Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Strong And Faithful


Let us march on to fame, let the aisles proclaim
Till our anthem will dare us to do
Let us onwards to win and new laurels gain
Free School for the brave and for the true

It matters neither how straight the gate
Nor how charged with dangers the goal
Let the tempest rage and fell odds inflate
We’ll do it with heart and soul

I always thought the Penang Free School anthem is a really good one. It always brings a rush to my blood every time the school band plays it during the Sports Day. Amidst the trivial pursuits of winning the overall champions back then, the anthem evoked the fighter within. It evokes bravery and courage for greater battles today.

I was hanging out in the teacher’s eating room today. It is interesting to note how different male staff behave in an all-boys school, compared to female staff in an all-girls school.

Female staff will whip out their breakfast or lunch baskets, and take out their homemade food. They will talk about family or children or their students while they offer to share some food with you. They have a “gang” where people take turns to bring the food for the day. Someone will bring the bread. Someone will bring the filling for the bread. Someone will bring the vegetables. And they will rotate duties. Someone will bring a cheese cake that her husband bought to share with the whole gang. Someone will bring mooncakes for everyone to sample. If you ask for help on how to cook a certain dish, or where to buy a certain thing, they are more than happy to discuss over it and offer ample advice. The Principal and Senior Assistants can sit together with the staff in the eating room and have friendly moments together.

Male staff will whip out their wallets and buy the kind of food in the canteen that will eventually kill themselves. They don’t bring anything from home. They won’t talk about home. They will talk about the school’s government. They will talk about other colleagues. They will start pulling off wise cracks. They will offer to buy each other drinks. Even after treating each other to drinks, they still pull off wise cracks. No, they don’t have a “gang” that pools together their resources to share food. They have a secret gang that wants to topple the school government. The Principal and Senior Assistants will never step into the eating room alive. The eating room is a resting chamber for the opposition party.

I look forward to starting work in Penang Free School tomorrow. It’s good to breathe Free air again! Yes, I may be doing it for free. But there’s nothing like waking up to a day with purpose. Tomorrow, I am going to mould a nation.

Dare you be brave? Dare you be true? Free School is for the brave and for the true.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bravo!! Thats the spirit!May the force of 'spanky' be with you (yet again) hehe. Go get em josh! :)

Hasten said...

Only 3 Form 5 classes to teach. No classes at all on Fridays. I love my job :)

Kenny T said...

Being an Old Free... my recent visit to the school has showed me signs that the school building may be the only thing that remains Strong and Faithful...

The school glory and reputation does not resonate ideally in the minds of the young today... It's a pity. If only the school was half of what it was then...

KennyT

read-my.blogspot.com
.