My disappointment at returning to Primary School Radin Mas
I started my qualified teaching career with an unexpected obstacle. Since I was a graduate teacher, I had expected a posting to a secondary school. Contrary to expectations, I received a posting back to Radin Mas, my former primary school. When I protested, the authorities told me the policy was to post us to the schools from which we had gone to Raffles College. I argued that the purpose of scholarships to Raffles College was to prepare teachers for secondary schools. I pointed out that it was unfair that Soo who graduated with me received a secondary school posting, and that three others who graduated with a Diploma but had no teacher training got Raffles Institution. The authorities had all sorts of reasons for their actions. However, I felt that since I had rigorous training in the Normal Classes and I was likely to prove to be a more successful teacher than the others were who had only the college Diploma. If I proved to be a good teacher, the expatriate campaign against Raffles College would be weakened. I realised that if I agitated the situation any further, possibly I would be thrown out of service. I resolved to accept this and to try to enjoy doing my best.
At Radin Mas, the Principal assigned the Special Malay class to me. This class was as the two-year conversion period for students who had spent their entire primary education in schools where Malay was the medium of education, and English was taught only as a second language. The selecetd students were deemed bright enough to progress to secondary education where the medium would be English. My students were intelligent, keen and cooperative but their English was very weak.
Fortunately, at Raffles College, I attended sessions by Clarke, a specialist in teaching ‘express English’ to Malay pupils. I enjoyed this assignment so much that I soon overcame my disappointment at being in a primary school. In addition, the Principal, Miss. Everson, liked my teaching approach so much that she asked me to give lectures to her Normal Class trainees on how to teach the special Malay classes.
In addition to my classroom work, I took charge of the school athletics and soccer. It was delightful to get positive responses from my students both in the classroom and on the field. I was tempted to abandon my ambition to teach secondary classes and devote my efforts to raising the standard of the education of Malay pupils who appeared as intelligent and hardworking as Chinese and Indian, but appeared to decline at the secondary school level. Additionally they excelled at athletics and soccer. I wondered why they faded off in studies but retained their keenness on the playing field. This was something worth looking into. I was beginning to develop some ideas, but as you will learn later, the project never materialized.
My lifestyle took a turn for the better
At Radin Mas, new friends and interests came into my life. In Phoa Hock Seng, a fellow staff member, I found a person whose inclinations and attachments were very compatible to mine. He had been a reckless gambler but had reformed after marriage and was a steady and strong family man, fully devoted to teaching. He took a liking for me, and bound me to his heart with strong bonds. We played badminton at school and mahjong at his house.
Apart from school, I had to organise my life. I was 26 and my wardrobe was nonexistent – not merely bare like old Mother Hubbard’s! I had been deprived of all forms of luxury, throughout my life, except for the short spells when I lived with Dr.Subramaniam and Dr. Chan Jim Swee. I felt inclined to splash my early earnings on clothes and furniture but limited myself to simple necessities and saved as much as possible to settle debts. By about November 1931, I had equipped myself with a few new suits, shirts and a pair of shoes, and settled my financial obligations to Dr.Subramaniam and my messmates.
My top priority was to enjoy life by fine-tuning my teaching skills and giving enthusiastic service in extramural duties. My second aim was to set up a comfortable home with good furniture. My third was to indulge in cricket, hockey and tennis during my spare time. Initially, I thought I would make do with the simplest and cheapest furniture until I had saved sufficient to pay in cash for stylish things. One day, however, after a visit to my barber in Selegie Road I I happened to look into Nang Heng, a new Shanghai furniture shop. The modern style of polished teak furniture attracted me. On enquiry, I found the prices shocking! As I moved away, the owner of the shop, who was the designer of the furniture, held me back with his sweet talk. He had recently branched from music to furniture business. He said he needed to get his business moving and wished to capture a few customers at any cost. He showed me a catalogue of several designs, offered to make a furniture set of my choice at the lowest possible price. He would allow me to pay him by small instalments, free of interest, over as many months as I wished. I was hooked!
