3Q Blog

The Ugly Truth Behind Rafflesians

2008-08-31T02:57:00.000-07:00

Over many years of fame and popularity has attracted much negative attention from the locals of Singapore. It might be due to the fact that we have been living in our own world apart from the locals of Singapore which could have lead to misunderstandings of how we Rafflesians lead our everyday lives. I am not saying that we have completely divided ourselves from other citizens from Singapore. I just fear that many people might have negative views on how Rafflesians act. No one knows for a fact, but it is evident that someone out there has showed a negative point of view about Rafflesians.

It has been claimed that Rafflesians have brains but no grace, that Rafflesians have high IQ but low EQ. The reason to this is unknown but I could quite firmly disagree with this statement. Having studied in Raffles Institution for some time, I would admit that there would be an element of biasness in disagreement to this statement. However, I believe that we should handle our views on Rafflesians on a case by case basis and not be so hasty as to cast our opinions.

Firstly, students from Raffles Institution must have graduated from some primary school before. In what way are we able to determine a child’s personality when he has experienced multiple ways of upbringing? When people say that we have brains but no grace, are they referring to the existence of arrogance in the Rafflesian society? It is known that arrogance is a result of performing better than another party. However, arrogance is further amplified when you display it in a renowned school to the extent that it attracts bad attention. We should not deny the fact that arrogance is displayed in every individual as it is all a result of human nature. Besides, not all Rafflesians show off their peacock feathers out in the public. I believe there are those who hide themselves with humility.

Secondly, the point about having high IQ and low EQ. EQ is usually defined as common sense. This is probably due to how we relate our emotions to different groups of people in the community. Let us first regard every person in Singapore as an equal individual. This is evident from the fact that we live in the same way every other secondary student has. Waking up, going to school, coming home and many others. I can also safely say most Rafflesians relate to the citizens of Singapore in the same way as how other students do. So exactly in what way do we lack in terms of EQ?

I am sure this topic has triggered a hot debate among us Rafflesians and probably those people who are concerned. Maybe it is the ugly truth that we have to face. However, I hope that the public would consider our actions carefully before posting such extreme comments.

3Q Democracy

2008-06-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Democracy is a system of government by which political sovereignty is retained by the people and either exercised directly by citizens or through their elected representatives. Many countries have practiced democracy throughout the years but not all have achieved satisfying results. Democracy can be said to be a double-edged sword as it may allow a society to prosper or fail. I shall scale down this issue of Democracy to an election of leaders in my very own class.

Every year, it is essential to elect new CEC council members to help carry out administrative issues given out by the school. Hence, it is important for us to elect capable leaders to help us out in these areas. However, the leaders must also be influential in class and be able to please the majority. Therefore, Democracy is taken up to find these leaders amongst 3Q.

The teachers believe that their students would be honest with their feelings and would choose the most capable leader in class. Hence, they allowed us to control the whole election process although giving their own opinions from time to time. Personally, I felt that the class was not being too serious about the election process. They nominated students just for the fun of it and made jokes about them rather than choosing a rightful person who would take care of administrative matters. In this case, Democracy would have lost its purpose as the students have treated this like a joke.

After the whole process, our leaders were elected with Jia Xing as the monitor, Ryan as the assistant monitor and Eric as the treasurer. I was worried about this set-up as the election process had not been taken seriously. As time went by, it was seen that our assistant monitor was more hardworking than the monitor. Some of us were unhappy about this issue and decided to inform the form teacher about it. There were some of us who wanted a re-election as they felt that the monitor had not met their standards. At this moment, I recounted how our class had made their decision initially and was disappointed in how fickle they are.

In the end, the request for a re-election was accepted and the roles of the monitor and assistant monitor were swapped. Jia Xing made a pledge that he would work hard to gain back the trust that we had placed in him. Our class was satisfied with this end result.

Democracy is not a bad in itself, it totally depends on how the people carry out Democracy in their society. Some instances where Democracy fails are when people vote out of biasness or just for fun. However, Democracy would allow the society to be satisfied with their own leaders as we are the ones who elected them. Therefore, the topic of Democracy still sits on a fence.

Teenage life

2008-03-06T04:00:00.000-08:00

For me, the life of a teenager is both tiring and stressful. I could suppose that everyone feels different once they enter the age of a teenager. Our environment changes, we part ways with most of our primary school friends and we can expect studies to get even more challenging than before. In Singapore, we fight our way through the grueling PSLE examinations during our last year in primary school and hope that we could get into the school we desire. However, the worst part of Primary 6 for me is not about PSLE, it is about leaving the friends whom I have been with for the past 6 years.

Right after we leave our primary school, we enter teenage life whereby a new chapter of our lives unfolds. Rarely, we may get into the same school as some of our friends. But teenage life changes our personalities. During that stage, we tend to become more rugged, resilient and moody. One of the causes for this is because we go through puberty. It changes the way we look, the way we sound and it triggers off mood swings once in a while. It is not really a big worry as everyone else around us is experiencing the exact same thing.

As our attitude changes, we become more thoughtful as well as more aware of the things around us. However, as we grow more resilient, we tend to cause more mayhem compared to the little antics we played when we were young and innocent. Whether or not we stay out of trouble depends on the people whom we mix with when being a teenager. Ever since we stepped into this new life, we have to make friends all over again. It is hard to identify the different personalities of the people around us and hence, we do not know whether our new “friends” can be trusted or not. That is why becoming a teenager is a huge challenge for me, picking friends who will be by my side for the next few years.

Another difficulty that we face in our teenage years is the level of education that we receive. The transition of Primary School to Secondary School is quite a huge leap and sometimes we may not be able to catch up on the syllabus. It is the time when we feel the intense pressure of our studies as the teachers try to feed us as much information as we can. But in the end, life goes on. Moderate your time wisely so that you have enough time to study and enough time to relax. And also, pick the correct friends and treasure them well. It would make your teenage life much more easy.