Recently, a picture has been taken of some Hwa Chong Institution students eating ice-cream on a bus, and posted on STOMP. The article was titled "Even students from Elite School can't follow no-eating rule on bus". It has attracted over 150 comments, mostly by students from Hwa Chong Institution.
I cannot help but remember this similar incident that took place just a while ago, about the SAF man letting his maid carry his backpack for him. That incident truly disgraced the SAF, and similarly this incident has disgraced Hwa Chong Institution. I agree with the STOMPer that these Hwa Chong students' actions were wrong, However, there are a few matters in which I feel that I need to point out.
Firstly, note that the actions of these Hwa Chong Institution students do not apply to all the students in the school. Personally, I have not seen before any Hwa Chong Institution students eating on the bus. These three students' actions do not reflect the true character, spirit and values of an average Hwa Chong student. I feel that people should not just generalize and say that elite-school students thus have a high IQ but a low EQ.
Secondly, I disagree with the STOMPer taking the picture of the Hwa Chong Institution students. Why is it that he took the picture of the students without even going up to tell them that what they were doing was wrong? Such shows that he never really bothered about wanting the students to change for the better; he just wanted to publicly disgrace the Hwa Chong students, or Hwa Chong itself.
Lastly, the fact that I dislike the most is that the STOMPer directing such actions against "students from Elite School". So what if they were students from elite schools? Personally, I have always felt that, whether elite school, average school or neighbourhood school, the students in the respective schools may have different levels of IQ, but not EQ. By stating "even students from elite schools", he is stating that, if he sees a neighbourhood school student eating on the bus, he will not care, but if it is an elite school student, he will take notice of it. That is wrong. The rule on the bus treats everyone equally, regardless of education standards. They will not ignore a student eating on the bus just because he is from a neighbourhood school.
Generally, I feel that the STOMPer should re-evaluate on his true aims of posting this picture on STOMP. He should also drop all his stereotypes and try to treat everyone equally. As to the Hwa Chong students, I hope they learn from this incident and never eat on the bus again.
Hi Wen Hong,
ReplyDeleteYes, I fully agree with your article. The emphasis of the STOMPer seems to be that these students are from an elite school as contrasted to its supposed meaning of criticising the undesirable acts of the students.
In fact, it sounds more like a personal attack, if you ask me. MMRN seems to be jealous of students from elite schools, just like the one Leonard raised just today - regarding the article on Raffles Institution students being photographed for inconsiderate acts on the train.
Before posting anything on the Web, we should always think before acting. Are we hurting anyone by posting something on the Web?
It is also humiliating for the students, who I believe have learnt their lesson, as can be seen from the remorse they exhibited during their apology in front of our batch in the Secondary 2 Assembly that Tuesday.
"No one is infallible." So should we not give them an opportunity to repent?
Best Regards,
Nathan :)
Hi Wen Hong,
ReplyDeleteI like your post about the Hwa Chong students who were STOMPed because they ate ice-cream on the bus. Personally, I feel that their actions are very shameful, but since they have the courage to apologise to the school, I have no choice but to forgive them.
I agree with your first point that STOMPers like to over-generalise things just from one issue. Since we know this, I think that students should all the more be on their guard in order to protect their school's reputation. I like your second point especially because I think that the STOMPer should really have the courage of confronting the students, only if they do not listen then platforms like STOMP should be used. Finally, I think that your third point is good. I personaly feel that the STOMPer should not have focused on the school badge but should have blurred the uniform and emphasise on the ice-cream only. Perhaps STOMP should disallow photographs that contain students wearing school uniforms because this will not only shame the individual, but also tarnish the school's reputation, even though it may not be the school's fault.
Thus, I feel that this event is a good experience for Hwa Chong to learn from so that we will not face such a situation again.
Nathanael
Hi Wen Hong,
ReplyDeleteNice post :) I agree with most of your points. I feel that the STOMPer was stereotyping Hwa Chong students. Hwa Chong has several thousand students, and 3 students definitely cannot accurately reflect all Hwa Chong students.
I agree with the 5th paragraph most of all. The STOMPer seems to imply that because one is from an elite school, one always behaves perfectly in public. I resent this. Does this mean that students from neighborhood schools can do whatever they want?
However, I disagree with your 4th paragraph. If you were the STOMPer in question, would you go and tell someone you were going to post him on the internet? I do not think that your point is very realistic. Also, I do not think that he was targeting Hwa Chong specifically, but elite schools in general. Otherwise he would have used "Hwa Chong" in the title, not "elite schools"
I think that the STOMPer needs to ask himself, would I do this to a student from a neighborhood school?
Kenneth