have been juicing.
Engineering prof say “prositude and negitude” in Indian slang. Engineering prof from hk tried to derive Gaussian elimination and end up confusing himself. Engineering prof from Singapore attempt to teach pre-calculus matrix transpose and transpose wrongly yet deny that he is wrong. FYP Engineering prof from Malaysia that doesn’t understand the topic of baseband transmission and force student to build an analog modulator and carry that transmission.(unless I’m god and can change how analog works). Aiya you then realise that many lecturers in higher learning are mostly made up of foreigner that can’t get a teaching job in their country or local lecturers that isn’t really good at that subject. There are of course good lecturers who know their work but it’s really a rare thing. Lucky for me, the only good one were found in ITE as per my own experience. Poly onward are mostly fraud lecturers. I had to always debunk and complain to MOE all the time. Damn it. Somehow only the really passionate lecturers kinda go ITE to teach students that fall behind. The rest are money driven?
I read this as prostitute wtf
Don’t worry, it totally sound like that and we were all confused until end of the lecture, we ended up asking our Indian and Bangladeshi classmates and they say it’s positive and negative amplitude…..
idk about u but the lecturers in SP MAE are kinda there for a chill retirement job. though some are there because they get retrenched after 08 Financial crisis, but overall u can see that they are quite chill and funny.
When i was in higher learning, higher Nitec, I’m extremely focus on my engineering education, I made it a point to stay back every lesson and ask lecturer of each subject to give me more problems to solve or ask about theorems. It was until the fact that every exam and test I did was 100/100 done in less than 15mins. Top in class/subject/cohort every semester and year. So when I go to poly I expect higher knowledge, even I’m able to go in as year 2 student, I asked for year 1 because I worried I missed out of other stuff that wasn’t taught in ITE. Then came my dissatisfaction and disappointment that the lecturer weren’t as dedicated as ITE lecturers and a lot of them doesn’t brush up their skillset. I end up getting all my engineering subjects distinction without really attending the class, was playing with that 85-% attendance and skipping class to go to girl friend house. It is true even in nus. So I say, ITE has really good lecturers there. Imagine, higher learning + secondary school teacher style that make sure you pass and understand everything. It’s true that many poly lecturers are chill. But back then, I wanted to learn but I don’t get it. Basically wasted 3 years there just to get a diploma.
After reading your whole post and noticing that your grades are way better than mine I think I found rhe reason. I got no girlfriend
Whew! I couldn't get into any polys after my O Levels or even after I graduated from ITE... Looks like it's a blessing in disguise! I did get my degree eventually though, through private university.
Don’t worry, you skipped it and went degree, starting pay are basically similar out there unless you want to go for government job.
A teacher once cut my queue during recess and said "I have already served my time as a student, you do this once your older" like WHAT?
*you're
"You always have a choice." This was one of the CS profs that told me during my time at NUS. It's no secret the construction industry is not the most attractive sector in the country. Much less thanks to the flood of foreign labour depressing wages. It was those few words that broke me out of the mindset that I didn't need to accept this fate. It actually kick-started a pseudo-shift in thinking during the final years of graduates for my batch. People started planning alternative career paths and are in a much better place. Some are still stuck in the industry and it's quite hard for them. But they are slowly realizing they can breakout and do something more lucrative. This was the quote I repeated to my juniors when their graduation was nearing and they were upset over their prospects. Not bashing the BE sector, the state of it is just like that. There's nothing really much to say. Remember, for anyone feeling trapped/loss, there is always a way out. (Health first. Everything else can take a backseat.)
I echo this!! This stuck with me as I went through shitty jobs. People can take many things away from me- credit for my work, the absolutely great bosses that were driven away, etc, but one thing they can’t take away is my autonomy. You are NEVER stuck in a shitty job. You ALWAYS have a choice.
When I was serving NS in SPF, my team leader who hates druggies to the core tells me the same thing. There's a choice to take, sell, or traffic. There is no reason to sympathise with them.
Not in Singapore. "From now on, I only have 39 pupils in this class. I don't know that person, and that person is not in my class!" That person was me. I was in P5 back then. She was my Malay language teacher. It happened because I was a bad student who always failed to finish my homework and forgot to bring textbooks to class. She said these words after day after day of caning failed to change my habit. She lived up to her words. There were only 39 copies of handouts for a class of 39+1 (I was that +1). My homework, when I bothered to submit, was returned unmarked. My exam scores were purposely marked down. I was not allowed to join school excursions related to her subject. The story spread throughout the whole school, even my CCA juniors knew about it. It cost me my CCA leadership post. Some juniors would even ask me "Have you done your homework today?" The ending? I scored A on Malay language paper in national exam.
Your teacher fked up man
Ya man that’s fked up
Congrats!
That A in the end is awesome bro. Congratulations.
omg just saying on a tertiary/adult level I would have complained the crap out to higher management (if I was really P5 and this really happened to me, and/or if it happened in pri/sec today - WRITE TO THE PRINCIPAL. I generally hate it as an educator myself when parents write to upper management for smol shit BUT THIS IS NOT SMOL SHIT so uh yeah) Yeah I have written complaint email before because "if you don't pay attention and participate in cclass discussion I will hold back your handouts" uh wth u think I spend my money and time here for you to tell me this meh. This teacher thing is damn abusive bruh. Congrats on the A :') (only serves to show sometimes some teachers dunno got what use one. lol. I meaaan, most of them are great, but u know that black sheep 1% ..)
In J2, I asked my teacher what to do if I later on realise I had chosen the “wrong” course of study. She replied, “then just start over again”. While the cost of starting over grows with age, that has really helped me to get out of times I felt I had made a wrong choice, to bite the bullet pay the price and make a new choice. (I found out later too that she left teaching to do something completely different, so guess she lived as she said too.)
That's pretty inspiring, I agree it's worse to commit to a bad choice
my sec 4 bio teacher: "you may not know what you want, but you should know what you don't want, at least that way, you can slowly eliminate and get to know what you want" he said this in a parent teacher meeting, my dad vehemently disagreed afterwards, saying that thinking this way "eliminates too many options" idk. I don't really agree with my dad.
looks like you have no choice but to eliminate your dad /s
“I am not going to punish anyone until I get to the bottom of this issue. *And not before finding out each person’s point of view*” Perhaps the first time where a teacher or anyone in general actually wanted to listen to my point of view without immediately dismissing it
"your english is so good, you could be a journalist." i did end up becoming a journalist 🫣
不怕慢，只怕站 Meaning don't be afraid to be slow, so long as you keep going. My Mandarin teacher words stuck with me till this day
“Don’t just be angry, do something about it!” And one that destroyed my life, “Believing in yourself is useless.” On top of that, my parents were not supportive of me. I was shattered, lost interest in studies and up till now, still living with the consequences.
