Getting from here.. to .. there

Did I ever tell you I was in a Catholic school from Kindergarten to University? My parents were born in the time when missionaries flourished and Mission schools offered the best education in the land. My father went to ACS in Klang and my mother to another Methodist/ Catholic mission school. Those days the teachers were nuns and full time missionaries . Fathers, Catholic priests ruled the school yard with their rotans and footballs. They were dedicated to raising the heathen not just into higher spiritual states of awareness but convinced that they had sacrificed family , home and comfort for the betterment of young Malaysian lives through education.

Indeed many ambitious , hardworking young people were educated in these old Mission schools and later sent off to the homelands of these Nuns and Fathers to further their education and return as lawyers, doctors, architects and engineers.. the future leaders and founders of Modern Malaysia and Singapore.

My mother’s education was random and rudely interrupted by the advent of the Japanese war. But another form of education took place. She learnt in the days of the Japanese that to be silent was better than to be heard. She learnt that a mouthful of tapioca was better than nothing at all. That if you really needed to eat salt, parts of the earth were salty. Her parents taught her to be still and silent even when her deepest fears crept up on her as Japanese soldiers ransacked their home looking for young girls as she crouched under the old floorboards of their home. She learnt that the fastest way to make friends was to speak the Japanese language and forget the English ways and manners of the Nuns. She learnt to wear her brother’s trousers and not yearn for the pretty skirts of the girls her age for her own safety. And when the war was over.. she was to return to school at the age of 13 to unlearn all that she had learnt.

Her eldest sister , my Aunty M , was a teaching assistant with the Mission school at the time. She insisted that my mum go to school and sit for her Primary School Leaving Exams… but there was a hitch.. mum had left school at the age of 9 or 10.. she had to study everything from Pri 1- 6 in a year. I think given today’s system of education my mum would probably have been sent to a Vocational School ! But with Aunty M’s help and her own determination, my mum not only passed her exams .. she did so with Flying Colours ! In the next years or so, she went on to complete her Senior Cambridge and then applied to be a teacher at the Singapore Teacher’s Training College.. hence her move to Singapore.

It’s quite amazing actually, the tenacity and drive of the older generation. Driven by the sole purpose of looking for a better life and brighter future my mother landed on the shores of Singapore then just another state in the Federation of Malaya. Armed with nothing more that a Senior Cambridge Certificate my mother was to become the first principal of the first Intergrated Malay school in Singapore. Quite a feat for a Chinese kampong girl whose education started at the age of 13.. so my children, with all your tuition , handphones and laptops.. how will you fare? Has the drive and tenacity of past generations been etched into your DNA? Or is life so much easier that challenges are side stepped rather than met? My husband says youth today have grown soft with comfort and lack of moral, spiritual and physical challenges.. I hope not


I believe each generation will have its challenges.. if then, my mother over came the Japanese war, struggled with poverty and education .. tomorrow our children face the prospects of polluted waters, tainted foodstuff, genetically modified foods, an attitude of apathy, morally challenged politicians, a planet suffering from drought and lower food production, over population ,too many graduates applying for the same jobs, terrorists , wars and rumours of wars... the list goes on.

Each generation in not without her plagues and challenges. But it's oftentimes how we overcome that will shape and determine our future. Overcoming takes guts, determination to succeed and hard work. It requiers having the faith to believe that God has a plan for our lives.... something for the instant Maggi noodle generation to think about ...