Tennis and Debating

The Tennis Club and the English Debating Team are two of my responsibilities this year. I'm kind of excited by both. I've played tennis before in school so I'll not be completely clueless when taking charge of the club like I did last year with Pandu Puteri. I knew nothing about marching, panji-panji and whatnot. The only contributions that I could offer them were my chauffeuring and chaperoning service.

I have very enthusiastic players in my tennis club. So, managing the team is a breeze. We hit a major stumbling block trying to find a suitable place to practise. But once that was settled, we had a great first training session and hopefully, subsequent sessions will be as well-attended and enjoyable.

During the training though, I realised just how great the divide is between the haves and the have-nots in my school. The majority of the tennis players come from a well-to-do family. When they gave me their mobile phones for safekeeping, they handed over Blackberries and other expensive-looking phones. In contrast, I know of a student who has a hard time paying the 50 cents per week class fund.

Then, there are students whom English is their communication language and there are those who think that the verb 'rise' is nasi.

When I was first posted here, I wondered why I was given this school. Maybe the school is a microcosm of our society -- it reflects all the social injustices, imbalances; and other stuff that I have yet to discover.

As teachers, we are also privy to our students' lives. You wouldn't believe how complicated their family problems are. When you got to know of their background, you sort of understand why certain students came to be problematic individuals in schools -- they just don't have that stable family life or strong parental figures to guide them.

I'm totally digressing from my main story here...
So yeah, tennis is great so far! hahaha
Hopefully, we'll get to win a lot of medals in the coming MSSD competition :-)

My second responsibility is the English Debating team. I never thought that I would be in this position. I was a lousy public speaker in school. Wait, I think I still am. I'm not really the talky-type but last year, I got the chance to see UIA's annual debating competition. And I am hooked on debating ever since.

I think these student-debaters are just amazing. Where do they get the confidence, the charm, the excellent speaking skills? I was just so impressed that I wanted to see more debates in the future. I guess my wish came true.

So, last week I met the aspiring debaters. The number of students who showed up exceeded my expectation I gave them motions to prepare over the weekend and the first mock-debate was successfully conducted today (Feb 8).

The motion was: "Public Schools Are Better at Educating Students Than Private Schools".

Some of the students were visibly nervous and were not well-prepared. But they could certainly do better with the benefit of training, exposure, practice and more preparation time. Two of them really impressed me though. They have the potential to do very, very well.

There will be 3 other mock-debates and the motions are:
1) Exes Should Remain Friends
2) A Jack-Of-All-Trades Is Better Than A Master of One
3) Men Make Better Bosses

After the debate, I told them that the main purpose of joining the team is not to win trophies or collect extra-curricular marks. They should take the opportunity to develop their public-speaking, critical thinking and effective communication skills which will serve them well later in life. Even if they do not get selected, they should still come for the mock-debates and competitions to get exposure and tips to polish their skills. They can always try again next year. So they shouldn't give up or think that they are not good enough!

See how bersemangat I am about this? haha