Today is Teacher's Day. Strangely, I remembered because when I turned up at work today, I received 2 Happy Teacher's Day card from my staff. I did not expect it because of the way I stereotype my work. On one of the card, it read:
"Thank you for your kopi (coffee in English). I must say you do have a way to fire up a person's desire to go beyond his or her call of duty : ) Much appreciate the sharing & nice chat. Will remain charged up. Glad to be here in SGH!"
The sense of appreciation that I felt was sweet. It is nice to know that the time and effort that you've deposited in your staff is worth it, and that they have gone some way in creating meaning for the person's work.
In the same way, today, I want to honour my Ex-Raffles Junior College Principal Rudy Mosbergen. In a sense, I owe who I am able to be today in part to him. Many of us at RJC would remember him as the man who make "famous" the phrase "The Mind is a terrible thing to waste". At the Paterson campus and later the Mt Sinai Campus, it was virtually impossible to escape the phrase because it would be at the locker and even right in front of you at the Urinal. One would have expected the urinal classic "we aim to please, you aim too please" but at RJC during the reign of Mr Mosbergen it shall be "The mind is a terrible thing to waste."
I guess Mr Mosbergen really meant it. Here is my story...
In 1983, I did well enough in my secondary 4 finals to gain admission into RJC for the first 3 months as I await my GCE "O" level results. When the "O Levels" results were finally out, I promptly went to my school to collect my results. My form teacher reached out to me when I was entering the assigned classroom, held me by arms and told me "Hee Jug, it is alright ok...?" I was confused by her gesture but also startled by the fact that bad news may begin to unfold.
True enough, when I collected my result slip, I realised to my horror that even though I scored A's for almost all subjects, I failed my English. During my day, this spells doom as passing the English language was a pre-requisite. My dream of returning to RJC was dashed! I was devastated! I was not able to get into any 2-year JC programme and could only managed admission to a 3-year Pre-U class at my old school. I lost all motivation to study.
With encouragement from my parents, I decided to make an appointment to see Mr Mosbergen to appeal for admission. I was hoping against hope as it would hardly be an exception for RJC to accept a student who failed the English language. Finally, the day of the appointment came. I entered the principal's office and saw Mr Mosbergen face to face. To tell the truth, I trembled. He asked what he could do for me. I decided that I should go straight to the point and asked him to make an exception to admit me. He took a look at my results and after pondering for a while, looked up, smiled and he told me that I would be provisionally admitted subject to me passing my "O Level" English language at the end of JC 1.
He gave me a second chance!
That was the turning point for me. I wasted no time to improve my command of the English language. I started to read widely, scrutinising every sentence that I came across to figure the use of punctuations and grammar. I developed an interest in general affairs through reading the Times, Newsweek magazines and the Straits times. These not only helped me to improve my English but also in my performance in the General papers. When the time came for me to re-take my GCE "O" Levels English language exam, I breeze through the papers and scored A1. The momentum carried me forward. With the help and encouragement from an extremely studious class, I ace my GCE "A" level as well, won a scholarship and the rest is history.
Today, I remember the second chance that you gave me Mr Mosbergen. Perhaps you saw that my mind was a terrible thing to waste, and you gave me that second chance that became my life's turning point. I thank you and honour you for what you have done for me. I wish one day, I will have the opportunity to meet you and thank you face to face.
Happy Teacher's Day to all Teachers, Principals and Educators! What you do shape and save lives... Thank you.
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