Go Back to School, Xiaxue!

('cos it looks like your education has taught you nothing)

"Childish. I look down on you, you fucking loser school. Get a freaking life, wimp. Wooo you cannot insult me! You say I fat! I cry! I commit suicide! Abusing your fucking power, isn't it? Oh, I speak some opinion about you, you go suspend me. Just because you have the fucking power to. What kind of reasoning is that?"

Great way to get your point across, girl. Now that our readers have an idea how this enfant terrible writes, I'll move on.

For those who aren't sure what the fuss is about, it involves a recent incident whereby five junior college students got suspended for posting derogatory remarks about their teachers and vice-principal on their blogs.

Empowered by new technologies--and the false sense of invulnerability the Internet offers--young bloggers are posting just about anything and everything, including the said remarks about their educators (one teacher was labelled a "frustrated old spinster").

Call it the exuberance of youth, but these young people could very well be blogging their way into a libel suit--even if the teachers aren't named.

"As long as someone is able to identify the teacher, and it is an untrue statement that affects his reputation or livelihood, then the student is liable," lawyer Doris Chia of Harry Elias and Partners said in The Straits Times.

So, where does Wendy come in?

Well, rather than using her influence to talk some sense into these youngsters--or at least, try not to throw more sh*t at the fan--Wendy took it upon herself to speak on behalf of our aggrieved young, and in an expletive-laden diatribe that sounded every bit like an angsty and "frustrated old teenager", she launched a verbal assault on Singapore's oppressive school system.

She even invited students to blog/flog freely on HER site:

"What have your school done to students who blogged bad stuff about them? Say it loudly here, because we all want to know. Though, please do not mention school names - I also don't wanna get sued, for something I cannot even verify."

Nice disclaimer there, Wendy, but please refer to Ms Doris Chia's comment above.

Not that Wendy herself bother to leave names out of her own nasty experience back in school:

"Get this: Back in RV, Mrs Look even warned my classmates not to get close to me, because she told them I was a bad influence. Wow, targetting my friends and my social circle in school? Under the fucking white RV school belt, that is. If you want to get me to change, you don't threaten me with my friends, ok? (In case you are interested my friends hack-cared her)"

I've no idea who Mrs Look from RV is (but I sure know what RV is, with that "fucking white RV school belt"). However, someone who left a comment on her blog certainly did, so there you have it. And as if that wasn't enough, Wendy has to throw in a snapshot of her "diary" from her school days--and hence dragging innocent third-parties into the picture (including an "ex-boyfriend" who must already rue the day he met her).

Wendy then offers her two-cents on what teachers should do instead:

"Wanna fight back? You fucking fight like a man, and go set up your own blog and defend yourself."

In a language you, Wendy, will understand: "si beh bo liao".

Teachers are up to their neck with work; they don't need to degrade themselves and resort to such childish behaviour to get their views across. It's students themselves who should know that life doesn't revolve around a blog.

"What is with this "suspending" and commanding people to close down their blogs? What gives you the rights to threaten people like that? It is clearly an abuse of the power you have...
Don't you crazy-ass people know that the fucking studying environment is very stifling?
You close down this little outlet of venting for our teens, and may they, because they didn't siphon out their pains in the form of writing a harmless blog entry, burn your fucking school down in a fit of anger. Ha. How worth it."

And why can't schools punish THEIR students for breaking THEIR rules? What's next? Parents don't have the right to punish their kids for posting nasty stuff about their own family members? People are put in authority for a purpose, and while I don't condone anyone abusing their power, students too have to learn what respect and discipline mean, lest it's a "demobracy" not a democracy you want to live in.

Sure, our education system is stifling, school life sucks, and no one's going to stop them from writing about it if it's really that cathartic. So long as you don't make your thoughts public, like on an open blog.

"You are a principal. You are older, wiser, more mature, and more rational then your feather-brained students. Why abuse your power to attack these kids? Lowering yourself to their positions, isn't it? Aren't you supposed to be just a tad more magnanimous?
If you don't like what they wrote, you bloody go confront them, and clear things up - like what normal people do.

