Punctuality( Which digressed).

Wow. Second post of the day. Well, here it is. As said in the previous post, I'm going to write whatever Sec 1 Principal Dialogue discussions I remember, on what I feel and stuff like this( For details, visit my previous post) . Well this time, the topic was on punctuality, which actually digressed( with my help) into a heated "battle" between those who want to come to school late and go home late, between those who want to come to school early and leave early. Well, it was pretty one-sided and over quickly with Dr. Hon, AKA the Principal, involved and taking a side.

It started as a discussion on why more and more students were coming late to school, and I gave a reason stating that some people come to school late because they live very far away, and school starts too early for them, and I then recommended that school start a bit later, but than Dr. Hon said that school would have to end later too if that was implemented. And then, of course, some weird guy goes up and recommends that school starts early!

School in Singapore really is stressful. I mean, look at Australia. They have no tests nor exams, and they can study without having to stick to the exam format and just study the stuff that will get you top marks. They can express themselves better, and they can realise their potential. Also in China, they start school at 10 or was it 11, but they have afternoon lessons to make up for the lost time. This way, the students can get enough sleep, and sleep is one of the important aspects of brain development.

Here in Singapore, our education is rigid and fixed. We start to have tests the moment we enter Primary School, and students gradually lose all interest in studying because of the stress. Where is the fun? We must study the topics of which was assigned to us by the MoE, and we cannot choose otherwise. We do not get to choose the subjects we like. Students study because their parents told them to study, and not because they like to study, not because they want to study. We can hardly improve this way. Of course there are pros in our systems too, but we must adopt others countries pros too. This way, we can improve.

Also, here in Singapore, I am fortunate to be able to wake up at 6.20am. Most of my friends wake up around 6am, while the most unlucky one wakes up at 5.30am! We get hardly no sleep, we cannot concentrate, we cannot improve! If we were to make lessons start a bit later, so that most of us will be able to get the minimum hours of sleep of 9 hours, I'm sure this will benefit a lot of us.

Hwa Chong leads the trend. Others follow. I hope that Hwa Chong will be able to set a good trend for others to follow. ( Sorry, I digressed a bit.)

The End.

Mousehunt ( To be taken in moderation).

Now, this is the first post for 2010. Yes, I know, its February. But I've been busy lately, and here I am posting now. This few days, I'm going to post about the Principal Dialogue subjects which I gave some thought to afterwards and came up with a few questions myself before moving on to the topics of the world.

So, I remember that our old class, 1P1, did a Principle Dialogue session on Mousehunt. Now, for those who do not know what Mousehunt is (Is there anyone who actually does not know what Mo0usehunt is?), Mousehunt is a Facebook application, one where which you catch virtual mice for virtual gold. You get to start a hunt by sounding the horn ( Alliteration), every 15 minutes and catch a mouse, and thus it claims to be a passive game. But people have been known to stare at the screen and wait until the horn appears ( The hopelessly addicted), and those who read the forums and Nibbler( Mousehunt news), and when the horn appears, they click it( Me). Then theres people who use automated scripts, AKA bots, to automatically sound the horn( *Cough* Zhan Rong *Cough*).

Well, the panellists discussed on the pros and cons of Mousehunting. They listed a fell, but as someone who actually does play Mousehunt, I would like to comment on this issue too. Its true that Mousehunting actually consumes a lot of your time, but you can get a number of friends from it too. I, myself, have gotten several new friends spanning several classes because of our common interest in Mousehunt. We now have something to talk about when we first meet, and we can also communicate with our new found friends on Facebook, the platform on which Mousehunt runs on, even though we may from different classes, thus maintaining our friendship.

But of course, there are also cons to Mousehunt. Addiction is one of the problems of Mousehunt, as with every game. Nothing good ever comes out of addiction, unless of course you are addicted to studying, which still may not be a good thing. Anyway, I'm digressing here. When we are addicted to Mousehunt, we may think of nothing but it all day long, and neglect our studies. When we are addicted, we may make use of curriculum time to sound the horn, resulting in grades slipping, or worse, the wrath of the teachers and parents.

And thus, I conclude this post with a quote from someone, :" Even good things are bad in excessive amounts." Or was it " Even good things must be consumed in moderation"? Either way, this post has now ended.

The End.