Monday, October 11, 2010

The Holes In Holistic Education

Two first-year female students in Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) were reportedly caught having a tryst in a school toilet, where they were captured on video surreptitiously by other students. ACJC principal Kelvyna Chan declined to comment on the veracity of the limited information about the episode. All she would say: "We would like to assure you that no one has been expelled from the school. From time to time, students are involved in actions which the school does not condone." And why were they not expelled at all? Is this part of the school's holistic approach to education?

When one of the coupling parties was asked on her Formspring site, "Where are you going next?" her online response was: "Where the wind takes us." Like the SarongPartyGirl of old who published her own frontally nude images for the whole wide world to oogle at, she seems awfully cavalier about her infamy. On the practical side, one wonders how they could have been "surreptiously" filmed in the tight confines of a toilet cubicle. Maybe it was all staged as a coming out event of sorts.

In the USA, William Lucas (15), Tyler Clementi (18), Asher Brown (13) and Seth Walsh (13) died because they were hectored by classmates about their sexuality. Young Clementi jumped off the George Washington bridge after his double life of being openly gay to some and tightly closeted to others was exposed, also by video. The outrage here is cyber-bullying, although the harassment could just have been carried out viciously on the campus grounds, as in the case of Seth Walsh.

In Singapore, the ACJC principal doesn't appear to be too outraged by the goings on in her school. How should one read her unflappable attitude about the moral issues here? That girls just wanna have fun?

Insiders say the whole school population, which includes Balakrishnan's son in JC1, knew about the washroom incident several weeks before the story broke. And all the advice the innocent youths had from their educator-in-chief Kelvyna Chan was to stonewall it and "Don't anyhow comment." So what else is lurking in the corridors of Singapore premier schools?

7 comments:

  1. One commenter said sex is second to food in one of your post, hard to dispute that. The Newpaper just reported toyboys in the hardlands, it seemed that it got reported after the families there got upset. Before that, it appears that the authority nor the news corps were aware of such trades, nothing new of course as it was and is everywhere.

    Vice is the best industry, little capital is needed and profits are high and it can generate a lot of businesses in ancilliary industries, condom manufacturing, hotel room occupancy rate and charges increase, makan store operates round the clock, taxi drivers more business. And when the locals, old and young want leisure, just indulge in sexual activities, inspired by the opened-up medias and availability of the vice services everywhere.

    It is not surprising that the School and the Staff were non-chalant about the affair. One Principal was just suspended for alleged sexual impropriety, nothing shocking. Teachers were convicted for initiating sexual relationships with students and some of those students were very young.

    Some call this tiny dot Singalore, quite befitting and apt.

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  2. Not in a toilet cubicle, they used the shower area. One of them has been accepted to CJ. Principal said not to talk to the media.

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  3. ACJC is not a premier school

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  4. Adolescence is time of experimentation and discovery, and this includes one's sexuality. I wonder if they cover issues like discretion, gentlemanly/ladylike behavior, voyeurism in civics at ACJC.

    Making available to the general public a young person's sexual tryst is a low blow (just metaphorical lah...). A person's privacy needs to be protected.

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  5. Sexual experimentation is definitely not only confined to the adolescents!

    Chatlines, chatrooms, MSN chats etc are all filled during the daytime (read as office hours) with men from SG govt institutes (eg: schools, polytechnics, govt body admin offices) who lurk and prey for women or girls for a quickie.

    Just go into one of the most popular chatrooms with a female nickname and you'll be bombarded by men solicitating or cornering you for sex or sex talk. Singapore men seem so disgracefully sex starved; it's so shameful. The govt should be blocking these sites from their office networks. Productivity will definitly sore after the clamdown.

    Just trace the IP address or continue the chat to find out more and you'll be surprised with the revelation.

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  6. Some tend to equate same-sex sexual activities to 'affection' and love. This is definitely a fallacy. Sexual activity and gratification are by and large NOT NECCESSARILY link to any form of feeling for another being. Sexual needs are inborn in every living beings.
    Humans have been trying to justify sexual variants since time immemorial, the debates and arguments are still raging, however, the basic understandings got to be accurate.

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  7. Unless they have emotional infatuations with their sex toys, with their own organs, with the prostitutes(both genders) and whatever they get gratifications from.

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