My friends were moving on. Ben Dudley wanted full possession of the house we had shared since 1927. He was considering getting married, and had relatives coming to stay with him. E. T. Joseph, became engaged, to a dark girl without any dowry, and would marry soon, although he had told us that he was looking about for a fair girl with a big dowry. Retnasabapathy and I chose a new two-storied terrace house in Rangoon Road. We agreed that the house we booked would be mine if Retnasabapathy got married. At that time, my mind was set on remaining single unless I happened to meet a girl I liked. Unlike my friends, I did not give a thought to marriage.
My wants in life were, and always have been, simple. Work is not a merely to earn a living. It takes up the best and most part of the day and is a sure source of one’s pleasure and happiness. Surer than a wife and children, often less painful, less frustrating, and less disastrous.
I resumed my sporting activities – establishing hockey at C.S.C
In early 1927, while I was in the Second Year of my Normal Teacher Training, I started establishing a hockey team at Ceylon Sports Club. Earlier, T.E.K Retnam who was a star cricketer had tried to introduce hockey into Ceylon Sports Club, but gave up the effort because he could not get an adequate number to form a team. Now that I had completed my studies, I suggested we form a team with beginners. He encouraged and supported me. After some practice, we were keen to play as a team. We were not ready for matches and had too few to form two teams to play against each other. Lee Fong Lim was trying to organise hockey for the Singapore Chinese Recreation Club but he too did not have enough players to form two teams for practice. He enthusiastically welcomed my suggestion to play practice games with us at C.S.C., twice a week. We started playing matches in 1929, and by 1931, we were a good team especially after experienced and strong players like Thillainathan, Willie Ponniah and Thuraisingam joined us.
Not satiated with cricket and hockey and coaching the school at soccer and athletics I also played tennis.
Teaching English as a second language triggered an unexpected milestone in my career
During the first term of 1932, Mr. Holgate, who had assumed appointment as the Inspector of Schools, came to Radin Mas School for inspection. He had to walk through my classroom on his way to the office. While mounting the steps at the back of my classroom, he overheard the way I corrected the Malay mispronunciation of English words, and was impressed. He was a Malay scholar. He descended the steps to listen to more of my teaching. After a while, he asked how I had acquired the knowledge for correcting Malay pronunciation of English words. At the end of our conversation, he told me to go for an interview with Mr. McLeod, the Principal of Raffles Institution.
Looking forward to my interview with Mr. McLeod about a transfer to R.I., I prepared myself by visiting Wee Seong Kang at his home in Geylang to get information about the school. According to him, McLeod insisted on formal attire, full suit with necktie. He was a taskmaster. In summary, Seong Kang’s description was that many teachers resented McLeod for interrupting their teaching and for his close supervision. A few teachers had difficulty maintaining discipline. Too many pupils were ruffians. McLeod forbade punishment that used a cane or required pupils to stand in a corner or out of the classroom. Some pupils intimidated teachers by walking abreast in corridors and blocking the teachers’ path. The culprits were pupils who received automatic promotion despite having failed the end of the year exam. Seong Kang said inexperienced teachers felt life would be happier at a primary school where pupils were younger and docile. The trained teachers (i.e. not graduate teachers) were middle aged or elderly, and most of them were able to maintain good discipline. They were not impressed with the young Raffles College graduate teachers. However, if asked, they gave advice kindly and helpfully. Teachers who were Hong Kong graduates were patronising. The expat teachers were supercilious. He said the ‘A’ and ‘B’[1] classes were pleasant to teach but the others hardly responded. Fore warned was fore armed! However, why were there so many problems?
[1] ‘A’ class had the brightest students, ’B’ the next brightest and so on until ‘F’ had the worst students
The Fateful Interview
Fate works in mysterious ways. I had not deserved admission in 1924 to R.I. as a pupil, yet I was accepted very easily. After graduating from Raffles College, as a doubly qualified teacher, I fully deserved and expected to be posted there as a teacher, but I was not. One Saturday morning in March 1932, I stood before the unsmiling and forbidding Principal, McLeod. He looked up from whatever he was reading:
“I understand from Mr.Holgate that you would like to teach at R.I.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Why?”
