Bartley Days - P(G) for language

Kay-AngMo's mention of some teachers in Bartley Primary School has inspired this post. I think it is time, too, that we recollect about our primary school days.

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Yes, it is true that I topped my cohort in almost every test and examination during my 6 years of primary school education. I almost always scored the highest marks in the class tests. I took the 1st position in 11 out of the 12 major school examinations. Needless to say, I also topped my cohort when we sat for our PSLE.

These academic achievements did my parents proud, as they also did some genuinely concerned and caring teachers. But these achievements, especially in P5 and P6, had not come 'easy' - not because the subjects which we had studied were difficult (in fact, that was the easiest part) but because these results were achieved in a very incredibly politics-laden environment.

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In the initial years, I was actually quite care-less about my academic results. I was blissfully ignorant that there was something called 'test' or 'examination' in primary school.

Afterall, all that I did during my PA (人民协会) kindergarten days were some simple practising of the ABCs, basic writing of 123s, drawing & colouring, making music with some simple percussion instruments like the tambourine and castanets, some simple 写字 exercises lots of some masak-masak play. There was nothing called 'test' or 'exams', mah.

P1

I remember that I had to be 'interviewed' on the day Mother went to register me for P1. The registration was done on the corridor outside the ground floor classrooms.

One or two teacher(s) dealt with Mother on the paperwork. I had to be with Mother, and then after the paperwork was done, I was ushered to another table nearby. At that table, there was another teacher who asked me questions like "What is your name?", "How old are you?" etc.

Although I had almost never spoken English before, I was able to give the 'correct answers' - what a relief! Actually, this was all thanks to CP's patient and persistent prior coaching. I remember that CP would ask me these questions over and over again whenever she was free (问到我有一点儿不耐烦！) but until the interview day, I never quite understood why she did it. :)

On my first day of school, I was very very excited. Mother helped to carry my school bag while I carried my sling water bottle and that small blackboard (we had to have our own box of multi-coloured chalks, too). When we reached my 1A classroom right at the end of the classroom block, many adults were crowding the doorway. Mother and I inched past them and then I found a place somewhere in the middle of the classroom and 'settled down'. There were many new faces but I didn't know any of them. Mother left after a while.

Later, an Indian teacher in a yellow/orange saree came into the classroom. In her high-pitched voice, she told the class that she was Mrs Vijay. I remember thinking that it was rather weird for her to put on such a short blouse that her belly ('三层肉') at her sides could be seen easily! Haaahahhaa....

Some time later that day, Mrs Vijay asked us, "Children, do you want to go to the toilet?" Uh-oh, what she was talking about? What was 'toilet'? I remember being a little unsure if I should put up my hands because I did not know what 'toilet' was!

Several children put up their hands and so, after some hesitation, I also put up mine. Mrs Vijay then gathered the few of us and walked us up the staircase next to our classroom. When we reached the 2nd floor, Mrs Vijay showed us to the big spacious toilet (which had about 3-4 wash basins and mirrors and about 3-4 cubicles). Oh, so 'toilet' = 厕所! And that was the first lesson I learnt from Mrs Vijay on my first day of school. :)

Throughout P1, Mrs Vijay taught us many things. She read and told us countless stories. During these story times, the children would sit on straw mats which we would roll out on the floor at the front of the classroom and Mrs Vijay would be seated on a chair just in front of the big blackboard. The ceiling fan would be whirling away overhead.

We recited many nursery rhymes and sang many songs. Sometimes we used pairs of coconut 'shells' for percussion accompaniments. I enjoyed all of the lessons. When the class put up a mini concert during one school assembly at the (upper) basketball court (which was in front of the classroom block), I took the role of Little Red Riding Hood's mother (actually I was hoping to get the role of LRRH, but that role went to a girl called Lin Chew Lin).

There was almost never a need to do any homework. I always finished my work in class, somehow.

The 'composition' which we had to do then was called 'Free Expression'. Typically, I would draw a simple picture, colour it and then write 2-3 sentences about the picture. One of the first 'Free Expressions' which I did was this personal favourite:


This is a pear. It is green in colour. I like to eat the pear. I like to eat hard things. (!!!!)



P2

Mrs Pek Hong Hin was my P2 form teacher. She taught us Chinese. I liked her very much, too, although she was rather stern and would sometimes scold the class quite loudly. I was the class monitress in P2.

Mrs Pek was the teacher-in-charge of the Chinese Dance Group which I joined this year with my best friends, Kua Lay Peng and Judy Shaw. All of us had good rhythmic sense and we were some of the better dancers in the Group. C1-1 tried one or two of the dance practice sessions and I think she didn't like them, so she didn't join us in the end. (C1-1 was from Primary 1C but was promoted to Primary 2A and remained in the same class as me till Sec 1).

This Chinese Dance Group put up many performances for assemblies and various school functions eg Children's Day concerts, Teachers' Day celebrations, National Day celebrations etc. We were also very active and took part in other concerts organised outside the schools. I think we once went to the Aljunied CC to perform too.

