Teatime: Is it too much to ask for students to obey?
This is part of a column in which we discuss what matters
In my ongoing attempt to keep up with the times, I watch too many video clips online for it to be healthy for my mental well-being.
As I catch glimpses into the psyche of my young nephews and nieces, I also get exposed to modern parenting.
Clips of parents picking up after little slobs, who are perfectly capable of going to the toilet unaccompanied yet habitually refuse to put their toys away, befuddle me.
Equally mystifying are clips of mums (largely of the Western make) veiled-bragging about having to prepare different foods for different children sitting together at the same meal because they are individuals with preferences.
"I don't like this" would never fly with my mum. And now that I am an ageing adult, I can see why she did not subscribe to pandering to the whims and fancies of minors.
"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them," wrote author Denis Waitley in The Psychology Of Winning.
A handful of students at Raffles Institution insisted they did not like the conditions that would be coming their way and decided that the quickest and surest way to prevent the proposed changes was to oust their principal Aaron Loh.
Have they been taught very differently from how my generation was raised?
Never mind that Mr Loh is the authoritative figure of the elite school – which is also his alma mater. Never mind that the leaked changes were not cast in stone.
All that mattered to the disgruntled students were to have Mr Loh removed and the air-conditioning in the school stay right where they are (among other things).
The petition to oust Mr Loh stated: "Many of us feel that his decisions and changes have not been in our best interests but have instead added unnecessary stress and complexities to our lives. It appears as though his focus leans toward unimportant matters rather than addressing the real issues our institution faces."
It is worrying how quickly the petition author and the more than 800 signees band together, led by their mob mentality, to get rid of the person they assume is the root of their "unnecessary stress and complexities".
I understand how teens believe they know better than everyone else. I was a teen once.
And just like the Rafflesians, my class of girls felt a teacher was a bad fit for us.
Sure, we did not have social media at our disposal but we did not go around soliciting support from other girls beyond our own classroom.
We discussed as a group behind closed doors and requested for a dialogue with the vice-principal. We aired our grievances and awaited the outcome without doing anything else to steer her decision towards our preferred result.
Things worked out for us in the end because, as I would like to believe, we put forward a justified case after rounds of discussions to fine-tune our argument.
I wish the RI petitioners had considered taking an equally mature and peaceful route.
And I hope none of them will become future leaders since they believe they can get their way by washing their dirty linen in public instead of holding a dialogue with the persons involved to gain a better understanding of the situation.
These students are no better than children who throw themselves on the floor of a busy store just because they are denied the toys they want.
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