They are too serious? Or I'm just too...

Last week, during one of our usual assemblies (whereby everyone was in there respective classroom and the commands were done through the PA system), a rather familiar voice led the entire college in THE PLEDGE. The voice was indeed a very familiar one, but no one expected that voice to lead us in THE PLEDGE.

Some people responsible for the actual leading of THE PLEDGE weren’t around at that crucial time, a technician setting up the PA system felt awkward to let the whole school wait silently for nothing. She took the initiative to lead. She was nervous, no doubt and got a few words/lines awkwardly wrong.

So many students (I bet some staff also) were laughing. That sent “panic” up the spine of the management. Mm.. Leave that aside. But I really applaud the technician for her display of courage and initiative.

In our usual contact time today, the management led us to share about the learning points of that event. It was more like they were interested to know (to check) what we told our students or shared with our students when we were in the classroom with them and they were laughing.

Before the sharing, we were first told (rather sternly) that students shouldn’t be laughing and that was actually a teachable moments or learning moments.

Those volunteered or invited to share certainly know the standard answers, the answers wish to be heard. They admitted that their students were laughing, but quickly added that they scolded their students for that. That was their so-called first phase of corrective measure. Okay, they later explained to the students why they shouldn’t laugh and blah blah blah..

I know leading THE PLEDGE wrongly is serious.

But leading THE PLEDGE that way was truly quite funny lor. To the far end of the spectrum, imagine asking hui(1) ge(1) (or any well-known comedian) suddenly acting all serious and lead the entire nation his entire organization in THE PLEDGE, and leading it wrongly in many parts..

Can’t we all just laugh a bit first (not at the person but at the situation) and then guide the students
- to understand the situation,
- to be tolerant to errors,
- not to finger-point whose at fault,
- how to ensure not to see such occurrence again, etc.. ???

Where is their sense of humour?

Okay, maybe I’m the only one having a silly sense of humour. Never mind..


(Not necessarily in the context of the above-mentioned incident...)
It is just a little sad that the culture is such that when something goes wrong, the first thought many people have in mind is ...

“Cham liao, this time who is going to get it?!” - many followers

“Oh no! How could this happen? You better explain this!” - many leaders