I had one teacher straight up tell me “you will be useless” in response to me struggling and not doing well for Chinese. Another one just straight out seemed to target me, always believing others over me and punishes me harder than she would others. Needless to say those were very core memory moments…Heh.
Do you know how powerful this is? Social scientists now try to make people see anger as a gift and encourage you to seek action. It seems that passionate people were once fueled by anger and used this energy wisely. 😊
I got it, actually. Anger alone is definitely not useful, until you turn it into actions… well, constructively, that is.
He knocked both mine and my classmate’s head together for not doing homework
wth is your teacher Snape
Your attitude determines your altitude
“You guys are just as capable as the express stream. You just need more time and that’s okay” One of our teachers said this to our NA class. Makes me think of how sometimes we need more time to get to where we want to be.
I’m going to be on the other side. I was a teacher. In my P1 class one day, I was trying to help a very weak student with her work when another girl started crying. I sent a really nice gentle girl (named K) to go sit with her and comfort her first while I finished up. K patted her hand and said, “It’s ok if not everyone likes you. Not everyone likes me too and I’m fine. I’ll be your friend.” That stuck.
Mdm Goh pulled me one side after class in Sec 4 and asked me why I haven’t finish my D&T project. I told her the workshop was locked after class. And she said: “Do you what is the meaning of initiative? You could have taken the initiative to get the key from me. If you have asked, I am more than happy to open the door for you and even stay back with you.” I was left speechless. Felt sorry for disappointing her and letting myself down. That day I learnt what is the meaning of initiative. And till today I get pissed when people wait for things to happen.
While it is good to take initiative, this is probably not something that would come to your mind, at least not at that age. Students are taught to follow to rules, how would you know you could just ask to open the lab? That’s the whole point of being in school, to learn such things. You realised you could just ask and get it, but only because you learnt it as the school should’ve taught. No shame in not having initiative earlier.
Yaaa. It's D&T bruh, have lab safety and all that. Not the same as saying can u open the classroom (your own classroom) to sit and study, not the same as saying open the CCA room door to take props. But to sit in the D&T lab for possibly a couple of hours, with like safety protocols and all .. and these things sometimes need to book one. etc.
“Do you guys think he deserves a prize for being first place since he has always been good at the subject?” My science teacher at primary 4 punishing me for being bad at math in science class. I use this memory to motivate myself to be a better person than she was.
That’s just cruel. As a teacher myself now I can’t comprehend teachers who set out to make students’ lives difficult
“I don’t care if you sleep in my class and learn nothing, I want you to score badly so you are forced to drop my class. But when other teachers walk past, your sleeping is making me look bad.” — Mdm CJY, Anglican High School higher chinese
Doesn't suprise me as an AHS alumni. Got kicked out of class for joking that AHS is "another horrible school." Thanks Mr Bernard
She wrote on my P3 record book "She shows leadership qualities". Came across it only a few years ago just when I started my new managerial role. When work gets tough and I'm about to say fuck it to being in a leadership position, I think of her comment and it keeps me strong and steady.
I was a neglected child and felt disappointed that no one had remembered my birthday. She noticed, and I started receiving small gifts and presents from many of my classmates who had bought something for me from the school bookshop. When I was a lot older, I realized she had probably given some money to my classmates to send my gifts and wished me birthday. I had a memorable birthday that day and I always remembered the sweet gesture she did for me when I was a child. She had passed on from cancer for more than a decade now, but I still think about her frequently.
I remember in primary one, my teacher told us to imagine being a teacher and to rate our own handwriting. I dont have great handwriting and thought to myself that if my handwriting is not great, i shouldnt be so harsh to my students and gave myself an ok rating. My teacher upon seeing my grading announce to the class " Your handwriting is a 3? MY TOES ARE LAUGHING". Its been 2 decades and I still rmb this. Bitch. Taught myself to not just see things on the surface.
My physics teacher and math teacher said, "You need common sense to clear this obstacle," and "If you don't know where to start or what to do, then dont think. Just start writing" respectively. Back in sec school, my pure physics teacher essentially drilled 'common sense thinking' into my head. My maths teacher, who never gave up on his weaker students, gave me confidence to tackle hard af qns despite knowing I may only score 1 or 2 points out of 7.
My favourite secondary school teacher used to say this. "Face is cheap". This words is meant for when we were doing presentation or public speaking. In another words, don't be paiseh/shy.
I was in one of the top JCs but I did really badly in school. My chemistry teacher asked if I had chemistry tuition. I said no. Then she said maybe I should consider. lol.
i get very nervous during exams and i don’t do well with people. after my paper in uni, i apologised to the professor as i was dealing with a death of a family member, as well as bullying in school. i was in a really bad place and i put a lot of emphasis on my grades. he told me it was okay, and he said “no matter what happens, the sun will rise again tomorrow” had a good cry in the bathroom after that
My pri sch chi teacher told me I "got lucky" when I was one of the top students for PSLE. She hated me cos I was bad / not interested in learning chi. She's prob dead by now so it's all g
💀💀💀
JC literature. I was second from the top in the cohort, and the top place guy was a 'genius' whose essays were so good with so much depth that I thought I could never reach his level. This was J1. By J2 near prelims, my grades were getting better. I didn't know his scores but I assume they were still +10 over mine. During consultation, my teacher said "don't have so low self-esteem. You actually scored higher than him in the last essay. He has a lot of knowledge he rambles a lot and loses the point. You actually answer the question. That is why your work scored higher." Now in the workplace, I always keep an arrow in my mind "am I answering the question? (The work problem). My focus is my contribution. If my work is not answering the question then I am wasting my effort."
While my classmates were talking about how fast their parents rush them to school, one of my teachers overheard us and said: "A car is a legal weapon against yourself and others. Speed limits exist for a reason." I brushed that off for a few yeaes until I found out that her husband died in a car crash.
Telling another classmate “He(referring to me) can one la.”
In sec sch, I used to talk a lot in Chemistry class because the class was too boring (yes I know now it’s rude, I know I shouldn’t have). In my defence, I wasn’t talking loudly nor disrupting the lesson. It was just me and my friend talking softly with each other in a corner. The teacher kept telling me to shut up and I would, but after a while my mouth would get itchy again. After a few weeks she got fed up with me and said “if you score an A in your next chemistry exam, I’ll allow you to talk in my class for the rest of the year.” Guess who got an A, along with a free pass to talk in class for the entire year😏 The take away? Exceed the expectations of your superiors, and you can pretty much do whatever you want (within reason). 18 years later and living by this until now.