Schoolwork-wise, this was a smooth sailing year. Nothing significant that I can remember. I remember, though, that I came to know the final year results a few days earlier than my classmates that year because I had met Mrs Pek at the Toa Payoh Swimming Pool when Father brought us there. Mrs Pek had called out to me and told me, "LP, 今年你拿第一名，你知道吗？" I think she was genuinely happy for me.

Mrs Pek taught us many Chinese songs. We had to copy the lyrics which she wrote on the blackboard, then she would sing through the songs and the class would follow, line by line, phrase by phrase. This may sound a little incredible, but I actually still have the exercise book into which I had copied those lyrics! (And I actually referred to this exercise book when I was thinking of Chinese songs to sing to WY and WF during my maternity leave!)

This is one of my favourites:

路边有颗螺丝帽


路边有一颗螺丝帽，路边有颗螺丝帽，螺丝帽。
弟弟上学看见了，看见了，看见了，看见了！
螺丝帽虽然小，祖国建设不可少!


捡起来 （x2）， 瞧一瞧（x2）。
擦擦干净多么好！啦啦啦啦啦啦啦。。。


送给工人叔叔， 把它装在机器上。
嘿！ 机器唱歌，我们拍手笑！

Some time later (I think when I was in P3 or P4), Mrs Pek went for an operation. When she returned, she told us that her intestines had gotten somewhat 'fused together'. She became even thinner than she already was. I think Mrs Pek left the school soon after that.

At the end of P2, just before school closed for the December holiday, I was appointed a new prefect. Like CP and YP, I came to hold a dark blue necktie with white polka dots (which had to be worn with an elastic band under the shirt/blouse collar) and a metal "prefect" badge.

P3

Academically, P3 was also an uneventful year.

I continued to be in the Chinese Dance Group. So did my best friends, and we all continued to have fun learning and dancing. Some other classmates, including a Kek Peck See and a Chew Shee Mui, also joined in the Group.

This year, the school started its brass band. Out of curiosity, I signed up for it, thinking that if it turned out to be boring, I could always quit and go. The teacher-in-charge was Mr Mak Chun Wah, a bachelor teacher who was very softspoken, generous and well-liked by us all. Mr Mak was also very fair-skinned.

At first, it was quite a novelty to be given a plastic trumpet mouthpiece to 'buzz' on. The 'buzzing' went on, however, for what seemed like an eternity. During all the band practices in school, we did almost nothing but 'buzzing' on that plastic mouthpiece. Like any good student, I even diligently practised 'buzzing' on that mouthpiece daily at home.

But soon, my interest and enthusiasm started to wane. I lost patience and became quite sick of those increasingly boring 'buzzing' sessions. Even Mr Mak's regular treats of watermelon drinks, orange squash and blackcurrant drinks (which he bought from the secondary school next door using his own money) during the band practices couldn't entice me to go for the band practices anymore.

Even though Mr Mak and the band instructress, Miss Chan started at about this time to allocate instruments to us (I was given a cornet), my good friend called Lim Lian Lee and I decided to quit band. We both stopped going for band practices. We avoided Mr Mak and Miss Chan. We also stubbornly ignored all of their messages sent through our classmates, to go back to the band.

Then, one morning during school holidays, Miss Chan (who was a big-built and 'tomboy-ish' lady SSO trumpeter who always wore some strappy sandals) sent our classmates to our homes with a message that we must attend the band practice that day! And because this message arrived when Mother was at home, I had no choice but to 'comply' with the 'order'. So I changed into school uniform and then went to the band room.

I was expecting to hear some real stern or harsh lectures about quitting the band. So was Lian Lee who had also been similarly 'summoned' back to the band that morning. Both of us sat sheepishly at a side.

To our surprise, neither Mr Mak nor Miss Chan reprimanded us. They also did not say anything about us being wrong to quit to band. They just acted as if we had been attending band practices faithfully all along, and this was just another 'normal' band practice! We were just told to go get our instruments and start our warm-ups etc. I remember that Lian Lee and I were so puzzled that we had a little private discussion during break time to decide what we should do - we didn't really decide anything eventually.

At dismissal that day, Miss Chan merely reminded us to attend the next band practice. Weirdly enough, both Lian Lee and I '乖乖' attended the next band practice and all other band practices after that. Sigh, so much so for our 'running away' from the band! :)

Just in case anyone wonders - Lian Lee, who played the glockenspiel, later went on to assist Miss Chan to conduct the band (because she had formal music training - she already passed her Grade 5 piano practical exam when we were in P5) during school concerts. And I graduated from the cornet to a trumpet, which I continued to play, well into my secondary school band.

P3 was also significant because we had a change of principal. The new principal was a kind and friendly elderly man called Mr Huang. He replaced the previous principal called Mr Valli who was very much feared by the students. Mr Huang was a grandfatherly figure and my classmates and I liked him very much.

P4

P4 was my favourite year. This year, my class had some very special teachers.

Our form teacher was a lanky woman who pronounced 'w' as 'v' and 'v' as 'w'. She taught us English. I was quite sure she wasn't a very bright teacher, and the smart alec in me loved to challenge her. In fact, all the 'smarter' (and therefore 'naughtier') students in class loved to challenge her. I think her name was Mrs Hwee or Mrs Wee, I am not sure now. (For this post, I will just call her Mrs Wee, lah).