“Sir, I was ambitious to teach secondary classes. I qualified as a “Normal” trained teacher in 1928, which qualified me to teach in primary schools. When the Government invited applications for indentured scholarships for students to study at Raffles College and return as secondary school teachers, I sent in my application believing that when I graduated I would be able to teach in Raffles Institution or Victoria School. Five other Raffles College graduates, who did not have teaching qualifications similar to those that I had, obtained posting last year to R.I., Victoria and R.G.S. I was the only one posted to a primary school. I think Mr.Holgate himself thought that this was unfair.”
“You speak like you have a grievance.”
I felt I would not get a transfer to R.I., so I decided to give full rein to my feelings.
“Yes, Sir. I do have a grievance. What would you feel, Sir, in a similar circumstance?”
“Well, well! Let us see. I have qualified, experienced, competent teachers. I wouldn’t like to transfer any of them out of R.I.”
“Sir, if that’s so, thank you for the interview. I won’t waste any more of your time.”
“Not so fast, young man.”
With the wisp of a smile in his eye under bushy eyebrows, he said, “Are you good at any extramural activities?”
“Like what, Sir?”
“Cricket?”
“Yes, I captained the College team for three years, and I play for Ceylon Sports Club.”
“Soccer?”
“I do play the game.”
“Hockey?”
“Yes, Sir, I captain the C.S.C. team.”
“Cadet Corps, Scout troop, Literary and Debating Society?”
I was annoyed and nearly blew up, but controlled myself and said, “Sir, anything at R.I. except swimming and gymnastics. But may I ask what the other teachers will be doing if I take charge of all these activities and where I would find the time for all of them?”
Seong Kang told me McLeod never laughed. He laughed aloud at my sally, and I was taken aback. “O.K. I was only testing you. I like your spirit. One week before the next term commences come here for your time-table and desk copies.”
Unexpectedly, he got out of his chair, came around and gave me a warm handshake. It was like telling me to forget the harsh welcome he had given me.
I wondered why he had tested me. Perhaps McLeod did not like a slave mentality and preferred men who stood up for themselves. I expected to get along well with him and dismissed from my mind the warning others had given me about his being a difficult Principal.
My first holiday
During the September vacation, I gathered my fellow Singaporean Raffles College graduates for a reunion tea at my house in Rangoon Road. The 11 of us had a memorable, warm-hearted and noisy meeting, recounting our three-year experiences. We wished we had thought of inviting our Malaysian colleagues. That reunion, gave me the idea of taking a holiday trip to Kuala Lumpur, Taiping and Penang during the December holidays.
Mori met me and organised dinner at a Chinese restaurant in K.L. I was the guest of Utam Singh in Taiping and he took me to the top of one of the Taiping hills, the highest hill-climbing I ever did. In Province Wellesly, Oh Boon Tat hosted me, and took me touring Penang to see the snake temple, the hill railways, a round-the-island coastal drive and to dinner with the Penang graduates. At Ipoh, I met Lee Mun Yui and Ung Khek Cheow but missed the others as they had gone on tours themselves.
At Mori’s dinner, I met Thambirajah, whom I had known in 1919 in my Circular Road days and met again at Raffles College in 1929. He invited me to his home for dinner although his father and the rest of his family were away at Port Dickson on holiday. His mother whom I had known in the early days had passed away; his father was a stranger to me. I had only seen him from a distance. Sitting in Thambirajah’s home, reminiscing about our young days I particularly remembered his mother, who was one of the few people who did not make me feel like a nobody. Moreover, I had never seen any large family in which the mother showed such care for her children. I did not realise at that time that I was preparing myself for an emotional involvement. I thought I was merely indulging in happy reminiscence. When I left Thambirajah, I promised to drop in on him when I was again in Kuala Lumpur and that led to my marrying his second sister in 1933.