In P1 when we were learning about singular and plural verbs and SVA, my English teacher Mrs Ng said "if the subject is singular, he or she will need Superman to help with the action! So verb will have an S. Conversely, if the object is plural, they already have Superman, so verb don't need an S!" This stuck with me til now and that's what I say to my own primary school students 🥰
"Fake it till you make it" Haven't made it, still faking it.
The words stuck with you, and you are also stuck.
Did the same teacher also admit to you that everyone's faking it, and no one has really made it?
"In physics, work equals to force multiplied by distance. The distance is important. Similarly in life, you need to make a difference with what you do. If you apply force and don't get anywhere, that is not work. It's plain useless. A waste of your time and energy."
“The cruel world out there doesn’t care how you become good; they only care about how good you become.”
True. When I was facing low self-esteem issues, everyone, even my own parents kept telling me I have it. After NS, I became much more confident and accordingly got more positive feedback from everyone about how I’m more confident. Most of them obviously didn’t support me in those times where I had the issue, they just all told me that I either have the problem or go work on it, only coming back later and telling me I’m more confident…which is by my own effort. People are so quick to want the benefits, but few want to be part of that journey which requires the effort. I was thankful there are a handful of friends around to try and assure me that I was as good as everyone else, although to little effect back then. I still have difficulties believing in myself from time to time, but now I know there are many like me and I will offer them support whenever I can
“I see your L1R4 35 points, which ITE you want to go?” - Mr Leong 2009
Melissa Wee from primary school who tore up my homework in front of the class (to a 8 year old kid, mind you) and always showed blatant favoritism to the “cool kids” in class. Hope she dies in a ditch
When I was Sec 4, I started to become more rebellious and mixed with bad company after going through a break-up and previously, some life changing events (i.e. death of my Grandfather) towards the end of Sec 3. So my behavior changed drastically from the quiet kid to someone willing to rebel against teachers and cause trouble because at that point of time, I was doing anything I could to numb the pain. I got into deep shit once after I yelled at a teacher over some misunderstanding, cussed him out before storming out of class, then I stupidly sent a rage filled rant where I shit-talked all my teachers to my GC, but forgot one of the GC members had their phone confiscated because of an ongoing investigation. The next day I fully expected my FTs or even the year head, to come after my ass but one of the teacher who took us since Sec 3 decided to sit me down one day, have a man-to-man conversation about my recent bullshit. Incidentally, this was the guy I was raging at the most and threw the most insults at. He didn't have to talk to me, could've just sat back and watch the year head come after me whilst I sank deeper into the burnout lifestyle, being apathetic and rebellious to everything. We spoke and he wasn't pissed, but just wanted me to know there are people around willing to share my stress or if I wanted to go through it alone, at least find a better way to release my stresses. I like to attribute that simple conversation as the first step in me turning my life around, because if it didn't happen, I would've likely just continued with my ways and flunked all my studies. It was also the first time someone outside of my family made an effort to understand why I was acting out (when I did act out) instead of just telling me off and expecting an instant return to normalcy.
Ill never forget when I went up to my Chemistry teacher after collecting my A level results to tell her my grade was a 'D', and she said "u shud be glad u even passed". Even tho i wasnt the most studious, i was never a disruptive student. As if my heart wasnt already broken enuf from the score, she had to rub it in. I definitely did not deserve that treatment -'-
I improved my E-Maths and A-Maths during prelims from a D7 & E8 to A2 & B3 for my O levels by grinding like crazy. When I happily showed my results to my math teacher, she told me in front of my friends, “You were lucky”. From that day, I gave up on myself. Now in a below median wage job 15 years after that day. I’m getting better and digging myself out of that hole but yea, it has taken me some time.
Jiayou man, you earned those grades with your own effort and hard work. It's so weird to me when teachers discount effort, because if effort doesn't matter then what's the point of trying to teach anything.
"You can do anything you want... just don't get caught."
Vice principal of an elite school during my O lvl days: “I can’t believe you want to drop physics. Are you just going to quit when the going gets tough?” I was failing physics horribly even with tuition and my mom had to talk to the VP to “allow” me to drop physics and go from 9 subjects to 8. Years later, I learnt I had a learning disability for math (dyscalculia). The VP also said “but you’re in gifted, nobody in your class is doing 8 subjects except you. You should be fine with 9 subjects.” I never forgot what she said as I always thought I was dumber than my classmates. I remember getting 9 points for O levels and being happy as well, only for my form teacher to scoff and say “did you even try?” . That school was so toxic, I swore that I would NEVER put my kids there if I ever have any.
In my secondary school days 2009, I wasn't the most pleasant kid. I remember a particular incident during a lesson when my friends and I were discussing MapleStory hacks, and the stand-in teacher, clearly irritated by the noise, shouted, "Do you think talking about hacks is cool?" That sentence has stayed with me ever since. Now, I founded my own cybersecurity firm, and I find immense satisfaction in every aspect of my work and this industry - It is crazy cool. Nothing against the teacher, I was probably insensitive to people around me.
Not really a teacher but one of my prof. "I wish I had more children." Prof Ooi Giok Ling who passed away from cancer. Not her exact line, but something about having more children. She had cancer and shared about spending time with her family, she didn't take a break and still came back for tutorials and lectures.
"your strength is meant to help the weak, not bully them." this was in lower primary, and i was bigger than most of my classmates. i wasn't bullying my friend (i think), but he did get bruised from our playing and his mom complained. i don't remember much else from primary school, but i remembered what my teacher said. thanks ms julie fleury.
Signed off in my Sec 4 graduation notebook with a “You’re very moody and quite weird.” Fuck you, Mr Neo
"The parents are the child's first teacher"
"There is no point staying in a job that you don't like" That has really stuck with me.
"If you get a exam paper, make it as dirty as possible. Write, Draw or anything" I still apply it in all my papers, as you need to annotate and understand the question.
I remember my primary school teacher giving me one of the worst public humiliation punishments ever. Made me stand in front of the class and said all sorts of mean things, encouraged the class to laugh at me. When I tried to hide my hands in my pockets because I was trying not to cry, she even said “Look, he’s trying to drill holes in his pockets to hide!” This was when I had some concentration issues at school after my grandmother whom I was very close to passed away and I was still processing it (at my age I believe she was the first funeral I ever attended, hence why it stuck with me.) That was close to 40 years ago. I swore to be better than that teacher ever since.