When Mrs Wee first came to our class, she complaint that our handwriting was not good. To our indignation (we were the best class, mah), she made us do handwriting practices! All of us protested that handwriting practices were for lower primary kids, not us at P4! I remember that I spoke up for the whole class, and she challenged me to go out to the blackboard there and then to show her that I knew my handwriting.

She drew 3 lines on the board and told me to write the letter 't'. She must have thought that I would write it such that the vertical stroke would touch the upper line (which is, strictly speaking, not correct). But I was too smart for her (I knew my stuff), and so I wrote it the 'proper' way - with the vertical stroke starting from midway between the upper line and middle line, and with a slight curve at the bottom line.

She didn't say anything when I walked back to my seat amidst the applause of my classmates, but I saw her pressed her lips tightly.

Mrs Wee also made herself very unpopular by making us sit on the floor whenever she wanted to explain lessons to us. Mind you, we had no mats in the classroom because only the P1's and P2's had such mats. The girls' dark blue pinafore and the boys' dark blue shorts would turn white with dust from the floor and we hated it. We did not want to be treated like we were still in P1 or P2. But Mrs Wee was quite poor in her EQ, and she turned a deaf ear to our protests. After a while, we stopped protesting.

Throughout the year, however, my classmates took turns to 'make things difficult' for her. We would argue with her over some things that she said. I remember that people like the top boy called Lin Yong Sin would also correct Mrs Wee's pronunciation every now and then. Yes, we were that mean to her.

C1-1 also didn't spare Mrs Wee. There was once during a 'free period' after the exams when Mrs Wee came into class in a huff and scolded us (I cannot remember why). Then she left us quickly. Immediately after she stepped out of the classroom, C1-1 went forward to the front of the class and imitated Mrs Wee's 'scolding' mannerism! Oh, boy! It was really funny! The whole class laughed uncontrollably! Then, suddenly, to our shock, someone spotted Mrs Wee standing just outside the classroom!

Not surprisingly, Mrs Wee gave us an earful before marching off in a huff again. There was a brief silence, then someone started to giggle and that sent the whole class laughing again... Hahahaa...

For Mathematics, we had Mr Fong, the Senior Assistant in the school. From what I remember, Mr Fong didn't teach many classes. I had also heard from CP that Mr Fong was a Mathematics 'specialist'.

During lesson time, Mr Fong was a very strict teacher who didn't talk very much. He would make eye contact, however, and it was sometimes a little 'scary' because his eyes were almost always a little 'blodshot'. He wrote his '4' in a special way, with the 1st stroke extra-long. Outside the class, Mr Fong smiled more readily.

A Mr Bala was our Science teacher that year. He was quite a mean teacher, and he wouldn't hesitate to be sarcastic to students who were weaker in the subject. My classmate Lee Lay Hoon (who is Shee Mui's cousin) was very afraid of him. But since I was good in my work, I had nothing to fear.

I remember that there was once he was 'chit-chatting' with the class. Out of the blue, he asked the class, "Who watches 'Sesame Street'?" A girl called Peh Siew Hian and her good friend called 黄小燕 raised their hands. And Mr Bala just snorted and laughed, "No wonder your English is of that standard!"!!!! Woah lao! Crazy man, hor! So rude and insensitive, too! Even though I didn't like these 2 girls (because a few of my friends and I had caught them 'cheating' at spelling tests and examinations before), I felt sorry that they had been unsuspecting victims of Mr Bala's senseless ridicule in front of everyone.

Our Chinese teacher was Mr Soon. Mr Soon was also the Prefect Master that year. One day, he summoned me to the Teachers' Room and told me to help him draw up a duty roster for the P4 prefects. I did a good (and very fair) roster, I remember, and when I submitted to him the roster, he instructed me to brief my fellow P4 prefects (who were mostly from my class anyway).

Because of this duty-roster assignment, my classmates started to tease me and call me the 'P4 head prefect'. They also teased that I would definitely be appointed the Vice Head Prefect the following year (P5's were the oldest in the afternoon session).

I suppose that since everything so far had always been smooth-sailing for me, my head also started to swell a little. I probably had become a little over-confident (maybe some people saw me as being conceited, I don't know) by then because academically, I was almost 'invincible'. As a prefect, I must have been the best P4 prefect too, otherwise, why would Mr Soon delegate to me an important task such as drawing up our duty roster and briefing the P4 prefects, right?!

So, inside me, I became quite confident too, that I would be the Vice Head Prefect the following year although to my friends, I never said anything. (In case anyone gets the wrong idea, I never behaved like a conceited student or friend, hor. I only continued to do my best in my studies and to carry out my normal prefect duties as usual. In fact, I told my friends to stop calling me 'P4 head prefect' because there was no such thing and that I wouldn't want to "count the eggs before they hatch".)

Some time during the 2nd term, a new vice principal came to the school. This man was a completely detestable character. I suspect that he was a male chauvinistic pig because when previously, the class registers (which class monitress would help fetch to and from the general office for our teachers) had listed girls first, he decreed the moment he came that this practice must be changed. He instructed that all class registers be re-done such that boys were listed first, followed by girls. I came to know this only much later when some 'closer' teachers shared this with my classmates and myself.

