Celebration of Womanhood

When I was first posted to SMK Convent Sentul, I had to do some mental adjustments as I had never taught in a all-girls school in my entire teaching career. My first post was at an all boys mission school. Subsequent schools were all co-ed.  I kept asking God - "Why, an all girls' school Lord? Why .........?"

Now after those initial questions, some answers have come and some light has dawned in my understanding. One title I always have had in my heart for another future book is the title of this blog - "Celebration of Womanhood! "What better place than to learn and prepare for this book by being principal of an all girls' school and an established 72-year old convent at that!"

Why should womanhood be celebrated? In much of Asian mentality and culture, woman are often consciously or subconsciously delegated to second class citizens.  Woman are often  just tolerated, much less celebrated. My Chinese name is a very very macho masculine name. My father had already chosen the name before I was born because he was hoping for a son. Father did not see the need to change my name to a more feminine version when I emerged female instead of the son he expected. Yet now my 80+ dad often declares in Hokkien " Cha boh tor su kah hor ke tau por" meaning "Girls are usually better than guys." No offence meant for the male readers on this blog.

I discovered this to be definitely true in Convent Sentul. All toilets work here. ( This was not at all true of the previous schools I taught at) The school is clean. There is order.There is little vandalism. There is minimal graffiti. There is a calmness and a quietness here related very much to the feminine girls I have here. Oh, it is almost heaven here. Yes, womanhood is celebrated here in Convent Sentul!!

How should womanhood be celebrated? One way - putting pretty things up in school to be enjoyed by all the girls( and teachers )  here. The orchids planted near the fish pond is another of the pretty sights I enjoy in school.

Double pretty pink rose bouquet pompon hanging on the staircase to the staffroom.

Honing feminine skills and stirring the artists' soul within is another way of celebrating womanhood. Yesterday morning, Tay Hao Jin played beautifully on the piano. She did not need to refer to any manuscripts, she played from her soul. Just having the girls play most mornings has done a lot for me and I hope for the school.

I want the aesthetics to be highlighted here! Arts, music, expression through drama, song and dance. Aesthetics is linked to stirring the feelings and the woman within. I want my girls to express their feminity and not be ashamed that they are born woman. I do not want my girls to be devoid of feelings. The opposite of aesthetics is anesthetics. A person being anesthetized feels nothing, yes they feel no pain but also no joy and no life.  I do not want that to happen to my girls. They must be taught to feel and to love for to love and to care for others is a woman's strength.

Something happened yesterday and I saw the strong caring part of my girls. I had posted on my facebook a request for 2011 ex-students to come and see me if they were interested in helping to teach some Form 1 and 2 students we had identified as needing extra help. I would only give them minimal token pay for the "tuition" I requested. To my great joy, within days of my FB postings, 3 girls already volunteered to teach. They were pretty excited and as I let them meet with their future " students" I saw the care in their hearts and their eyes for their future charges. Even though the arrangement is temporarily until their SPM results are released, I am confident the care shown by the ex-students will go a long way to change the perceptions and self esteem of the younger girls. I also saw the excitement in my afternoon girls as they met their 'kakaks'

More evidence of feminine power in school. The prefects staying back in the afternoon to decorate their board.

Woman power celebrates festive occasions. In most homes, the women prepare the most for festive occasions. Convent Sentul is now festivey decorated for the Chinese New Year.  Dato' Andrew Tan, Datin Cheam's husband  very kindly donated several CNY lanterns to CS. Gong Xi Fa Cai everybody.!May you prosper in your soul, your health, your wallet and your spirit.

Lantern in front of the staircase to the canteen

Double Chinese lanterns in the car porch.

But we girls can't do much without manpower.

Maran, our beloved gardener and Agus our new staff helps us fix the lanterns.

Thank you Maran and Agus! What would we do without you both?

We celebrate the success and progress of our girls! Here, I pose happily with the

recipients of "Make a difference PMR 2011." The girls  happily show off their letters of commendation and angpows

Puan Intan with her beautifully decorated Program Nilam. Pn Intan 's creativity is reflective of the creative culture here. She is an ex-student and her creativity speaks of the ethos of emphasis on important values apart from academics.

Let's keep up all the feminine touches that make CS special!