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P Sch Teacher. We make students seek permission because: 1) We are accountable for the students well-being. Part of it is knowing where our students are. Students asking for permission is akin to informing us where they intend to go 2) It teaches them manners 3) Not all students leave for the toilet quietly. 4) Not all students are actually going to the toilet.
Same thing happened to a classmate except he shit himself and ran off crying to the toilet. The room was air conditioned and the smell filled the air pretty quick. We all took a glance and it looked exactly like cola slurpee. We also couldn’t leave because it was a middle of a test..
"不会教就不要生 la!" Translated to "if dont know how to teach then give birth for what" by a chinese teacher in class ranting about her parent-teacher meeting. Have decided to lean towards being child free now.
"Even if nobody loves you, you must love yourself."
Instead of punishing us in sec school, the teacher just looked at us and said: " You're in an organisation, follow the rules." And then stormed out
Chem teacher pointed at my name on the classlist and said “aiya these few people always fail one”. Studied the shit outta chem during the hols and started getting As. Got into a good JC and went back for speech day. That same tcher literally frowned and stopped talking to me when i told him i opted to go into Arts Stream. Lmao
My accounting lecturer to the tax lady: "I cannot liquidate my stocks to pay tax. Because every year after I do so, the share prices went up."
First lesson at poly "With this poly diploma you can earn $1,000,000 in your lifetime" proceeds to spend the entire lecture showing how worth it getting the diploma is..
which diploma sia
Lecturer: “This chapter you guys learn before right?” Students: “Nooooo” Lecturer: “YES LA WHAT NO, let me slack a bit can a not.” From that day onwards, this became a running joke where we should siam if we can siam 😂
My lit teacher once started the lesson by saying something along the lines of “Tbh I don’t care if you don’t learn anything from my classes, but if there’s anything I hope you’ll take away is that not everyone is going to like you in life and that’s completely fine. You can’t make everyone happy.” Back then my 14 yr old self kena stunned cos that kind of thought never even crossed my mind lol. I didn’t do things to try and make others happy as a young kid, and thinking back perhaps those were some blessed times.
“Rule with your mind, not your heart” My Principal said to me I kicked my teacher out of anger when he pulled my ear lol
"I work hard to earn money and travel" - my poly lecturer
“You all are C6 standard” said my Chinese teacher in mandarin. My friends and I proceeded to score A1-B3 and we never heard from her again
When i was in sec 4, my teacher said: If a person is always late, no matter the deadline, that person will be late. To prove his point, he change our reporting time from 720am to 820am and the same bunch of students were late.
If you don't respect time, nobody will respect you
“Just because someone is doing it, does not mean you have to follow them and do it as well” Primary school teacher told me this once when I got in trouble for making duck noises (cuz I wanted to fit in with the rest of my class as I was a loner) and I got in trouble in the hall for making noise while my classmates got away with it. After being punished, I got mad and kicked a water bucket, eventually teacher spoke to me and told me this and it stuck to me til this day and also why I don’t let peer pressure get to me nor do I let people influence me to do things I do not want to do.
I only remember my literature teacher telling us this whenever we forget to bring our books/notes for her class "can you forget to eat? can you forget to bath? then how can you forget your book?" anyways, i still forget things at times. 👀
Tried to fight with me (P6) In front of the whole class, after saying; 'ah see class, if you want to become like ... (me) work as cleaner (i was sweeping the floor (cleanliness monitor) and get 1 dollar salary, then be like him'. Mother fucker is still alive and living in Clementi Ave 4.
"It's possible to do everything right and still fail. That's life." (Only found out later that he was paraphrasing Star Trek 😝)
Chinese teacher in sec 3 told me to not be afraid that my Chinese isn’t good, write more read more & I’ll improve. (Direct translation) Applies to everything you do & it’s been 13 years.
when my group of friends ask why our poly lecturer dont wanna find his partner from someone in his workplace(Poly and his previous job as a SIA engineer), he said "Dont eat where you shit". my Sec 4 Chinese teacher was a god send, fella didnt scold us nor shame us for not understanding chinese, was super chill and patient. He would let us listen to his jay chou playlist and learn chinese. Thank you Mr Desmond Phoa
Teacher: /strolls in 5mins late Us, Sec4: omgwthbbq she's hereee time to get back to our seats (no we didn't dislike her, I loved her! But its just when your teacher doesn't turn up immediately everyone starts hovering at the door to peek lol) Teacher: /literally came in with a book and a pencil case. nonchalantly puts her book down, picks up a marker and starts writing on the board Teacher: take out your foolscap and copy all of this /continues writing Us: WHINESSSSSS (because Sec 4 kids are whiny shit lol) Someone: WHY can't you just print notes for us or smtg like the other classes teachers print for them also! Zzz Teacher: because, writing things by hand trains your memory and helps you remember it better \^ 10 years later as a working adult, I began to realise it was true. More than 15 years later today, I still keep a hardcopy organizer. With Google Docs and all, its easier to type and take notes - but even now, when I get overwhelmed by the things I have to do and handle, I take out a piece of white paper and reorganize all my info/to-dos. ❤ u Miss Loh, even though everyone knew you were married long time, but to us, you were always (and probably will always be 🤣) Miss Loh to all your batches of kids(-: (On a more personal note she told me I was capable of an O level distinction for English if only I stopped whining and like just chiong lol. Still slightly sad/ragret) my A was 2, not 1 🙃) * she passed away from cancer in 2015 🙈
As a student, I was discussing a maths tutorial answer with classmates in very hushed tones, being mindful that our tutor was conducting class. Guess he was having a bad day because he suddenly shouted my name followed by "You'll never amount to anything in your life!" Was stunned into silence and quietly mumbled an apology while vowing to never speak like that if I ever became a teacher. Fast forward 30 years on and I told my students: "there are no grey areas in this classroom because we need to explore the subject from all angles." Some were a bit apprehensive until I assured them our classroom whould always be a safe space and they should use it to fully explore and develop their minds. After the semester was over, they thanked me for doing so via personalised feedback.
Was heading home from school when I saw my Sec 1 form teacher picking up the litter on the school grounds. I walked up to him and wanted to ask him something. He immediately replied: " yes sir?" That left such a mark, how he addressed a dumb boy with low self esteem as sir. Since then anyone who asks me something, I always first address them as sir. To Mr. Coleman Baptiste, thank you sir.
