Today is the 1st day in school for most Standard 1 students (excluding Orientation Day and those who started class on Sunday). Do you still remember your first day?
Mine was quite uneventful. I was the kind of kid who doesn’t cry to part with my parents for 6 hours. All my siblings were. My brother even asked our parents (in my case, my mom escorted me) to go home. I don’t think I asked my mom to go home, but I did ignore her. I think she went back after 10 minutes.
Yesterday, in the news, there was this father chasing his daughter who was running away from school. Then a mother seen chasing her son. It was so cute a sight! I could imagine the chaos of parents trying to persuade their children to stay in school. All the crying, all the wrestling to get away from the teachers, all the confusion, all the mess.
I remembered being confused as to why everybody was so afraid. I was the type who asked to go to a boarding school in standard 4 (or was it standard 2?), and did go of to various boarding schools (Yayasan Selangor, Matriks, and far off to the Pearl of the South China Sea Island for my tertiary education – 9 years all in all).
The teachers, as I remembered, tried their best to be as friendly as possible. But with the children’s parents hovering at the window, they seemed to be helpless when the children start to run to their parents. Some of us already know each other. As for me, none of those in my neighbourhood was in the same class.
We were taught, of course, the basics of being in school. How to greet teachers, and how to say if you need to go to the loo. I got lost once, trying to search for the loo, and I end up peeing behind the building. I made a wrong turn, it seems.
A teacher would have to accompany his/her class throughout the day. I can’t remember when did other teacher start to teach us, maybe it was within the first week, or after. She would then be the best teacher to the students, at that time. Don’t flare up since I used female pronouns here, as since most of those in the teaching profession are female, it’s easier to use ‘she’ instead of ‘the teacher’.
We would then assigned to our seats and that seat will remain for the whole year. Our immediate neighbours would be your 1st be our first friends (provided we do not have any in the same class), and may be our best. Then comes the ice breaking session, and suddenly, we got a whole lot of friends. (my class used to have 40+ students, I don’t know about now).
Then come the election part. We were to elect the ‘Ketua Darjah‘ (class monitor) and the assistant. In some places, they even have elaborate positions such as Ketua Kebersihan (Head of Class Cleanliness) and Ketua Disiplin (Head of Class Discipline). Usually we would simply choose our friends not because we know they could do the job, but to annoy them.
The Ketua Darjah would have to order the students to raise and wish the teachers upon arrival and departure of teachers. He would also need to report any disciplinary problem to the teachers (him or the Ketua Disiplin, if any). He would either have to write names of the naughty students on the blackboard, or jot it down in a notebook. Doesn’t always work, so he would have to scream at them to ask them to be quiet. “Diaaaaaammm!!!…Kalau tak kita tulis nama!” (Quiet!!…If not i’ll write your name (and pass it to the teacher)!).
One of the perks of being a Ketua darjah (or Ketua Kebersihan) was the Duty Roster. This is simply because a Ketua Darjah would either be exempt from doing the chores or getting the least work. After all, they are the ones usually doing the roster. Another perk was the awards at the end of the year. Colour (color) pencils and books are the norm if the awards were in form of prizes.
Speaking of duty rosters, the chores are usually the same. There would be sweeping, cleaning the blackboard, washing the windows, arranging the tables and some not-so-standard chores like arranging the class library or the class display. Usually the whole class will be doing their job everyday, with alternating chores. This is done before the daily assembly.
School Assembly (SA) would be on every Monday (or Sunday in certain places). everybody would have to line up according to their class, lead by the class monitor. The lines are usually in alphabetical order, so those in front, behind and beside you are always the same fellow. The usual ‘show’ would be the singing of the National and State Anthem followed by the School songs (that always sound almost the same for every school), and some other patriotic songs such as Sejahtera Malaysia and Malaysia Merdeka. Then the Rukunegara would be recited and the Doa (prayer). next in line is the speeches, by the HM, and others. after the assembly, the students will disperse into their respective class one line by one line, usually.
On normal days, there would be the Class Assembly, or better known as simply ‘Beratur‘ (line up). Essentially a smaller version of the SA, usually the songs sung during the SA will be heard at this time. There’s also the “angkat tangan, turun tangan, senang diri, jaga sedia” (raise hands (on shoulder), lower hands, attention, at ease) commands blurted out by the Class Monitors, and the students cheekily follow.
The recess was much awaited apart from the going home time. It was time to eat, and most importantly to us back then was to play. There was a lot of games played all around the school, from batu seremban, to kejar-kejar or polis sentri (cops and thieves). some may even play football (soccer) or take their time to go to the library. I used to join a sort of fight club before. didn’t last tlong though, after one of them got nosebleed from me. That’s the advantage of being bony all over.
Then the next best thing was going back time. I don’t know why, but everybody will just run to the gate. once or twice I got scratches from falling down when running, ouch!
