secondary

Day loves secondary school.

* The rite of passage. Humongous watch courtesy of KK who gave Day his old one.

(I told him not to be one of those men who get their wives - or other men - to tie their ties, or who tie it once and keep re-using the same loop. It's a life skill! He learnt from Youtube and got a bit obssessed with making sure its a triangle. Well he ties it better than I ever did, all I ever got was fat, slightly tapered rectangles)

Perhaps it’s still the honeymoon phase, but he’s settled in beautifully.

For one the school started the kids off on a high. The first 1 ½ weeks of school was devoted to outings, a leadership course, and a 3-day, 2-night camp in school, complete with Orientation games, hiking and a campfire round which the kids performed skits. Some people really don’t like this sort of thing, but I do and so did Day. He came back flushed and rosy, chanting cheers.

For another, he really likes the students. The seniors apparently did a fabulous job of introducing the newbies to secondary school life, and Day was quite enamoured of them. He said, “They’re so very friendly.” He likes his classmates too. Curiously, he has seven Filipinos in his class, nattering away in Tagalog when he first met them.

He gets a lot more autonomy and independence, which suits him to a tee. Heading off on the public bus on his own every morning at 640am and coming home at whatever time suits him, often past 4pm, and his after-school activities haven’t even started.

He likes the school food. There’s a café in school which sells $1.60 waffles, which are a hit (for now), and the food (he says) is much better. That said, I expect he’d get sick of it soon, and that’s where the Subway and MacDonalds outlet near the school comes in useful. The seniors, he says, all hang out there or they go to the nearby mall. Of course.

Work-wise, it’s very different. They’re expected to discuss and apply. In Science, for instance, he’s told to read his textbook and work in a group with his classmates to fashion a working catapult which has to meet certain parameters, to be considered a success. In another group project, they are to take on different roles (industrialist, environmentalist etc) to discuss the energy crisis. He’s already cooked macaroni soup in Food and Consumer Education (former Home Economics).

And oh, the school doesn’t have mid-year exams. Fingers crossed the good feelings last.

* Day and some of his new classmates