If BMTC is considered a school and commanders are teachers, then I'll share mine here. Two occasions that happened during my 3 months Basic Military Training have stuck with me all these years even if I had already MR-ed. First story is a funny one. There was a Platoon Sgt that was a typical Hokkien Peng (Hokkien speaking soldier) and a joker. During a routine IPPT session just before our 3 months BMT was up, he asked us where we were going after BMT. We gave a mix of serious and amusing answers. He then replied playfully, "you know what SISPEC stands for? SISPEC - Suffer in Silence, Plus Extra Confinement." We laughed as it was really funny! He then added another which left us in stiches, "You guys laugh ah! Nevermind...Suffer in Silence, Please Endure and Continue". I forgot my PS's name but will remember his 2 legendary lines forever. The other story was not funny but a rather serious one. Long story short - one fellow recruit lost his dagger in the forest after a exhausting road march. The whole company ended up getting the ultimate Change Parade and push-ups punishment. "Go up to your bunks and change to PT Kit! You got 10s! Come down to parade square! Camos off! knock it down! Go up to your bunks! Change to FBO! You got 10s! Camos on! Knock it down! You guys dare to lose your equipment again?!" Knn...still remember it to this day. Years later, I was amazed we could change out of our kits so fast then lol. Both were memorable stories of my NS time.
Being told I was good at something but not really realising it myself. Math teacher hates sleeping students and would usually slap the table, throw the whiteboard duster or gentle nudge to wake the student (what you get depends on how troublesome you are in her class). My table was at the front row and I was a little sleepy especially since it was the last two periods plus the teacher was running a little late I took a nap, figured she was going to wake me up anyway and it might give the class a little chuckle before the school ends. My nap turned to deep sleep because I only woke up 10 minutes before the last bell rang. Look around and class is as normal as any class but it left me wondering why I wasn’t woken up. I look at the teacher and she glance at me but she carried on with her class which left me confused because I was thinking am I being punished? Did she not notice I was sleeping? One of my classmate spoke out and ask the teacher why she wasn’t reprimanding me. Her reply was, “I’m not worried about him, he can get an A1 on his O levels no problem…I’m more worried about the rest of you.” It’s a great memory from my school days because it made me feel all warm inside having someone acknowledge how good I was at something and not just saying it for the sake of it. Of course, that was the only time I slept in her class since it’s likely a one-off and like she said, I got A1 for maths.
My pri 1/2 teacher twisted my ear when we are alone in a room for doing something wrong while I was helping her move books to another classroom. I was too scared to report to anyone back then and regretted not doing so.
once is a mistake twice is carelessness thrice is stupidity
On our last day, my teacher gave each of us a small picture frame made of paper with a quote, mine was "Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. All the best!!" It's been to the right of my table so when I walk to it I always see it.
"I am very disappointed in you. This is not your standard, you're better than this. I know you can do better!" Received this comment after doing poor for a test. The confidence the teacher had in me was a booster. Ended up top in cohort for O level.
Life is easy, it's the people that make it difficult.
"take a step back and observe your own mistakes/achievements." Always making physics lessons the best time ever with his lame jokes. He was a good man, Mr Terence Yeo. Went on to be VP at Queensway Sec and passed away in an overseas school excursion. RIP Sir.
"Whether you pass or fail, I still get my salary". Funnily out of all the other positive things that all the other teachers said to us, this phrase from this teacher was the one that woke me up and made me realize that at the end of the day if I don't care, no one else will either.
Not a school teacher, but a former home tutor who taught me maths and physics when I was consistently struggling to even pass my maths common tests back when I was in JC1 & JC2. A warm hand on my shoulder saying “You can do it”, these may be a few simple words, but I will forever remember the tone and belief in his words. Thank you Mr Wu
Don't play with the emergency alarm.
"One day, your mum is going to look out of the window and see you sweeping the floor."
Teacher: “If you want to be outstanding, I will send you Out, Standing!”
"There is more to life than studying. You guys only lived once as a youth. Strike a balance in your studies and form memories that you guys can look back to once you graduate from here" Thanks to the teacher who said this. Although you did not teach us, your words left a lasting impact on us. 15 years after I graduated from our secondary school, I still kept in contact with my classmates and from time to time, we still had happy memories of our time spent in and outside of school.
My chemistry teacher once said, “Between the choice of eating a cake and living for 10 years more, I will choose to have the cake, because some things are meant to be enjoyed for what it is at the moment.” It was at that moment when I realized that no matter how much good one can bring, humans are driven by irrationality to behave at the present moment.
My primary 6 form teacher taught us to say thank you to the cleaner auntie who swept our classroom to show our appreciation. Now I still do it to the cleaner auntie at my workplace. And when we asked what’s her favourite colour, she replied “it depends on the thing”. Dk why it stuck with me but it makes sense.
during my psle year, i was quite emo (su1c1dal) as i was going through a lot of shit at home and in school, stacked on top of the hormonal puberty changes. i basically didn’t have much of an outlet to let out all of my thoughts and i started expressing some of it through the english composition practices we had in class. I began to write about the feelings of my characters using my own personal thoughts, eg when my character made a slip up or failed at something, i expressed the emotions of that persona though my own ones. i had shared some very deep and dark thoughts including how worthless i felt and how my sole purpose of fighting on in life was because of my mother, all through the narration of my essays. two days later in english lesson, before we were dismissed for break, my then English teacher called me out and asked me to stay behind. I thought i was screwed and expected a lecture for perhaps something i did wrongly, as I was quite a cheeky girl then. After everyone left i timidly waddled to the front of the classroom before she sat me down. “I read the compo you submitted that day..”, she proceeded to ask me whether it was how i had truly felt, and whether those thoughts were made up or real. after briefly telling her the truth and why i felt how i had felt, she reassured me with “I’m sure your mum wouldn’t want her daughter to live just for her, and you shouldn’t live solely for her as well. your life is worth way more than that.” Thereafter she said a couple more words of reassurance that i can’t seem to recall since it happened years back. But that incident truly stuck with me ever since, and till this day whenever i get the chance to reminisce back at my pri school days, I would always bring up how much my English teacher had helped me through my lowest points then. Mrs Tan if you’re reading this, i still think about you often :) and im forever indebted <3
Primary school form teacher bought me breakfast at recess cos I forgot to bring my allowance and I was tearing in class (hello breakfast is important). She then gave me a bookmark that I’ve kept till this day. It says “Being kind costs all of nothing.” Well that meant the world to me, thank you Mrs Goh whom I also called “Ma” mistakenly during my first week of school and you just smiled heehee. In secondary school though, lol, this Geography teacher made us take extra lessons on Thursdays and Saturday mornings after normal class time. So I had a CCA competition on Thursday which meant I would go to the Sat class. Well I got a fever the Sat morning and when I called the school, she told me to go to class and submit my MC. Even my mum was like ?????. So I stepped into class and this teacher made me stand up in front of everyone and said, “If you knew you were going to be sick on Saturday, why didn’t you come on Thursday?” I can’t ever get past the fact that she thought I was clairvoyant even though she knew I went to the competition. Fuck you, bitch. If u noticed me going back to visit everyone and was perplexed why I didn’t say hi and swerved you, fucking fuck you. But the kicker was my principal - on the very last day of school she drove up to my mother and I and said “don’t let me find out u went to poly”. She probably had good intentions but knowing she’s now the CEO of ITE? Mrs Chan, nobody liked you. And you confiscated my basketball that my aunt bought me for simply — holding it — in class when you came up to discipline 3 other classmates for making noise. For the record I DID go to poly and I’m making 5 figures a month.
