SG Complains

Student throws chair, file at VP

According to AsiaOne News:

IT was like any other routine visit by a vice-principal to a class during the Pastoral Care period.

But one student suddenly went berserk.

It happened when the vice-principal, a woman,visited a Secondary 4 Express class at a school in the east on 2 Apr.

While she was addressing the class, the student suddenly stood up and threw a file and then a chair in her direction.

He also rushed forward as though he wanted to hit her, but was quickly restrained by his classmates. No one was hurt in the incident.

A student from the class, who did not want to be named, told The New Paper that the vice-principal was ‘scolding’ the class about their poor common test results.

She asked those who were confident of scoring at least five O levels or of making it to polytechnic to stand up.

All except two boys in the class stood up.

The student said: ‘She then told the form teacher to take down their names and call their parents.’

She told the class to sit down and write down their plans for achieving their goals.

The form teacher walked over to one of the two boys who did not stand up.

She told him to take out a piece of paper and start writing.

It was then that the boy suddenly stood up and threw a file and subsequently a chair in the direction of the vice-principal.

Read the full article at AsiaOne News:

- Personally I felt for the student instead of his violent behavior.

Yes, the student should not throw a chair but he should instead protest against being judged on his performance based on his own confidence level?

I understand that the VP was trying to use peer pressure to “motivate” the students to excel better but by calling the student parent and creating more stress for him does not really “help him” in improving his grades.

What the VP should do is to request the student to visit the VP office and do one on one counseling or to find out why he/she is not confident about the grades…then give him the solutions such as the below.

1. After school group tutioning with other students in need.
2. Give special bonus for achieving “improvement” on grades such as a Amazon Kindle eBook Reader.
3. Find out what is the student’s weakest subjects and make ways to make the student love the subject and work hard on it.
4. Find out why the student cannot learn or improve..it may be the environment is too noisy at home or he/she playing too much games or no love in studying….then find out ways to help the student by offering a alternative & unique way to study.

I personally had been a failure during my primary school 1,2,3, but after I joined the first generation latch key program to stay after school to study….I improved tremendously of course the teacher then was very very patient with me.

During my Secondary 2, I almost cannot make it on my maths subject but I chose to focus on impressing a girl …and go focus on that subject and go all out…with 10 years series, earphone and spend lot’s of time at “fast food restaurants” that was pretty empty…at that time.

I was able to squeeze into pure science class on secondary 3 and almost gone to JC but later I realized that “grades” isn’t a measurement of success in the future.

The real success is when you are HAPPY with yourself not how much money you made or how high the level you achieve in a company.

Even if you made $100,000 dollars a month but felt extremely stressful and unhappy…you may not be considered “successful” at all.

Remember money cannot be use after you die…so money does not makes you any more special then you and me.

The VP could do better…and the students should voice their unhappiness when in doubt without violence and in privacy of the office.

Students, be mindful of your actions in school as it will reflect in your “evaluation” in your report card that basically end up in your resume…that might affect your chances to your dream job.