This MCP was a bespectacled man called Mr Ho. He looked like a monkey with a perpetual slight hunch. I really hated him.



P5

This was a watershed year for me. Many things happened this year and I suddenly grew up a lot.

We had an old, mousy-eyed spinster called Miss Chua for our form teacher. Many classmates liked her. For this post, I will call her the C-bitch.

I didn't have any problem with C-bitch at first. In fact, I was looking forward to being taught by this teacher because YP had told me that the C-bitch was 'very good'. YP had been taught by her earlier.

One day, during recess, my classmates and I decided to stay in the classroom instead of going out to the canteen. We were joking and 'fooling around'. Then, one of the girls said something about I having a special liking for a rich Indonesian boy called Indrasani who had just joined the class that year. I told her not to spout rubbish and at the same time, gave her a slight tap on her upper arm to warn her against continuing such nonsense teasing. We then continued to laugh and joke quite noisily.

Miss Chua, who was also in the class then, shouted at me, "Hey! TLP, how can you be so violent?! You are such a BIG bully!" Both the girl and me were stunned by her sudden outburst. But because I had never been really 'shouted at' by any teacher (never at all) all these years, I instinctively felt very embarrassed. Even though I knew I was innocent and hadn't 'bullied' my friend!
The girl whose arm I had tapped reassured the C-bitch that I hadn't really 'hit' her. But the C-bitch insisted, "No, no, no, I saw her beating you up!" The C-bitch continued to glare at me with her heavily-penciled (eye-liner) mousy eyes wide-opened. What a dog-shit bitch that C-bitch really was! 很明显的，她就是要在鸡蛋里挑石头！

During the course of the year, I avoided the C-bitch wherever possible. I just continued to do my best for my work. It was very obvious to me that the C-bitch did not like me at all because I never scored half as well in my English compositions as before even though personally, I felt that I had improved tremendously. (By the time I was in P5, I had already read most of the more-famous works of Pearl S Buck. Like HA, I was an advanced reader, having completed many Famous Five, Hardy Boys, Magnificent Seven & The Naughtiest Girl series fiction in P3-P4.)

Mr Loh was my Chinese teacher in P5. He was a typical '骗吃' old-school kind of Chinese teacher - an empty vessel. He used medicated oil almost all the time, so our class called him '臭虫'. He loved to abuse his position to order the boys to go to buy coffee for him from the canteen. Actually, this was very dangerous because the steaming hot coffee would be in a glass (not cup, so it was very difficult to handle) and the canteen was 4 classrooms and a flight of stairs away from the Teachers' Room! I only helped 臭虫 buy coffee once.

One day, I was asked by Mr Fong to lead the school in reciting The Pledge. I took on the task, of course, with much enthusiasm and pride. I learnt to handle the loud hailer into which I would recite The Pledge, phrase by phrase, during each assembly. Lin Yong Sin and another boy were in charge of retrieving the loud-hailer from the general office to the assembly 'stage' and then back to the general office, everyday.

At an assembly some time in February, I led the school in the recital as usual. After that, Mr Bala who had replaced Mr Soon (who had left the school) as the Prefect Master, took over the loud-hailer. He announced that it was time to appoint the Vice Head Prefect and to re-appoint the prefects for the afternoon session.

He then proceeded to read out the names of the newly-appointed/re-appointed prefects. I was the first to be called. I went on stage and my classmates followed suit as their names were called. We all stood in one row, facing the school.

Then, after about 10+ names had been called, Mr Bala announced that Ragesh (a friendly, chubby Indian boy with very big eyes) would be the new Vice Head Prefect! Ragesh ran forward and happily went on stage. As he did so, I found myself in a whirl - Huh?! Why Ragesh?! He hadn't even been a prefect before?! How did it become like that?! It didn't help that I saw each and every one of my fellow prefects on stage lean forward and turned their heads to steal a glance at me, all with looks of disbelief!....... I returned to the class quite 'dazed' that afternoon. Naturally, I was very upset.

I told CP that evening what had happened. And we discussed a lot. I shared with her how 'unfair' it had seemed to be to me, that a 'new bird' like Ragesh had been made the Vice Head Prefect. We agreed that if they had appointed someone who had been a prefect before, I might have felt better. Anyway, I finally resolved to quit being a prefect.

For the next few days, I deliberately turned up late for my prefect duties. Then, on the 3rd day, I went to see Mr Bala and told him that because my school bus would now usually be later than previously (which was, coincidentally, also true), I could no longer report for prefect duties early. I asked to step down as a prefect. Mr Bala readily agreed. Not one question was asked, no word of thanks for the hard work put in so far. Nothing at all. His simple "OK" reply thus marked the end of my 'glamorous' prefect career.

I knew that Ragesh's appointment was a planned move to 'displace' me (maybe I was really getting too good for the teachers?). I did not try to hide my disappointment at all. Some good teachers like Mrs Khoo (an elderly lady who gave us some music lessons and who was also C2's teacher previously) and Mr Tan Kim Peng comforted me and told me not to think about it - mind you, I didn't even say anything to any of them, ok! And yet they could on their own come to 'console' me and tell me not to lose heart!