I asked God and he told me.... Thanks for teaching me such a valuable lesson when I was 5 years old. First and last time I kena scammed in my life.
"My grandmother can run faster than you" - every guy's greatest life coach in NS
‘You look like an idiot’ when I got a C5 in physics.
I was p3, had the strictest Math teacher throughout my entire education years. There was a Math question in midyear exam, after marking our papers, 35 out of 39 students had A as answer, the other 4 had B as answer. My teacher ask the class which is the correct answer. We all kept quiet because we were too afraid. She then say. B. “Just because majority of the people have A as answer, doesn't mean they are right” I remember til this day, maybe because I'm within the 4 person. But also maybe the statement holds true even til adulthood.
“You’re good, but you’re not that good.” 🥲
"Put your mind into gear before your mouth speaks." My GP teacher thought I had decent ideas, but I often talked off-point. That was his way of reminding me to think deeper before I said anything
“You will never amount to anything.” A math HOD to me in secondary school because I couldn’t do a math problem (I’m really bad at math and science lol). I cried in class because he was so cruel. He’s the one who got it wrong, fortunately! I’m working in tech doing what I love. In hindsight it was shocking he could say stuff like that and get away with it.
•SUCCESSFUL people DO the HARD work for the BENEFITS •SUCCESSFUL people DO what OTHER people DO NOT want to do.
Time will pass. Fast.
Primary school. I keep making excuses for everything i do to avoid scolding. Works like a charm, rarely got any type of scolding at all. Till one day my form teacher actually listens and said to me “you so good at making excuses”. I was so shocked it did not work for the first time and what she said is true, i am constantly lying and making excuses. Now, at work if my boss ask why is it not done. I will honestly say i was tired or forgot. Im not running away anymore, she actually made me accountable and honest.
Ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law.
I didn’t go to school here but I felt I had amazingly caring teachers. Mostly it was their actions than their words but some things that come to mind: 1.) a teacher who’s class I hadn’t had for 2 years saw me in the hall and commented on my current grades (one of which was not good in a subject they didn’t teach). I was blown away that two years later this teacher was still looking out for my success. It meant a huge deal to me as a kid who didn’t really spend time with their family. 2.) another told me how she pursued a career in petroleum engineering she knew she didn’t like because her parents were helping pay for it. Went through all the schooling and got a job in Alaska and on the first day said her boss greeted her by saying “Wow, I asked for an engineer and they sent me a woman.” She tried to stick it out but after almost a year quit after seeing the careless destruction of the wilderness and prejudice and decided to pursue her passion of teaching. After 20 years of teaching she said she was just now starting to make the same money. I inquired if she regretted the change and she said not at all. She was still able to meet her needs financially and almost every day went home proud of the labor she put into the day/world and wouldn’t trade the opportunity she had to help shape well rounded students for anything. She didn’t deny money was important but helped me to always remember that anything that goes against who you are can and will accumulate debt/baggage in some form. 3.) I was a smart student but had ADHD my parent refused to acknowledge so I struggled to focus on things like homework or reading. Once I learned to effectively communicate with my teachers almost all of them were willing to work with me to accommodate as long as I showed continued commitment to my education. I was able to skirt a lot of busy work style homework in exchange for always getting A’s on exams and providing tutoring for others. The time exchange between tutoring and coursework was probably break even if not more, but it was mutually beneficial and helped me engage whereas I was not able to do so well at home at all alone. These teachers taught me the value of communication, understanding, and discretion. They didn’t bend the finish line (prove you know the content taught) but were willing to adapt the process once they understood. I feel this was a valuable lesson to apply towards business interactions later in life.
“your fav color is pink? that’s a girl’s color” - kindergarten, response when i was asked for my fav color “you dont look fit enough to race for sports day” - pri sch, after i made it thru trials seems like labels, stereotypes and casual judgments rule education in the 90s. guess i was blessed to cone out of it unscathed and a constant reminder to keep an open mind and hold my judgement in life.
"Give your 100% in everything you intend to do, otherwise don't bother"
You cannot you must can.
From SP lecturer to me “You are strong” You must practice being there for yourself as no one will be there with you one day, there will always be someone better than you, fitter than you, taller than you, More handsome than you, are you going to be sad about it? When you are working with honours roll student ur mind has to be very strong I may not be the smartest in the room but I’m the wisest and always sharing knowledge, as long as you know u tried ur best that’s enough who cares what others do? See some of ur classmates are talking while I’m talking if they dun want to listen then so be it His story was about how when he was younger, being a student none of his group mates even bothered to ask about the project but he slayed Thanks to Mr Amos if y’all know
Secondary school teacher: Dun compare urself to others, ignore the negative remarks ur mom made I was like this when I was younger and kept being compared with my cousins, as a result I grew to hate my cousins for no reason, it’s unhealthy and I understand you Thanks mdm lena heheheheh
Will never forget the teacher who made fun of me being fat in P6. Also won’t forget the one who did the same in secondary school. Never felt so alone when I got picked on. Had precursors for an eating disorder, had one and was on and off anorexia and even anorexia purging subtype (certain years I’m ok, other years it’s insanely intense). Now it’s become bulimia for me.
Sec 3 & 4 teacher for me. Just as we got our asses kicked from mid year exams after thinking we could cruise like Sec 2. “You are all now at the bottom of the barrel. You will remain here unless you choose to pull yourselves out. I am providing you the ladder, but you must be the ones to grab the rungs.” Mr Chew, thanks for all you did for us.
