Single sex school is part of my early life and also one of the reasons I’m able to be in university right now. Not saying that it’s a guarantee for future success though, but, without education there, I don’t think I’d be growing up as a useful human.
SIGS – Sultan Ibrahim Girls School, Johor Bahru. The place I’ve so many memories about. Teachers, friends, seniors & juniors, sports day, assembly in a very hot hall, and on top of all, the prefectorial board I was in for four consecutive years.
Miss Bulwinder Kaur, the most unforgettable teacher I’ve ever had. She’s just hilarious and incredible! When she first entered my class, we students couldn’t understand her words coz she spoke so damn fast! And its surprising that she was able to maintain the perfect Malay language (she isn’t a Malay), and yes, she was my Form 5 teacher for that subject. I’ve never enjoyed learning BM in my life, but she has successfully changed that. An-hour-lesson seemed like only 10 minutes. And the best part was, we weren’t just studying it. But we could also see the beauty of our mother-tongue in an enjoyable way.
Seniors & juniors – Hoho. Some might have negative thoughts of all-girls and all-boys schools. I remembered a time when there was a proposal to government saying that single-sex-school should be banned as cases of wrong sexual orientation increased, which means people blamed this type of education centre for the introduction of gays and lesbians in the society. I’m not going to deny it, coz some of the justifications are right. But one thing I’m very sure about, the pros of having my kind of school are far greater than the cons. And sometimes, students get confused about their own identity and preference and I believe this as a part of growing up to know what you really are. What I’m seeing right now is, more and more of boyish girls in my school are returning straight. Rough appearance remains outside, and their inner self are still completely women basic instinct.
It has been sort of a ‘culture’ to the students of my school to write small cute notes to our seniors & juniors. I mean, we play favoritisms. Cute, popular ones would always be the apple of some eyes. They’d be given birthday presents, dedications, wishes, notes and much more. I don’t think this is harmful, and I see this as sisterhood. We left school, but our friendship remains alive. :D
Sports day is being held annually, usually at the beginning of a year. All kinds of practices are being done – marching, bands, cheering, decorations and what not. I was involved in the marching of prefect squad for three years if I’m not mistaken. All marching squads would follow the beats played by the bands. My school’s band is quite well-known in my district. Then cheerleaders. Their voices are hell loud! Coz in order to win, judges must hear the cheers. So just imagine how big a stadium is, and cheering girls of each house (blue, red, yellow, green) would be on the opposite from the grand stand where the judges would be in. And they could not stop yelling, shouting and cheering until the end of everything. Now you know why students of all-girls schools have men’s voices. ;)
I was the Vice Secretary of Prefectorial Board when I was in Form 3 and Vice President later when I was in Form 5. Though conducting assembly wasn’t something new for me back then, I’d still get stage fright in front of everybody, especially if it’s Monday. The principal would be there, sometimes the scripts were altered last minute, and if worst ever, the school song’s cd failed to play and we prefects couldn’t find a pianist. So before the assembly starts, we’d always check everything out. But sometimes, things did happen outside of our control, especially when it comes to electronic devices. And I was a Science-stream student, so how the hell did I ever know about wires and plugs?? HAHA. ;p
I’m thankful for everything I had, and I believe I’d not be where I am today without facing those experiences before. And on top of all, I’m extremely grateful that I was raised up in a single-sex school. Coz I’d never ever had to pretend, it makes me, ME. :D
Shafuraa Onn. 270111. 0013. Kolej Ungku Omar, UKM, Bangi.
No comments:
Post a Comment