Anyway, I resolved from that day onwards that I would work doubly hard in my studies and show those politicking 'teachers' my real steel. I told myself, "Ok, since they want to put me down, I will make sure I do even better in my studies and sweep all the prizes and make them jump."

So, doubly hard I worked for the whole year. I revised my work well, did the daily assessment practices in the Chinese newspapers faithfully. I read even more widely than before. I picked up the habit of flipping through dictionaries to learn new words randomly. I also made it a point to regularly flip through the 6-book volume of 'Encyclopedia' which C1 had given to us earlier on.

My hard work paid off. For the final year exams that year, not only did I top the standard, I scored the highest in all subjects except for Chinese (which was topped by a Malaysian girl 2 years our senior). Finally, I felt vindicated. I was very happy. So was CP.

As was the usual practice, the school organised a book fair and invited the prize-winners (ie the 1st 3 positions in each standard plus the top-scorer of each subject in each standard) to go select their preferred book prizes. I was asked to select 2 books. I felt a little puzzled but didn't say anything. Others who were asked to go select books included Lian Lee (for 3rd position in standard), the Malaysian girl who scored highest for Chinese and an Indonesian boy called Indrasani.

Indrasani was about 3 years our senior, a relatively good badminton player, played the guitar well and was 2nd position in standard - he displaced Lian Lee from the 2nd position which Lian Lee had held on to from Pri 1 to Pri 3. He was the C-bitch's blue-eye boy. The C-bitch loved to suck up to his Indonesian Chinese parents who once contributed fishballs and some kuehs for our class party.

The practice then was that the selected books would each be marked by a sticker stating who its recipient was and what book prize it was. The sticker would be signed by the principal. And then the books would be wrapped and given out to the winners at the year-end prize-giving ceremony.

Having been 'played out' by the 'teachers' before, I suspected that something was amiss - I should have been asked to select 4 books, not 2, right? So I went to find out why. Eventually, I came to know that the C-bitch had arranged for Indrasani to take the Mathematics prize and Science prize even though he had only the 2nd-highest scores in these subjects!

Woah lao! How can?! How could they do such injustice to me yet again?!

When I got home that day, I cried my heart out. I cried so badly that everybody at home became very concerned. At first, I could not even explain what the problem was, and it was only later in the evening that I found my voice and told Mother and CP what had happened.

The next day, I went to school as usual. I remember that Peck See, Shee Mui, Lian Lee and myself were playing a board game happily during a 'free period' (there were plenty of free periods after exams) in the class when suddenly, the C-bitch stormed into the classroom and yelled at me, "TLP!"

Everyone was stunned. All games stopped instantly. The C-bitch proceeded to walk towards me and ordered me to go to the principal's office with her that very minute! I think, if she could, she would have pulled my ears and dragged me there (like the Bull-Dog in Tom&Jerry would do to Tom). She was acting absolutely like a Siao-Chabo, really gone berserk type!

When we reached the principal's office, Mr Huang was not there. The monkey Mr Ho was. From what the C-bitch said to him, I realised that Mother had, without letting me know beforehand, gone to 'confront' the teachers in school, asking why they had done the very unjust thing (of stealing the honour of being the top scorers in Mathematics and Science from me) to me. I think the C-bitch probably got some lecture about it after that and that was why she was so mad. (Mother said she had spoken only to Mr Loh because he was the only Chinese-speaking teacher around when Mother went to school.)

The C-bitch arranged for the monkey Mr Ho to sign a fresh sticker in my name, and this was pasted over the original one, for the 2 books which Indrasani had selected. The C-bitch let me go after some more close-range yelling at me. All the time, I just stood in silence expressionless - no need for me to say anything, mah.

That evening and for the few evenings after that, I discussed at length with Mother and CP what I should do. I was so proud of Mother and felt very comforted that she actually '为我出头'. This was especially significant because CP, YP, HA and myself had never given trouble in school and Mother had never really had to go to school to see the principal or any teacher over our 'matters'. (Just for contrast, C2 was quite often invited to meet the principal/teachers because Chris and Nic had some disciplinary problems in school then.)

CP even verified with her good friends in other schools that it was 'normal' not to have a quota on the number of prizes a student can win. From what I remember, her friend called Tay Kay Hwee who was then in TKGS had reassured CP that even established schools like TKGS had no qualms about giving multiple prizes to a winner and there should not be such unfair manipulation of awarding of prizes.

So, with the help of CP, I wrote a brief but meaningful script for the prize-giving ceremony. I rehearsed it over and over again.

Giving speeches in those days was common for me. I was often called upon by the teachers to give speeches at various school assemblies eg when it was 'Keep Our School Clean' Campaign, 'Coutesy' Campaign, 'Road Safety' Campaign etc. Even those "Teachers' Day" speeches where I would represent the school in thanking the teachers for their effort in teaching us, were all done by me. (Many of the scripts which I used were drafted with the help of C2's wife. I was very grateful to her for this. She was then bringing Chris and Nic to school and when she dropped the boys off, she would at the same time, pick HA and I up and give us a lift home on her way to C2's office. She would always oblige me when I asked her for help to draft the scripts.)

