My school days

Siva Choy wrote an article in Sunday's The New Paper on his days as a student. He mentioned that before schools used white boards in the classrooms, they used blackboards. That evoked nostalgia in my mind.

I do hate the sound of the chalk "squeak(ing) at a certain sharp pitch". Each time the teacher accidentally did that, my insides just cringed and my shoulders just involuntarily shuddered. Also, I remember the chalk "dust clouds" being emitted into the air when the class monitors quickly erased the writing on the blackboard and removed the dust from the dusters. You could really see white "smoke" in the air surrounding the board! I have an unexplained fetish for looking at boards being cleaned as well!

When I was in Sec 1, I was yakking away with my classmates and my form teacher threw a piece of chalk at me in an exasperated attempt to shut me up. As a relief teacher, I had to endure chalk dust on my tops and my fingers while teaching and chalks breaking when I pressed them too hard while writing on the board. It was also a juggling act having to draw lines with a chalk in one hand and an enormous wooden ruler used by only teachers in the other! I was also made to look foolish when my writing slanted as I wrote on the board! Oh, the memories to do with the blackboard that I have stored within me!

He also mentioned class monitors helping teachers with various tasks like carrying their books. I remember some really sweet girls volunteering to carry my books when I was a relief teacher. God bless their thoughtful hearts!

He briefly chronicled the different types of writing tools for learning. I imagine how the people of long ago wrote in their books. The Chinese used brushes dipped in ink to write their characters while the Westerners used pens made with quill feathers dipped in ink to write. Technology has certainly come a long way since then.

The progression for us students was from pencils to pens. I remember being allowed to use the latter only when I reached P4. It was "a milestone in growing up" for me too. I felt like an adult then. One of the first brands of pens I used was Kilometrico but Zebra brand is still my favourite one.

From the old-fashioned ways of writing, typewriters and PCs then sprouted up. My first real attempt at using a typewriter occurred during my first temporary job, which included clerical work. My boss had to teach me how to use it from scratch! I learnt how to master the usage of the computer in another job and those skills have stood me in good stead even till now.