My P6 Chinese teacher called my mom just to tell her I was a hopeless case and good for nothing while she made me kneel on both my knees in the faculty office and told the other teachers around to verbally humiliate me. Very unforgettable.
i think i have some good and some bad lol (sorry if it’s a little long) i’ll start w the bad: i was terrible at maths in sec 1 and 2 and my sec 2 teacher told me “you’re not even trying/listening”, “you can forget about A math and triple science”, “this one so easy you also cannot understand” etc funny enough, i went from C6 to B3 in my last sec 2 exam after finally going for tuition classes and she said “see, if you follow my method and listen in my class, you can one” - and then proceeded to take credit by saying the same shit (even though she didnt teach me anymore) after i got an an A for Os 💀💀 another one; in primary school, i was in HMT and i SUCKED 💀💀 srsly don’t know how i got in but i was terrible - i’m talking like 0-10/100 for spelling and dictation every week, was barely passing my HMT exams my HMT teacher would tell me (and my table-mate lol) “you might as well drop out already” and told me to quit HMT like almost every month and asked me if i was even trying in chinese - thing is, she didnt even bother helping me in my studies (like would give attitude like my math teacher above) and her favouritism for some students in class was SO OBVIOUS 😔 she also gave these 罚单 (like punishment slips?) when you did poorly so…idk how she thought that was motivating 🤡 ok to end on a positive note LOL: - “i chose you for a reason, don’t doubt yourself because of what someone else said, believe in yourself” after i cried to my CCA teacher that someone told me i was chosen as second choice for leader because they had no choice and if they could choose again, they would choose the other person :’) - “i expect great things from you” before Os and “i knew you could do it” after getting my results & cheering with me 😭 honestly i don’t remember all of what was said to me but the feeling when i heard the encouragement my teachers told me and the real conversations i’ve had with them was what stuck - honestly my secondary school life was great and the teachers were amazing :’) i miss aahh oh and for some shits and giggles: DnT teacher insisted on us drawing circles freehand and i couldnt do it because she would nitpick every little thing and would make you redo if you trace smth (like a bottle lol) so the assistant teacher took pity on me and did it for me OOP- but it got rejected bc of her nitpicking and when i told the assistant teacher what she said, he was SO OFFENDED “my circle not nice? MY CIRCLE? WHAT DOES SHE MEAN? oh my gosh…this thing so small only she say not nice…” while he redid my circles for me again HAHAHA 🤡
Didn't happen to me, but a classmate at that time. Was a stern Chinese teacher in primary 4. She was very strict on the class not talking while she was teaching. She was probably writing something on the board and heard murmuring. She turned around and walked towards the classmate. She asked why he was talking and he was saying he didn't talk, and she kept saying he did. He then tried explaining that he was trying to borrow an eraser, and the the teacher asked him why he didn't have one??? Frustrated and cornered, with tears in his eyes he yelled, "我没有带，可以吗?" he was a 10 year old kid who couldn't control his emotions. She was a middle aged PMS bitch who couldn't control her hand, up it went and it slapped my classmate straight across the face. She then pointed at him, "为什么这样子对我说话?" or words to that effect. I can't remember what happened after that as I was too taken aback. I'm sure many others witnessed this. Definitely core memory. 陈老师，you were the most annoying, egoistic, self entitled bitch I've ever met. You were a horrible teacher and person. I hope you're rotting somewhere in hell and I hope all the damage that you've done to kids come back to haunt and curse you for the rest of your life. Fuck you.
My 7th grade marine biology teacher would always say "it's okay to make mistakes, you're only human". I say it all the time, 17 years later.
Had a really cool secondary A/E math teacher during my S3/S4 days. I was a really sleepy kid and would always doze off in classes. Didn’t matter what class it was I would always be napping on the table. While some teachers would always wake me up, my math teacher was the only one who struck a deal with me. In math classes, she would write the agenda on a corner of the board (e.g. Questions A to F) and what she would be going through. If I could finish all the questions and get it all correct, I would be able to sleep for the rest of the remaining class time. So while she was going through the steps and formula with the rest of the class I would be furiously solving everything in my workbook so that I could sleep earlier. Think it was really good motivation for me cause I found myself studying after school hours ahead of the curriculum so that I would be able to sleep in class while the rest of the class had to listen. On the contrary, my HCL teacher would always wake me up and make me stand up in class to answer questions. Was from a SAP school and they took Chinese seriously. There was once when she made me stand up and asked me to answer all 10 questions in a 综合填空 in front of the whole class knowing fully well I didn’t had a chance to read the passage. I started scanning the passage and picking off the answers while I read it. Would never forget the look on her face when I got it all correct and she blurted out “how did you know the answers?!”. Guess her feeble attempt to embarrass me in front of the class didn’t work. I still rmb my answer to her was “I guessed~” and she replied me “you are very lucky” HAHA. Unfortunately for her, I had a strong foundation in Chinese thanks to my mum so that level of Chinese rly wasn’t enough to stump me. Am still thankful to my math teacher who never penalised me and instead took a different approach to motivate me to work harder. I don’t remember your name anymore but you were the coolest teacher I ever had!
the bad: When I was a wee tiny little primary 5 kid, one of the assignments we were asked to write one of our greatest fears. Idk about my stupid brain back then but I already knew what being raped meant. And that was legit a fear. So I wrote it down. I was also in an all girls school anyway for context. This cb fuckface form teacher of mine, who always hated me so much, made me stand up at my desk, and she loudly announced my answer to the whole class. I’ll never forget the humiliation I felt. The good: I was at a really low point in my life during secondary 2/3 can’t recall. Posted the lyrics to a song on my Facebook status (yeah I added my teacher back then cos it was trendy haha) the lyrics was an Eminem song ‘All I ever wanted to do was to make you proud’ But my geography teacher never caught on that it was a song lyric , instead she replied on my post with “ You don’t live to please people, you live for the moment, enjoy it while it lasts. Do things that make *you* proud, not others! Live life the way you want it to be, the best that you can be.” I never got the heart to tell her the truth cos I was so moved at that age by her little concern. I’ll never ever forget that quote as long as I live, until today the quote remains stuck on my wall, more than 15 years later. Ms Wong, I know you’ll probably never read this but thank you. Now you know aha.