The most awaited subject was, of course, Physical Education, or PE, (also known as PJK, PJ and many other names). This is the subject where you can just go and play at the field. Not many teachers managed to teach anything for this subject. Here’s a better potrayal of this all-time favourite subject. Click here.
This post has actually gotten sidetracked. But I hope you’d enjoy the reminiscence. How was your school days? How was your 1st day of school? Come and share it.
Comments
12 responses to “1st day in school”
mine was quite predicted since i was in kindy. since most of the people in my hometown knew my parent (for some reasons, of course) me & my siblings were treated nicely & very well taken care of from the 1st day we stepped our feet into schooling world. i received the same ‘nice’ treatment until i finished my high’s. so, it can be said that i didnt have such experiences of running away from teachers or new friends since i was well escorted by my teachers. by saying nice treatment, 1 of the benefits i received is most of important positions such as, class rep, head of librarian, prefect and some other ‘head’ position were given to me from my primary level – secondary level. this also applied in clubs & associations. i once held prefect, class rep & head of diciplinary board at 1 time. talking about ‘gila kuasa’ kan? technically it wasn’t my fault if most of the teachers love me. heehee.. but of course all of these came together with academic performance lah. but i remembered one thing about my kindy years, i treated that tadika macam bapak aku yg punya. i played & ate whenever i want (teacher tak larat nk tego). i dont know why i dont like to be bounded by rules. thank GOD i’m not a spoiled child by looking at where i am now. ๐
hav no recollection watsoever of my first day at school. rase mcm dah lameee sgt…
Wlady: If you played netball…you’d be GK, right? (Gila Kuasa)
Permaisurinobel:Are you that old?Or are You John Doe?Make it Jane Doe..maybe you schooled during the zaman Hang Tuah, so everybody forgot about you and just remember Hang Tuah…
My first day in school was a total catastrophe. There’s a boy who’s crying (its more to screaming actually). He screamed my name dem loud what seemed the entire school could hear. A teacher came to my class and asked me to follow her without telling me where to and why. Finally, we got at the crime scene and there he was, my bertuah punya brother, with pants wet of pee.
I dont remember crying on my first day at school (minus the pre-school). I was sent to pre-school / kindergarten when i was only 4. Mak aku nyampah tengok aku nyakat adik aku kot? That was when i went rolling behind the curtains crying out loud refusing to go to school. But when i was 7, going to the primary school was a peanut.
Tak nangis puuunnn… ๐
moral: antar anak korang ke kindergarten as early as 3 years old. mesti mereka ghairah nak masuk darjah 1 dan korang pun takyah tunggu kat skolah. ok tak? ngehngehgngeh…
Orked: Now that’s something to remember. Be sure to bring up the story on his wedding night, and share it with all. Sure to bring a lot of laughter and one very red face.I know I would…
Pyerudz: “Tak nangis puuunnn…,” kata Pyerudz sambil mengelap air mata yang berlinangan…:-p
hi there peeps..
first time here and i find the topic’s dem interesting..
except for one tho.. lizzam’s picture of himself is quite the scary one..
i’d cry ..no..i’d howl if my teacher looks like this…
hi again ppl. lizzam, i’m ancient. orked, darn funny story. pyerudz, very good point. u peeps r lucky got stories to tell when u’re old.
p.s. nice blog u hav here..m’sian context. do keep posting. i’m bookmarking this page
happy new year,lizzam.
emh..kira2 19tahun yang lalu, entah la kenapa,bila mak letak aku kat sekolah tu, aku takder perasaan takut dan menangis. dan tak sampai seminggu aku dah jadi ketua darjah kelas. dan tak saampai 2 minggu, ada sorang budak perempuan dalam kelas tu,sudah berak dalam kelas,dan dia takmau orang lain yang membasuhnya kecuali ketua kelas dia itu..
sigh…
gilerlah kenangan nih..(cuma malangnya, aku tak ingat nama budak pompuan tu, lagipun aku dah lama tinggalkan sabah).
heheheh..
waa new layout aa..comel..comel ๐
Permaisurinobel: Gee…thanks.You can also subscribe to the RSS if you’re using FireFox. Don’t know about IE though. When are u going to start your own. If already has, give me the address…
mafiaries: love your story very-very much!pity you lost contact with her.fancy telling her if you meet her in the future?
mafiaries:Hi, remember me?
girl:erm, not really.we were in the same school?
mafiaries:yeah. remember the incident in standard one?I was the class monitor.
girl: [blushes]urm..oh..ah, i forgot, my goldfish’s thirsty, need to give her some water…later [while skipping away…]
WAB: TQ…your new photo is also cute. liked the one with the out-of-focus table(or was it sofa) in the foreground. nice angle.
cik puan muda:don’t be scared at me…i don’t bite…but i’d howl too if my teacher’s wearing a pampers (for the uninitiated, pampers = disposable diapers.Malaysian term)