On the day of the prize-giving ceremony, Mr Fong was the emcee. All the prizes were given out, P1's went first, followed by P3's. I think HA won something too, I cannot remember the details, though.

When it came to the P5's, Mr Fong called my name for the 1st position in standard. Then Indrasani was called to receive the prize for the 2nd position in standard. Lian Lee followed for the 3rd position. Then, the Chinese prize was given out, followed by the English, Mathematics and Science prizes. I was named the winner of the last 3 prizes.

After I received the 3 subject prizes, I requested Mr Fong to allow me to speak for a few minutes. After he said ok, I took over the microphone (yes, we used the standing mike for that ceremony, no the loud-hailer!). Then, I proceeded to thank all my teachers for teaching me well. I told the school that I have been very privileged to have scored the highest in all these 3 subjects and given the honour to receive the prizes. But I would like to share the Mathematics and Science prizes with my classmate, Indrasani. Then I handed these 2 prizes back to Mr Fong, and returned to my seat amongst my 'blur' classmates (who probably did not even know what was happening).

For moments, no one moved. I am sure the teachers were not expecting this. Then Mr Fong regained his composure, and signalled for Indrasani to go to receive the books which Mr Huang re-gave out.

I remember vividly how Mr Huang, Mr Fong, Mr Tan Kim Peng, Mrs Khoo, Mr Loh and some other teachers applauded and smiled that day at the ceremony. Even Miss Shepherdson (HA's teacher at one time) who usually wore a stone-faced look, nodded and clapped.

To people who had not been present or who had not known this story, the above must have sounded very super dramatic and incredible. But it was really what happened.

我没有加盐、加醋。事情的经过，当时的情形，真的就是这么‘戏剧化’。

School camps

In P4, I went to the school camp held at Punggol. This was the 1st time I had taken part in a camp outside the school compunds, and so it was very exciting.

There were many games and quizes, some challenging, others so-so only.

What was most memorable of that camp was this lesson that I learnt at a dinner one day. My team members had come to the dinner table at different times because we all had to take our shower first. As each of us sat at the table, the teacher-in-charge (who taught other classes Chinese but I cannot remember his name) told us to wait for the rest to come. Finally, when all had arrived, we tucked into our dinner.

Some of us ate faster than the others and so some finished ahead of others. Those of us who had finished our food first stood up, intending to bring our empty plates to the kitchen for washing. But guess what?! As soon as we stood up, that teacher-in-charge shouted at us, "Where do you think you are going?!How can you leave the table without waiting fo the rest of the people at the table?!"

Honestly, I had no idea that standing up to go wash my plate first was not allowed or was rude! Personally, I thought it was alright because we had to line up at the kitchen sink to wash up our own plates, so why wait to 'cramp together' later, right? So, those of us (including me) who had stood up immediately dropped back onto our chairs, shocked to be shouted at. One boy actually explained our intention to the teacher-in-charge, who then barked at him, "Sit down and wait for the rest to finish first!"

Those who were still eating also started to gobble up their food. After a while, we all stood up together and went to join the queue at the kitchen.

(Ok, now we know it is not polite to leave the dining table before the rest are done, but back at home in those days, we mostly did not even get to sit down together at a table to eat our meals together, so how were we supposed to know, right?)

The school camp in P5 was held in Sentosa and we stayed at the then Sentosa Youth Hostel. The camp was about a week or so. The main coordinator of the camp was the C-bitch (who was also leading the Scouts in the school then).

At the camp, my team comprised students from different upper primary classes and with varying talents. There were 2 very 'small' and timid girls from some P4 classes (who were quite good at drawing) and 2 or 3 'pai-gia' from some P6-repeat class (who were the 'star' players in some inter-team socer matches and who were the main contributors in the tug-of-war during the camp). From P6A, there were Ragesh and myself (we were the 'brains' who contributed substantially in the quizes). With such 'varied people', we won almost every game and every quiz during the camp. :)

On the 2nd last day of the camp, it was parents-visit day. Father and Mother brought HA to visit me - HA had a freshly-cut new hair style, I remember, and I was shocked to see it: crew-cut leh!

As part of the concert for parents, a talentime was held. I was both the emcee as well as a talentime contestant. I played a Mozart movement on the descant recorder (I was a very seasoned recorder player, having been in the school's Recorder Group for 3-years then - YP was also a member in the Recorder Group) and scored very well for my performance. Indrasani did a number on his guitar. He played well too.

Being the emcee, I was handed the judges' score-cards at the end of the talentime. The judges were the principal, Mr Huang and his very 和蔼可亲 wife.

To my surprise, I saw that I had scored the highest, with a lead of 2 points more than the 2nd-highest score contestant - none other than Indrasani, lah!

However, I was told by the C-bitch to wait for several minutes before announcing the results of the talentime. The C-bitch, together with 2 other teachers (I cannot remember who they were) 'needed to discuss' the results first.

Eventually, when the 'final decision' was ready, I was told to annouce that Indrasani was the champion and I was the 1st runner-up. What irony, hor?! Sigh.

