Why BNSS?

Many of friends question why [why, why why?] do I want to teach at BNSS. They know that my life is a pretty sheltered one and having been in good schools, especially all-girls' schools, they thought I was just asking for a beating by applying to teach at this normal neighbourhood school.

My answer [hopefully a pretty frank one]: I love Singapore but I know that I don't exactly have a healthy experience or knowledge of what's really going on at the masses' level. My friends are all intelligent but elitist Chinese and we talk different. I really do want to know what reality is for most people.

So now that I've taught at BNSS for several weeks, what do I have to say?
Teaching wise, I obviously faced many difficulties, first of which was the culture shock. People wise, I found the kids very fun to be with and they never fail to make me laugh. We talk very colloquial english, like my words of 'yeah sia'. During recess, the boys play soccer and when my math lessons are after recess, they always stank. Attitude wise, they are a lot less reverent towards teachers than I was back then.
The teachers here are awesome. It takes a lot of courage for a teacher to go down to a student's level and work with him/her. Coming from one of the top schools, I know you'll never get that kind of treatment from teachers because the teachers never had to. I've met teachers who refused to teach a certain student and even ignores him/her because of grudges held against the way the student had treated the teacher. As a teacher in BNSS, you can never be that high and mighty.

Every student is unique. There are some kids I give a lot of attention to and others virtually none at all. But in my heart, every child really is unique. This knowledge makes me feel good cos now I know I must have had a place in my teachers' hearts last time.