Similarities:

1) Price of canteen food: I was surprised that the food still costs 50cents! so super cheap right. They'll charge $1 to adults (with larger serving, of course) but i bought the 50cents version once because the serving is still ok and relatively filling.

And the way they lay out the food is very similar to that during my time - prepare dry ingredients on plates. Example, for Mee Rebus they will prepare the noodle and egg and when you pick that plate then they will pour the gravy. I still remember the vegetable keropok served with gado-gado at yumin pri. Plus, the gado-gado gravy is sweeeet. Yum.

2) Singing of national anthem and recitation of pledge: Okay, i don't see this part of the routine ceasing. I am all for this routine. So that's fine.

3) Lining up in orderly manner: I love the sights of lower primary kids lining up in twos, sometimes holding hands, waiting for teacher's instruction before they can go off for recess. However, that itself would take about 2-3 minutes. The kids only have 20 minutes of recess - let them go already! Heh. But they are still VERY adorable, with the water bottles hanging over their shoulders and the occasional Shhh Shhh sound so that the teachers will not detain them.

Differences:

1) The school bell: The loud, long ringing sound of the traditional bell is history. Now its the nice-sounding, sing-song, quite addictive bell sound.

2) Recess activities: Whatever happen to hopscotch, zero-point and the pepsi-cola-123 game?? I don't see any of those anymore. The kids here opt for this integrated computer game thing installed in the school, playing catching and this big snake-and-ladder tile thing as recess activities.

3) Discipline: During my primary school days, the most common way to get us kids to shut up was to make us put our finger on our lips. Apparently, that's old school stuff. Now there is a more creative way. When i was assisting the teachers during the P1 enrichment programme, i noticed the teachers adopted this method most - they will say "one silent clap!" and the kids will clap once and say "shhh!" That never fail to make me smile. They could be talking to their friends or running around but when there are calls for silent claps everyone will do it in unison. I must say the method is quite effective, albeit only for 1 minute at most.

4) Rules: I thought during our time, there was already an overload of unnecessary rules. But theres even more this time. The staircases of the school are divided into two - the left side for going down and the right side for going up. I understand that this is for safety reason but i find it a tad unnecessary. ok, maybe it's just me.

I usually like walking on the yellow line itself. It feels good to rebel the staircase rule. hah. Big deal eh.

Ok, that's about it.

And to end this entry:

(as of 11 June 2007)