Don't fucking abuse your position and power.

Sure, students shouldn't write defamatory (by defamatory I mean untrue) things about schools. That surely is wrong. It is a civil case, so go sue the student! Why are you ruining his whole education by taking away his chance to study? He paid for your fucking teachers to fucking teach him, ok? If he fails his As because he missed that few weeks of lessons, who is going to compensate him, and his future? Who?"

By "lowering yourself to their positions", I take it as setting up their own blogs and defending themselves. Tit-for-tat. So, I don't think the principals have done anything that insults their profession. In any case, I'm sure they've already "confronted the students".

It's called "taking action". =)

Read. Defamatory -- doing harm by writing bad or false things about people. Anyway, if someone calls you a " flabby, cross-eyed midget", how would you feel? Based on how you appear to him or her, that may not be entirely baseless, even if it's spiteful and uncalled for. And why get so worked up about the school taking away the students' "chance to study", about them failing their 'A's when they're suspended for, what? Three days??

Yes, teachers are paid to "fucking" teach students, and that doesn't mean just providing them with knowledge, but also instilling in them the right attitudes in life. If an education system has no right to do that, then who does? Parents? Heck, didn't they pay the school (and the government) to do that?

"(Just a tip to students. When your school ask you to close your blog, you set up another blog account [with a new, anonymous email of course], and you copy the entire contents inside. Email the blog link to the school's biggest gossiper. When the school asks you why your blog is still around, you say bua bodoh and say, I dunno leh, I delete already, someone copied the contents and put it in that website, and I cannot remove it coz I am not the author mah!)"

Bravo! All the Xiaxue fans out there flaming us for slagging her behind a cloak of anonymity, and lo and behold, their goddess tries to encourage students to fight back under *gasp* a cloak of anonymity....not to mention throwing accountability out of the window....

"I don't wonder why our kids are all aiming for an overseas education. Can you imagine Harvard threatening to sue a student because he said "Frustrated old spinster. Can't stand to see attractive girls"?"

No, because most Harvard undergrads are matured enough not to make these sort of remarks. But it does make me wonder what's wrong with our education system here, when our JC students still don't know better.

"About this blog entry, it is not about whether students should, or should not blog about their schools. That's their freedom of choice, and it has also been discussed to DEATH. My point is simply that schools should not ABUSE their position of authority to punish students for something personal. ABUSE OF POWER. THAT IS NOT FAIR PLAY. Geddit?"

For the last time, how "personal" is a blog that can be read by just about anyone on Earth with Internet connection? If you want personal, stick to your good old diary, or password protect your blog. It's ridiculous to expect others to come in and read your web log and still claim that it's "personal".


The way I see it, why stir up a storm in a little teacup? If you want examples of teachers really abusing their positions, go read up on what goes on in some rural schools in China. And if you--or anyone--still think that we are being too hard on our kids, here's some food for thought, from another Asian country:

In Japan, teachers have noted that they'd get in trouble with the administration if they send too many students out of the classroom for disciplinary reasons; suspension and expulsions are also "taboo" which makes things worse when there are students with serious behaviourial problems in class. Corporal punishment, however mild, is frowned upon, and kids grow up not fearing authority. So what do we get? Headlines like these:

"GRADE-SCHOOL VIOLENCE UP IN 2004 - Educators are alarmed at a surge in violence toward teachers by children as young as 6 and no older than 12. Violence against teachers in publicly run elementary schools has become endemic, according to a government survey that shows a 33 percent increase in such behavior in the 2004 academic year over the year before. " -- Asahi Shimbun

Mind you, the things I hear from Japanese teachers I know or have spoken to don't paint a rosier picture either.

"It annoys me that people don't get my point all of the freaking time! "

Wendy, try to open your eyes before you open your mouth, and maybe, just maybe, people will start to take you more seriously. =)