Music in our souls and in the hall of Convent Sentul

We made an annoucement for musicians to register themselves. To my delight, 10 musicians from the morning session made themselves known. So we made arrangements for them to play our ancient piano each morning before the formal assembly began. This was part of our pull factors to draw students to school early each morning. We also wanted to de-stress students ( and teachers?) with the sweet music. And we simply wanted the pleasure of listening to music in our souls.

That first morning saw Lim Yivonn playing the piano. She has completed her Grade 8. She played confidently and beautifully and many girls were drawn into the hall.

Outdoors the prefects were industriously doing their briefing in the dark. This was very early in the morning - maybe 7.05 am. We caught the rising dawn in our souls through the music and through the brightening skies.




Now I must rush to school to catch today's musician. How wonderful to have a great reason to draw students to come early to school to liste to the music.

Thank you for the music.

Happy things and happy people in school.

School has just started for about 10 days in 2012 and there are so many causes for joy. Of course, some crisis do happen here and there in school too but my joy comes when I learn to focus on the positive. I gain more energy that way.

One of the prettiest sights in school is
our colourful orchid garden near the fish pond.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever! The orchids above are courtesy - Yvonne and her brother who works as a landscaper. Yvone is an ex-student of Convent Sentul and also a parent of a student here. This is the 2nd batch of flowers Yvone has sent to the school FOC. The first batch of flowering orchids came as a welcome gift for me when I was first appointed to the school in December 2010. Under Maran's tender loving care, the orchids bloomed profusely throughout 2011 and brought joy to many hearts. Maran ( our gardener) was so captivated by this colourful 2nd batch that he insisted they must be displayed in the hall during the Form 1 Orientation program. Now he has artistically re-arranged them for display in the shade of the palms near the fish pond.
 



Students happily using the red green cards which
contribute to a emotionally safe learning environment.

 We recently introduced the usage of laminated red green cards. When students understand and can follow the lesson, they show the teacher the green part of the cards. When they cannot follow the lesson, they show the teacher the red part of the card.  See how happy the girls are at using the red-green cards. They have a silent voice to indicate their understanding. This innovative idea was learnt from North Light School in Singapore. The red green card is part of a list of items to create a emotionally safe learning environment  where students can express their level of learning. Thank you Datin Cheam, Eva ( Datin's daughter ) Pn Bong, Pn Wang and many others from the Kooperasi for personally laminating and making the cards so that the cost of the cards would be kept very low for the students 




Foldable banquet tables donated by Datin Soon Phaik Im
from Merryfair Trading alleviates our overcrowding.

 This picture shows that the students are quite crowded in the classes. Since our building is already 72 years old and we cannot expand the classes physically, we came to the idea to use foldable banquet tables that can seat 3 students to a table to save space. An idea is one thing but getting funds to purchase the tables is quite another. But Mr Lee and his vast circle of contacts came to our rescue! He persuaded Datin Soon Phaik Im  from Merryfair Tading to generously donate 20 banquet tables. We managed to put in about 44 students in our limited size classroom using these banquet tables. Thank you, Datin Soon Paik Im  from Merryfair Trading Sdn Bhd . The classroom scenario here shows the students are quite crowded but happily learning.

Students have learnt to give happily and quickly. Bravo!

Another cause for joy is when I see students have learnt to willingly give back quickly and readily to the school and others in need. The hand written list above shows the straight A students' contributions from the RM 200/- angpows  they recieved from Mr Lee Geok Ai's personal donation to them. Some students have been very generous - they straightaway gave RM 100/- and RM 50/- . I deliberately blocked out the names of the students here since I do not want to embarass those who gave less. I asked the students to give me a synopsis of Mr Lee's motivational speech at assembly on 9th Jan 2012. The first line that came back to me was " Give and Take. " So ,the girls have not only learn to take but they have learnt to give. The heart of education is the education of the heart and when a child has learnt to give, she has been truly educated. Thank you Mr Lee for education in the real sense of the word.



Prefects working on their board after school.


On one of my rounds in the afternoon, I spotted this group of girls happily working on a beautiful board. These are morning prefects and they are happily working on their prefectorial notice board. Their joy was so infectious.

So school is a very happy place despite issues that cropped up because we are kept in the loving embrace of Papa God. This week, I look forward to more happy things in school.