In the week that has passed, my good friend, Haniel Soh has become a topic of discussion on both online and offline media. A quick read on TRS and other news websites will show you that the general consensus of Haniel, at present, is that he is not fit to be a teacher and he is only teaching for the money and not for passion. All these conjectures made from a TRS post in which, the owner (not author, because a poorly-researched and highly emotive piece counts more as a resentful rant of a tattletale, not so much a well-written citizen journalism piece) had carefully selected bits from Haniel’s Facebook account and present a specific persona of Haniel that would rile up the public and send the authorities scampering to make decisions that please this disgruntled public. While it is heartening that Singaporeans are taking their involvement in social issues very seriously, it is important to understand that having opinions is not enough. What is more valued is a well-informed opinion. Being well-informed would mean that readers can identify that the TRS post is one dimensional in its representation of the subject at hand, given the lack of context offered and hence, questionable. The status that I am sharing here offers a glimpse of who Haniel is as a teacher and as a person- someone who gives tough love AND deeply passionate about educating and nurturing. And had the owner of the TRS post include this status in his post, this would have been the much needed context that is missing in the incident. A well-informed reader would be able to recognise that the “insults” were in fact, a form of deprecating humour that Haniel has used to build rapport with his friends and students, not with malicious intent. But, since this was conveniently omitted, the humour has been missed and foul was cried. Content without context tells nothing. Like many of us, I was introduced to the importance of credibility and reliability of a source during my secondary school days in Humanities class. I was also taught by my teachers to look for the context of the source and the intent of the author before making any conclusion. I can only hope that in its investigation, MOE does not stop at just questioning Haniel or his ability and passion to teach but also take into account the credibility and intent of the TRS post. Just as how they have taught us in their syllabi. (Also, it is high time that we quit treating teachers or teaching scholars as anything more than humans. We cast teachers in a noble light, to the extent of deifying them and stripping them of their human capacity to experience anything other than zeal and passion in their work. You know, because god forbid these teachers feel tired and jaded or worse, have a sense of humour. I’m sure many of them are passionate about what they do- being your child’s educator, counsellor, CCA teacher during school time and spending their weekends marking your child’s work but at some point, fatigue sets in, boredom sinks and the supposedly good pay no longer makes it all worth the while. So get off your high horse and recognise that if you feel all these at work, teachers feel quite as much, if not more.)
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 18:03:56 +0000
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