Finally met him. In all honesty he is a nice guy, but he prolly also tops the list of the obnoxious people I've ever met.
He bought out a bag, and i asked why. He said cause i don't want the sides of my wallet to bend. If you put it in your pockets; front, side or back, it'll bend.
I put my wallet in the front. the last 2 wallets, each I've use for about 5 years, hardly bend at the sides. And if the bend, it's more cause of the no of cards, cash inside than anything else. My point: go get a good wallet. (That's just me being bitchy)
What really hit me was when he told me about his job. How he actually talked back to the NIE assessor.
He was doing his assessment and he noticed a girl that wasn't paying attention. He decided to get her to stand in class to listen to his lesson. I'm not a teacher, but even i know MOE doesn't quite agree with such methods these days. And it's an assessment, an evaluation, all the more i see the need to conform to their teaching philosophy. But he felt his teaching methods was effective, the girl learnt and so he told off the assessor. To further prove his point, he got the class to do a survey on his teaching and threw the results back at her.
He felt that he was in no way wrong and she was being haughty and she needed to be brought down to earth.
I thought it was a really bad move. Felt he could have brought his point across in a better way. Rather than to go head on, but he felt taking a softer approach would meant that he was admitting he was wrong. Excellent way to make an impression on someone who prolly has more links than you to MOE HQ.
Thereafter he got his school posting, he didn't like his choice. So he wrote to MOE requesting for a transfer, without telling the school. MOE informed the school. He talked to the VP about it, and he was allowed to contact the school he wanted to transfer to and so he wrote to all 3 parties, current, preferred, MOE on his transfer. MOE shot him back with an email saying, an intellect like you should know better....
Excellent way to cause a carrer suicide. He believes that his performance will be assess base on his teaching results only. This in addition to him having work for Singapore Inc, previously under DSTA. Shouldn't you by now realize how the system works and make the system work for you? How can anyone be so obnoxiously naive or ignorant to not believe the fiascos he's created will come back to hunt him?
Throughout my conversations with him, He never comes across as someone who thinks he's wrong or he might be wrong. He believes the if he's values are correct, he's going to stick to his gun. It's good that you have a set of values, its good to defend what you believe. But there has to be some flexibility in handling things. In the world we live in now, there are lesser absloutes. It's to quote a friend,"possilbilites rather than probabilities". It's about using soft power to infleunce people to get your point across. The net's a vast ocean of information and one could easily find 10 points to prove your point otherwise, if you're going head on.
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