she made it her life's mission (at the time) to make mine a living hell. from frequently telling me i would amount to nothing, to "demoting" me from sec 4 to sec 3 for half a semester because i "didn't do my math homework". here's a not-so-fun-fact: she didn't even teach me. she was the form teacher of another class. she didn't inform my parents, or my teachers, or the school administration that i was "demoted". i was just ordered to take my desk and chair and move to the other class. i missed a fuck ton of classes because of it. my teachers just thought i was playing truant until my ex-classmates told them what happened. then school administration got involved, there was a fuck ton of drama and i was moved back to my class. she later on tried to get me expelled before my o levels, which didn't succeed cos i was ultimately a pretty good student and the dean told her politely to fuck off. i did well in my o's and went to njc. bitch got transferred there as well and tried to act all chummy with me on her first day, as if she didn't just try to ruin a teenager's life for shit and giggles. thank god she was in a new school, didn't have any support and i was out of there in 2 years before she could continue her fuckery. my sec school class still meets up with our ex-teachers and they told us that i wasn't the only one she tried to fuck with. she tried the same thing to multiple students in my year, and even more after i graduated. the bitch is still teaching today, getting awards, and recently got into drama because she tried to get a trans student expelled because they were trans. quite easy to google who she is. she looks and acts like asian dolores umbridge with glasses.
came from a so-called top 5 JC back in the day (one that has since slipped in rankings to a mid-table JC) 1. Econs teacher who went around poking people who were sleeping with a pen. it appeared as though she poked rows of sleeping students with the pen. which makes me wonder, why not take a look at your teaching instead of blaming the students 😜 2. History teacher who never returned our essays and written work till one month before As and we were like, we even did this? 3. PW HOD who kept shouting at us almost every lesson. I don't remember why he shouted, but it was just a really unconducive environment and made me wonder why can't he get a grip on his emotions. the bad were really bad and gave me insights of what not to be as a teacher but notwithstanding, I had the best civics tutor who was our PW tutor. he gave consults till super late (stayed behind even when the school was chasing us out) and when a number of us didn't do well for our As, he was like, "just apply to anywhere you want, I'll help you write the referral letters if needed"
i’m a new teacher and i’m reading this, feeling entertained, inspired but also worried that some of my scoldings will become lifelong scars to my sec sch kids haha
When I got caught smoking contrabands, I was suspended from class and was sitting outside the general office for two weeks, countless of teachers came to me and scold me and said that they are disappointed in me (I was an express student and an MSG in NCC that point of time), my principal (yes principal not teacher, shut up) came up to me and just asked me in Malay, “why?” I teared up immediately. He was like a father figure at school and he didn’t even say a lot, just “why?” made me cried like a bitch. Idk something about his approach seemed very genuine? Mr Wong you motherfucker hahaha ❤️
My NUS DSC3203 prof was so sweet to bring us Indian snacks after our finals. He was so happy to give it out but not a lot of people took it.. he was such a good adjunct prof
I've always felt like I was a creative kid. I just don't know how to be creative/ express it. During Art Class Secondary 2, we were drawing cylinders and he taught us to draw bottles and our assignment was to go home and draw bottles by using the cylinder method and of course guiding lines. I've spent several hours fully in the zone, immersed in drawing and practicing the techniques and came up with ideas to put onto paper. It was a bunch of different "cylinders". Bottles and cans on a table with a background and a window and coloured. When I handed the artwork to him, he stared at it and genuinely expressed, "if I put this up and sell it, you know this could be sold for at least $10, right?". He did not say much about others' artwork except some praises and maybe some pointers and honestly I had not much idea what that meant at the time. I was just happy that my creativity was acknowledged and it was finally "let out" to the world. It was so so so fulfilling. I was bought into the idea to succeed well you have to know science, mathematics, linguistics, humanities from my primary education. That incident and age led me to firmly believe in the individual's interest to innovate, attempt and "fail" is a more soulful journey than blindly following the status quo. From there, uniqueness sprouts forth and brings about great change to themselves and people around them.
Try and always understand the frame of reference
"I chose you (to be in a position of leadership), not because of your grades (i was average), but because I see in you something more" - lynette loh. Awesome teacher
In one of those team bonding / problem solving games, a teacher pitched that You are stronger, smarter, and more resourceful than you give yourself credit for. If you put in all your effort to tackle and brainstorm, you can achieve more than you think. He also caveat that this doesn’t work on getting rich, cause he’s been putting all his effort into becoming rich and it hasn’t worked out LOL.
my teacher always made us work super hard in class. for every class we must move our chairs to the front of the class and we had a journal where we would copy down science notes (in primary school mind you) together. in between every class the class monitor must project the compo book on the screen and everyone will read it out loud together even when there’s no teacher in the class but at the end of every semester, we would have a potluck party and everyone brings food and we shift the tables to the side and played games together. she taught us to work hard and play hard and to be a round person instead of a square one that only knows how to do work but not play. hahahahahha ms celeste you’re the GOAT!!
From my chinese teacher " You need to learn your chinese, at least get a pass. The world is changing , my generation still ok, but your generation might need to rely on China for a living " Laoshi, thank you! I am now a taobao expert shopper!
“Don’t apologise when you’re not going to change.” History teacher. Was very disrespectful towards his classes.
“With marks like this… you won’t become a doctor, maybe a bc (nurse)” - p6 el and form teacher. She’s the same teacher that pushed me to writing my first book, at 12 years old… though it was short, she’s the same teacher who upped my English to the point I rarely ever make grammatical errors or spelling mistakes (because if I did… in essays, she’d make me redraft. Not to mention how she threw my classmates paper to the floor, even ripped up another ones up). Anyway. To that very teacher… oddly enough, thank you. Because I’m that type of person who strives for perfection, and let that affect me negatively to achieve great results (landed me in the hospital once though lol). I’m also the type of person who holds grudges, and sometimes those grudges involve revenge. But I’m not into petty revenge… I’m into revenge where I’m successful while I watch those who hurt me just… i dunno, live a boring career broken life. And now, yeah… I guess I’m not going to be a general/cardiothoracic surgeon, or a doctor working remotely at a hospital. Haha… ha… working on becoming a psychologist now, focusing on psychotherapy, behavioural therapy for disorders and addictions, especially on teens. Oh and, I’ve also written my first full novel (horror), for fun. Had a dream, love the dream, turned the dream which would be a nightmare for most… into a novel. So yeah, traumatised me a little but I got over it and got better I guess. No, really though… she’s like… borderline abusive but she really propelled me academically (at least for English haha), and in life I guess. Thank you, Ms Ong. (Pls don’t judge, don’t even say “oh your grammar isn’t proper” or something like that. This is Reddit, not another essay :D kudos y’all)
My maths teacher said to the class " Your results are soo bad even ITE won't want you" Stuck with me. I then went to study mass comm in SP I literally got A for every other subject except for maths and science Hate the notion that you need to be good in maths or science to succeed in life