P6

On the 1st day of P6, I reached school extra early. Father sent HA and I to school before going to work. When we arrived in school, it was still dark. It also partly because it was this year that they decided to adjust the time earlier by half an hour.

I was not surprised at all that the C-bitch was no longer my form teacher. She took charge of Primary 5B (next door).

My new form teacher was Mr Kheng. Mr Kheng was not new to us because he had earlier on taught us Mathematics briefly in P4 whenever Mr Fong was not available.

Although Mr Kheng was a tall man, he was not exactly strong. He often had headaches and would pop panadols every now and then, even in class. He also had sensitive nose, so we would often find him sniffing away into his handkerchief! He once told us that he had never served National Service because the officials had lost his file, and that he was so disappointed about it. Mr Kheng was a big fan of Bruce Lee.

As a teacher, Mr Kheng was very objective. He didn't show favouritism. He would scold the boys very 'hard' whenever they misbehaved or 'disturbed' the girls; he would compliment whenever he thought someone did especially well. Once, he was so pleased with C1-1's composition that he read aloud to the class the phrase which particularly impressed him. I remember it was "I walked my dog after dinner...."

Mr Kheng was very hardworking. He told us that he had not done well in his studies when he was a student, and so he had registered himself as a private candidate to re-sit for his A-level subjects. At that time, he was preparing himself for a Science paper. I think, with each A-level subject pass, the teacher could get an increment in salary.

One day, we were given a Science test in class. One of the multiple-choice questions asked was "Name the lightest gas." My answer was 'hydrogen'. Half the class also chose that answer whilst most of the other half selected 'helium' as their answer. Those who gave the answer 'hydrogen' were marked wrong.

I was quite sure that my answer was right. I remembered reading from the 'Encyclopedia' at home that helium was used to fill hot air balloons because the lightest gas (hydrogen) was too combustible and dangerous for this purpose. I remembered reading about the Hindenburg disaster.

So, when I got home, I checked our 'Encyclopedia'. True enough, I was right! So, the next day, I brought the particular volume of the 'Encyclopedia' to school to show to Mr Kheng that the correct answer should be 'hydrogen'. Mr Kheng was very receptive and asked to borrow the book for reading. He brought it to the Teachers' Room to discuss it with the other teachers too. When he returned, he announced to the class that the teachers had been mistaken, and that the lightest gas is 'hydrogen'.

So, adjustments were made to the Science test results. Everyone was quite relieved to finally know the 'correct' answer although people who had chosen 'helium' purely by guess-work grumbled a bit about 'losing' one point.

Some weeks later, when some of my classmates were 'chit-chatting' with Mr Kheng during recess when Mr Kheng mentioned (by a slip of his tongue) that the C-bitch had doubted the accuracy of the volume of the Encyclopedia that I brought to show Mr Kheng. Sigh, tells us a lot about the C-bitch's attitude, right?

My Chinese teacher in P6 was an elderly Mr Loke. He was ok, and he loved to ask me to help him carry the books which the class had handed in to him at the end of his lessons (last period of the day), to the Teachers' Room. He would tell me that I could then just go home directly from there, so I always got this little privilege of going home just slightly earlier than my classmates. He also granted this 'privilege' to Yong Sin who sometimes helped to carry the books too. (I would then go to 叔叔's school bus earlier and 'relax' in the bus a bit while waiting for the rest of the people to come, lor.)

My Chinese improved tremendously in P6. I think part of the reason was because Mr Loke was quite into the Chinese classics. He encouraged me to try reading Chinese fiction which until then, I had always been quite apprehensive about because most Chinese fiction had those more complicated-looking 繁体字.

In P6, I came to realise that there were in fact different 'gangs' amongst the Chinese teachers! It was a 'free period' (I told you that there were many of them) after the midyear exams. Mr Tan Kim Peng came to oversee the class. We chit-chatted a little, and out of the blue, Mr Tan said to me, "LP, 你知道吗？　你应该谢谢我。"

I was very very curious and could not understand why he said that. So I asked, “为什么呢？” Mr Tan replied, “其实，你在年中考试的试卷里，做得很好，　你考到满分。　Mr Loh 想从那里扣几分出来，可是我劝他不可以这样做。　最后，他才没有扣你的分数。” Ha?!

华语讲故事比赛

There was an annual Chinese story-telling contest in the school. I remember that I started taking part in it from P2. At first, I did not do very well. In P2 and P3, I won a consolation prize. In P4, however, I practised hard and won the 3rd prize. (I think those Teachers' Day 'speeches' etc also helped to build up some confidence and lessen the stage fright.)

In P5, CP helped to choose a very good story for me. It was '威廉泰尔' aka William Tell. This was actually a story from her Secondary school Chinese textbook. I loved the story very much, and practised very hard.

Days before the story-telling contest, I had a dream. I dreamt that I stood on the stage and spoke so fluently, it was incredible. It was as if the story-teller in me had suddenly been 'awoken' and I went on and on most 'naturally'....

On the day of the contest, I did very well. Even I myself was surprised - that I could actually be good at story-telling, too! I was named the 1st runner-up. I was elated! The perenial champion called 黄小燕 continued to reign as champion.

