During the morning assembly, Mr Simen spoke about how he promised our guests that there would not be rain. In the end, there was only a short sudden downpour. It was the connection between earth and heaven which was faulty and only affected the first two races. Even then, it was a blessing in disguise because the boys continued to run with great gusto and vigour. Teachers and students also braved the elements in that brief moment to ensure that the races ran smoothly and safely.
School Safety - Mr Simen were very pleased Sports Day. Mr Simen praised and thanked the 1500 Montfortians who behaved well at the sports meet and kept on the "straight and narrow".
Mr Simen told the students that the only ugly incident which occured was when a family member of one of our boys insulted the office of the Principal and Montfort Secondary School. A heated argument broke out but even then, Mr Simen did not blame the errant young adult. "We can't fault him for being angry. It was a heated argument. Let it pass because the argument should not have happened in the first place!", Mr Simen exclaimed.
The main learning point was that the "uninvited guest" should not even have been allowed into the stadium. He had a bandana on with tattoos on his arms. He reeked of cigarette smoke and sat directly behind the principal, making snide comments with both words and mannerisms. There should have been more security for the principal, guests and students. Guests should have been checked and censored at the gates.
Joking and Matters of the Heart
Mr Simen spoke about how in jokes and matters of the heart, all is fair. If you can't take a joke, don't joke.
Minativ English Lessons
(a) Idioms and phrases
Some phrases were emphasized as part of the school's minativ project. These phrases have idiomatic meanings. (Idioms = forms of language and meaning peculiar to a particular language or dialect; characteristic mode of expression)
(i) sport of bother - "Dozens of motorists in Nakawa Division found themselves in a sport of bother, as heavy rains disrupted their activities"
This idiomatic phrase refers to something which is more of an irritant and a bother than any real problem.
(ii) fair to midland - "The night was intensely cold, indoors as well as out; the house was thin; the playing from fair to middling" - Horace Greeley, Recollections of a Busy Life, 1869.
This is s a Texas variation on the phrase, a joke on the name of the city called Midland in that state. It’s really fair to middling, a common phrase — in Britain as well as North America — for something that is moderate to average in quality, sometimes written the way people often say it, as fair to middlin’.
(iii) ashram cat - "It is very important not to follow instructions and systems blindly. Sometimes you must kill ashram cats in order to grow wiser and devise new methods of dealing with emergencies".
The word 'ashram means "religious hermitage". It crept it's way into the English dictionary in 1917 and comes from the Sanskrit word, . asramah, from a-, adnomial prefix, + sramah "effort, toll, fatigue." In today's usage, ashram refers to a place where a HIndu holy man lives alone or a house where people live together practising Hinduism.
The story of the ashram cat tells the story of a guru who conducts a darshan regularly. (In Hindu worship, the beholding of an auspicious deity, person, or object is called a darshan. Whoever views and attends the ceremony would also be blessed. Darshan may also be imparted by a guru to his disciples, a ruler to his subjects, or a pilgrimage shrine to its visitors. His darshan was frequently interrupted by a cat and so the holy man commanded that the cat be tied to a tree during meditation. When the guru died, his followers continued to tie the cat to the tree. When the cat died the faithful acquired a new cat which they also tied to the tree.
(iv) birthday suit - "Ladies are not allowed in my room because I have a habit of walking around in my birthday suit. So please knock, get an affirmative response, then enter."
"Birthday suit" is an idiom which refers to to the suit you wear when you were born - which is nothing. Birthday suit means a state of nakedness. In 18th-century Britain, this term originally referred to the clothes one wore on the king's birthday. Later it was jocularly (humorously) transferred to bare skin, alluding (implying) to the condition of a newborn baby.
(b) affixes - prefix, infix and suffix
An affix means "to attach, fasten". In the English language, there are two kinds of affixes, prefix and suffix.
Prefixes come before the root word as in "insufficient" or insubordinate". 'In' having the meaning of 'not' in these instances.
Suffixes come after the root word as in "systematic" or "automatic". "Ic" having the grammatical function of turning the root word into an adjective (word indiciating attribute/ descrption of noun)
In Tagalog, there were even infixes or words attached to the midle of the root word which served as semantic and grammatical functions. The example given was 'makan'.
(c) Pronounuciation and stress patterns
Stress patterns change when words are used in sentences.
For example, "blueberry" (pronounced 'blu-bear-ri') is stressed when uttered in isolation.
In sentences, "I love blueberries (prounounced 'blu-ber-ri').
Puff the Magic Dragon
Two boys were caught for smoking at Hougang Mall by members of the public. We thank members of the public (even better still, young and old Montfortains), for reporting them to the school so that action could be taken.
While singing 'Puff the Magic Dragon', Mr Simen twisted the lyrics of the song to suit the occassion and gave the offendors three strokes of the cane in front of the whole school. It was arguably the best example of using humor without sarcasm to teach our students right from wrong.
"Smoking may have been the norm in the past", he said, "but in our present age of wanting to build a green society, it stands out like a sore thumb. In caning the boys, Mr Simen emphasized that he hated the act, but not the boys. Justice had to be served because their records had piled high on similar offences. All manner of help had been given to them - warning, counselling, advice.
Congratulations to the newly promoted
Mr Simen Lourds congratulated Mr Lloyd Yeo on his promotion to SEO 1A1 because his promotion only arrived on Saturday morning. The other teachers promoted were:
Mr Ho Chi Cheng GEO1A1
Mdm Su Xue GEO1A1
Mdm Lowe Jiak Hng GEO1A1
Miss Ng Puay Lim GEO1A1
Mr Azman Bin Hussin GEO1A2
Mr Tan Geok Hean GEO1A2
Mr Bamanshaw Trevor Gerard GEO1A2
Miss Chan Choo Neo Violet GEO1A3
Mrs Tan Siong Thye GEO1A3
Mdm Sin Li Huang GEO1A3
Mdm Tan Swee Hoon GEO1A3
Mr Ho Siang Teng GEO1A3
Mr Chia Yong Koon GEO1A3
Mr Kaliyaperumal s/o Govindasamy GEO1A3
Mrs Jasathinta Pereira GEO1A3
Miss Yap Siew Phing GEO1A3
Miss Choy Foong Chun Clare GEO1A3
Mr Tan Thiam Boon GEO1A3
Mr Wu Tian Hwee GEO1A3
Mdm Norasikin Bte Awang GEO2A2
Mr Ng Kwok San GEO2A3
Mrs Lee Poh Lin Nee Soh SEO_1
Mdm Tan Pei Pei Eleanor SEO_1
Mr Ong Teck Meng Victor SEO_1
Mr Yeo Tze Chiang Lloyd Luc SEO_1
Mrs Lim Shong Chuan Nee Pang S L SEO1A1
Mr Simen gave his heartiest congratulations to all. He also explained that the promotions were a recognition that officers newly promoted were expected to perform and contribute more to the school.
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