The Pain of Writing

After my 4 years of degree course in Canada, I visited my eldest brother and that was how I ended up living in Singapore. I decided to join the Insitute of Education so as to teach in the schools here.

Upon graduation, I was sent to a SAP school. The principal told me that she had requested the Ministry to send her the best teacher graduate who could help bring up the English Language standard in her school. "Gosh, I thought to myself... am certainly not the best... am sure many of my classmates are better than me!" I remember going down on my knees in prayer, imploring the good Lord to help me be a creative and interesting teacher. The students were very strong in all their other subjects except English, and I was given this unenviable task of helping them in their English and English Literature.! What a great start to a challenging teaching career!

I grew up, hating to learn by rote, and I was not going to encourage this rote learning method! I needed to help the students to learn to think creatively and resourcefully. I decided to help them improve by constantly writing which comes from observing and analysing. I told the students that writing is not an easy task; requires effort but with determination anyone can write. My second sister was a classic example. She never liked reading or writing as a youngster, but gosh the moment she fell in love, she suddenly became so poetic! The number of poems she wrote... unbelievable! I asked the students to describe what the pain of writing would be like and they came up with many answers! "It was like being pursued by an overweight girl you don't really like." "Sitting in the dentist's chair with all that drilling! " "Being made to drink Chinese herbal brew". etc. I would give the students my poem - a haiku to be exact.

THE PAIN OF WRITING

The pain of writing,
Like a mother in labour,
Proud delivery!
- Gan Chau

I encouraged the students to sit down and force themselves to write. When their "baby" - their completed article or poem is delivered, they will feel very happy and proud of their "baby". To every mother, her baby is the most adorable!

The students began to develop confidence in writing. They began to observe and analyse, and one girl produced a beautiful piece of writing on the ants... she followed a trail of ants and observed their interesting behaviour. Another wrote about his being deeply hurt by some unkind remarks made on him. As a result of the article being read to the class, relationship became restored as the students apologised to one another. (Will write with more details in the next email.) Some of the students were quite witty when they handed up an empty page of work with the remarks, "Dear Madam, Am sorry.... no baby today. I had a miscarriage yesterday!" or "Dear Madam, Here's an invisible piece of writing!" I replied "Invisible 8 stars are given!" 8 stars would be the highest accolade given to a student's work. I had promised the students that if they wrote in poems I would also reply them in poetry style. Apart from giving them a chance to practise writing, it would also give us a chance to communicate. The students are free to write on any topic they choose and to ask me questions or to seek advice. I was aware I had 7 to 9 classes every year, and every class had about 30 to 36 students! I wanted to ensure that every student had a chance to communicate with me.