School Meme

Thought this meme initiated by Nik Nazmi is an excellent one to reminisce lots of bittersweet memories – and to kill my time before the rombongan Cik Kiah arrives tomorrow, insya Allah…

How many schools did I go to?
A few. SRK Tunku Abdul Malik in Kulim in Standard 1. SK Sungai Petani a.k.a Sekolah Jalan Sekerat in Standard 2. Both SRK Tunku Abdul Malik and Sekolah Jalan Sekerat in Standard 3, because that was the year my brothers and I kept bouncing from one parent to another during the custody battle. When Ayah finally won custody, my biological mother still picked us from the school in Kulim, often by force, with some help from teachers who had no clear idea of what was going on. We hopped in Ayah’s car happily every time Ayah picked us back in Sungai Petani though. After about 2 months of this bouncing here and there, Ayah stopped sending us to school altogether, so my younger brother and I had a lot to catch up when we re-entered school the following year, in PJ, SRK Damansara Utama. Two years there, and my last year of primary education was spent in SRK Kampung Tunku. I only attended one secondary school though – joined the first generation of the then newly built and newly re-named SMAP, located in the middle of a rubber estate plantation in Labu, Negeri Sembilan.

Was I the studious nerd, or the last minute hero?
Nerd, maybe. Studious, almost never. While not a hero, since sloth is one of my biggest downfall, I usually procrastinate studying and doing assignments until last minute. And yes, it’s a habit that lives on until today.

Was I the class ‘taiko’ or the teacher’s pet?
Never a taiko, but when I was in upper secondary, I somehow became well known enough among the juniors. Probably because I was part of this Looky-looky Gang (which had the aura of taiko, but not quite) or because I was one of the co-opians (who tended the school’s co-op store, hence known by many)

Never been a teacher’s pet – unless anybody counting me as my Mathematics teacher in Form 5, Pak Chat’s pet, because he almost always inquired about me whenever I was not in class (I was very busy with lots of clubs and societies and since he wasn’t a great Mathematics teacher, I usually used his periods to attend to club/society’s matters)

I might score as an anti-teacher’s pet though – had this big clash with my Form 4 Science teacher, who actually shooed me away from attending her class for no clear reasons. She was a lousy liar – told my parents that I was a nuisance in her class and always bothered my friends, where else prior to denying me entry to her class, she had been making disdainful remarks about me being a Pembimbing Rakan Sebaya who could not even bimbing my own close friend, taunting whether or not "mak bapak tak ajar ke". Not long after my parents met her, she started another rumor, telling my juniors that I was having a lesbian relationship with a classmate. To date I still had no idea what she wanted to accomplish by making up absurd stories about me and a few others, but one of my fondest memory was getting A1 for Science in SPM despite her curse the previous year that I would never score an A in her subject.

What was the biggest rule I broke in school?
I’m yet undecided whether it was bringing or aiding and abetting in bringing in and distributing prohibited items such as walkman, cassettes, romance novels, etc. But, no, I was never caught for those.

Together with a few friends, I did got 'caught' not attending one ceramah though. We were busy working on some exhibits in conjunction with the school’s 10th anniversary and decided to give one ‘ceramah wajib’ a miss. The next thing we knew, we were tipped off that some ustazs were going around the school checking on who was not attending the ceramah. We quickly switched off the lights and ceiling fans. But the fans were still moving as the ustazs entered the room, while we hid under the tables, too afraid even to breathe. One of the reknown garang ustaz made remarks along the line of “Aikk…kasut tersusun. Aikk… kipas berpusing. Tapi orangnya mana?” a clear hint that they knew there were people hiding in that room. Another ustaz switched on the lights, revealing all of us crouching under the tables, chuckled and asked how were we supposed to continue working on the exhibits in the dark. They inspected the stuff we were working on for a while and then went on their way, asking us to carry on with our task. That was really embarrassing, but at least we got away with it.

Three subjects I enjoyed

History. Been a big fan of history even when I was still in primary school. Mr Jega, my history teacher from Form 1 to Form 3 also was skilled enough to make the class interesting all the way.

English. Having missed almost a year of schooling plus the fact that I used to school in rural area where not many cared much for English made me an ill-prepared new student in SRK Damansara Utama, where almost everybody seemed to speak the language well. I once got only 19 marks for an English test. Mak was the one responsible to introduce me to the wonders of English through great tutoring and introduction to Enid Blyton books in English (I’d been reading her stories in BM prior to that). I studied hard enough to get an A in my Penilaian Darjah 5 a year later. I first learned to enjoy writing in English when I was in Form 4, greatly motivated not by own Set teacher, but rather my class teacher, Miss Bernice.

Nihongo. Attended a basic communications class in 2003, but what I’d learned in that class is almost nothing compared to what I’d learned in Nihongo 1. People might say that girls have a thing for learning foreign language and are more likely to be good in it, but since I got a P8 for Arabic in SPM despite learning it for 5 years, I can vouch that we don’t necessarily enjoy or become good in just every foreign language that we learn. Not that I'm good in Nihongo as yet - but this is one subject I really enjoy learning.

Three teachers that inspired me

Hajah Jessimah. The Headmistress in SRK Kampung Tunku who, despite being single back then, was looked up as a second mother by most students in the school. She was both gentle and firm in leading the school to be one of the exemplary schools in Petaling Jaya at the height of its times.

Miss Bernice Chauly, my class teacher in Form 4. She taught English in set 2, but I used to keep two journals when I was in Form 4, one for Miss Lucy, my own English teacher, and the other for Miss Bernice, because I liked her allowing the students to be creative in our writing. She was the first to recognize my ability to write and was the one responsible in enrolling me in a district level writing competition. I did not do well in that competition, but it was the beginning of bigger things to come. She was a fresh graduate then, but she showed a lot of understanding, compassion and extended her friendship to many of us who were seeking such teacher’s figure back then.

Mr Ghazali Shafie. My wacky songkok-wearing English teacher in college who would talk freely about his days as a student so that we could learn from his experiences. His wife used to teach in the same college, but not my class. They used to live in the college compound and I remember how they sometimes spent time strolling around the college with their kids, looking very much the picture of a happy Islamic family.

And I hereby pass this on to:

Zyrin (yes, again…)
Jaja (you too)
Doc (because she's my schoolmate)
Nisah (because she went to the same school with hubby)
Kakaq (because she was in Sarawak)
Sabah (because he went to a Chinese school)
Marinadelrey (because I think you might like this one)