Last weekend, my cousin who is a teacher, brought her students' report sheets to the gramps'. She thought she could sign them while she was there.

I look at the serial no. 1 student's sheet. Hmm, pretty good remarks, this student has. I look at serial no.2. I look at the next one. And the next one. And the next.

"How come you give very good remarks to them, even if their results suck?"

"Of course lah, they're still young and I don't want to dampen their confidence."

"Oh really... How nice."

"Yeah, I didn't even give any of them a 'Fair' for their conduct. Even the most misbehaved received a 'Good'."

"Eh! Why lah!"

"Because if they have even one 'Fair' or 'Satisfactory' in their report book, they can't receive a bursary in future."

"WAH YOU SO NICE!" I screamed.

If only teachers donkey years ago realised this. If you look at my primary school report book, the grades are pretty okay, if I may say so myself, but my conduct remarks are always lousy. My brother's worst ah. He was TALKATIVE and PLAYFUL. Eh sila eh~ Every year without fail mesti ada remarks TALKATIVE.

I am not talkative, understand. I just like to express my observations. So it'd be like, the teacher talking in class and I interrupted and added my two-cents' worth and the teacher called me talkative. Or my stupid classmate would be asking me a question and I'd be telling her and the teacher just happened to turn and see ME talking and called me talkative. Knn understand. Teachers then just didn't realise that growing up kids should be given the avenue to express their thoughts and not impede their cultivating minds. And when better time to do it if not in school?

This would always quash my spirits. I think I was more terrified of my conduct remarks than my grades.

My uncle who is also a teacher would comment, "Ah ni ah teacher-teacher tak pergi NIE." The point being, teachers then who didn't go NIE are not taught how to teach. Back then, it's enough to just know the subject matter. Never mind about handling problematic kids. Kalau jahat, sepak terajang sua. Ataupun rotan. Pergi mampos kau.

So since teachers are not allowed to touch the students now, they have to dig deeper into the roots of these problematic kids. They are taught to understand the needs of different students. They are not all one and the same.