After recess, however, when I went to the Teachers' Room to collect some exercise books for my class, I overheard the Chinese teachers' conversation:

老师甲：刚才的讲故事比赛，LP 表演得真不错！

老师乙：是啊，挺生动的，尤其是那段威廉泰尔把箭射出去时，还有“嗖”的一声，真的是表现得很好！

老师甲：其实，应该让 LP 拿冠军。小燕今年的表现都没怎么样，没比 LP 的故事精彩。

老师乙：是啊，我也同意。 可是，大家都认为如果不让小燕拿冠军，太不好意思了。

So, it turned out that I had performed better, but did not clinch the 1st prize because otherwise, the teachers would have found it 'hard' to explain why they did not give the 1st prize to the perenial champion. 黄小燕's father was then a civil servant (I know because he had invited the class to a government bungalow somewhere in Loyang during one school holiday). I have nothing against 黄小燕 or her father, but the teachers' actions were, in my view, very despicable.

In P6, CP and I decided on the story of 苏武牧羊 for the story-telling contest. This time, I did even better. I was so at ease on stage, the story just unfolded before my own eyes as I told the story in front of all the P6 classes. My classmates congratulated me heartily as I returned to sit with my class after I was done on stage. I think they really enjoyed the story, too.

By now, I knew it was not likely that I would win the 1st prize - not because I was not good enough or other contestants were better, but because it would have already been pre-decided who the champion was to be.

True enough, 黄小燕 still took the 1st prize. Only this time, it was my classmates who started to voice out and 'protest' to Mr Loke that I should have been the champion because I had told my story much better than her. I never told any of my classmates the conversation I had overheard and yet, 他们主动地为我抱不平！ I was very touched.

Incidentally, I also saw 黄小燕's script - it was full of hanyu pinyin and all kinds of scribbling. I think she did not really understand her story. In contrast, my script was a neatly written story with minimal hanyu pinyin over a few 生词. And I really appreciated the story, so I think I was more 投入 in my story than 小燕 was in hers.

无论如何，当年的华语讲故事比赛， 实在是那样的‘黑暗’。 真可悲啊！

Best-All-Round-Pupil Trophy

Sometime during the 2nd half of the year, I took part in the inter-class badminton tournament. In the heats, it was a walkover because my designated opponent did not turn up.

On the day of the Finals, I had fever. However, I refused to heed Mother's advice to give the game a miss - how can, right?! The finals was between a girl from P5B and myself from P5A. More than half of my class would be there to support and cheer me on! How could I let them down and give my opponent a walkover?!

So, I went ahead with the game and narrowly beat my opponent from P5B to clinch the championship. After the game (which was held in the morning), my classmates accompanied me to meet up with Mother at the Tai Seng (or was it Kong Kian?) Clinic along Upper Paya Lebar Road to see the doctor. I think I was given medical leave for the following day.

Just before we sat for the PSLE, the school held its annual prize-giving ceremony. I took the 1st-in-standard prize and the prizes for Chinese and Maths. In addition, I was named the Best-All-Round Pupil of the cohort and I received the trophy for this award - it is now still standing on my book shelf. This was the highest honour which was given to the pupil who had performed best in all aspects. I believe I was the 2nd recipient of this award.

PSLE came and went quite swiftly. I remember my index number had a letter 'D' at its end, and the invigilators would remind me to make sure that it was clearly written on my scripts. I thought this was rather weird, because I had never had any problem with my handwriting.

Anyway, the papers were not exceptionally difficult, so the whole examinations went quite smoothly. The only 'hiccup' was the sudden nature's call that I had to answer urgently when I was doing the Maths paper. I remember that it felt a little awkward to be told to empty my pinafore pocket before being allowed to go to the toilet. The poor invigilator who accompanied me to the toilet at first waited for me at the wash basin area, but he had to later move further away from the cubicles to the area just outside the toilet. Hahahahaaa....

PSLE Results

On the day that the PSLE results were released, I went to school myself. Some of my classmates were accompanied by their parents. C1-1 was accopanied by C1's wife. I think 黄小燕's father also went.

We were all seated as a class in our classroom. When Mr Kheng came in with the result slips, he spoke a little about going on to secondary school. Then he said that he was very pleasantly surprised and very comforted to know that the students in BPS (which he confessed was but a primary school tucked away in a little-known kampong area) could produce a top-scorer whose score was a mere 10 points less than the top score in the whole of Singapore that year! I think he was rather emotional about it.

So, I scored 416 (oops, sorry, i checked again - it was 413, not 416). The national top score that year was 426 (and this was 423, not 426). I had expected to do better, actually.

Anyway, C1's wife 'appeared' to be very happy for me, and she actually said something like 'Well done!' to me after Mr Kheng had handed out all the result slips to us. My classmates and I went our separate ways after that. Only Yong Sin and I took the same bus back home.

Everybody at home was very happy to know that I had done well. As Mother had promised me, we had a party to celebrate the PSLE achievement. I invited my friends and some teachers to our house. Our cousins also came. It was a 'grand' affair by our standard then. I remember that we even ordered a 2kg blueberry-topping cake which had 4 A* on it. :)

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BPS is, of course, no longer existing today. It merged with Elling South and Elling North some years after I left it.