The courage to expression

Yesterday at a staff meeting, my former supervising teacher, the one who promised brimstone and hellfire to all who opposes her, raised the question to my Principal - Why do teachers have to come at 7.45am and leave at 12.30pm even though it is officially the start of the holidays, with only a few teachers needed to 'teach' some sec 3 classes?

Now it is a common malaise that when the top management make certain decisions, they will usually defend them and wave off probing questions rather than taking concerns raised into consideration. My P is, of course, one of those who believes in standing firm by her infallible logic and the decisions made with that. She gave a 20 minutes reply about how schools need a work to prepare for next year, there are department work (surely!), and (as an aside) that is will be proper for all teachers to follow the same schedule, probably out of a sense of fairness to all.

A whole lot of oratorical BS. She just repeated those few weak arguments round and round, and win only by subduing us with her droning - who could stand it lasting any longer? She basically sidestep the point of why teachers have to stay back if they have nothing to do or if work can be done at home, when it is officially the holidays already. Does she think that the teachers who had to stay back with their classes will get some perverted satisfaction if the rest of the staff all stayed back with them? And I hate how she likes to mention that "In other schools they actually ...", seeking to convince us of her kindness of making special concessions to us (which we do not understand/appreciate and she has to highlight to us especially) compared to the practices of some other anonymous schools out there with sadistic leaders.

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At the end of the meeting, the same teacher voiced out that she realised there are teachers (one or a few, I am not sure) who thinks that she's showing off by always being the dissenting voice in meetings or when she shares her own classroom practices as possible models to follow. She wanted these people to address such things to her directly, says that it is very malicious of them...and then her voice broke and she wept!

I didn't realise that she could be so disturbed by gossips. I hoped she stays in the school, keep on doing what she has always done, and be the firebrand of our conscience. It is just unfortunate that she does not understand that the Singaporean are mostly gutless herd creatures. Not many will appreciate the strong opinionated voice, and they will scorn these voices when they can to hide their shame of being pathetic weak-minded creatures who dare not speak aloud. She can't expect them to tell her their thoughts straight to her face because they have no guts at all! If they have more courage to express themselves in public like her, Singapore will be a nation with more spirit and character.

Alas!