Sports in school - Just a game?

I guess most of you still remembered the rugby incident betweeen Anglo-Chinese School and Saint Andrews Secondary. I will like to use this incident as an example to dscuss about sports and competitions in schools.

What exactly is a competition and what are its aims? I feel that sports are actually games which train you up physically. This builds up our competitiveness and in team sports like soccer and rugby, it builds up our teamwork. These are further enhanced by competitions. Competitions also let us have a gauge on our level of skill in that particular sport we are competing in. For example, if we are competing in a competition, we can know roughly where we stand among the whole nation. However, is the sense of competitiveness going too far as people strives for the win?

What makes sports in schools different is that it is relatively smaller scaled as compared to professional sporting competitions like the Olympics. I do feel that the experience that we gain from competitions is more important than winning. Achieving a result is definitely not more important than the character we develop while learning the sport.

I think that rules and regulations should be stricter in competitions to promote sportsmanship among the athletes. For example, if a deliberate foul is committed which causes injury to the opponent, the person should be banned for a period of time. This teaches the player to respect his or her opponent and not to try and win the match using these means. Schools should not encourage the wining of medals just to bring glory. Instead, they should educate the sportsmen about teamwork, and to win fairly, not to use unscrupulous ways to win. These acts should be condemned.

Electronic devices can be used to film the whole match, and in any case of argument about unfair-play, the footage can be used for post-match analysis.

In conclusion, sports should be casual a casual affair. Competition is good, but too much is not. Therefore, the number of competitions should be reduced.

National Day - How did I spend it?

Its the National Day on 9 August. Most people are probably at their home watching the parade, or some even watch the live parade at the Padang. What I did was just treat it like just any other holiday, staying at home during the day, and going out at night. You can say that I am not patriotic, or I just simply do not care.

In the past, when I was in 6 years old, still in kindergarten, I was quite patriotic. I asked my mother to buy the Singapore flag and hang it in the balcony. And I did it for almost every National Day, until about the time when I was primary 3. I think the reason for doing so was because of the teachers encouraging us to do so.

However, as I grew older, I could not be bothered to hang up the flag during National Day. This is probably because as I grew older, I thought about it. There was nothing to gain from hanging up the flag, and the most common reason, that is me being lazy to do so. I am quite selfish, aren't I? I doubt most of my friends hang up their flag on every national day, unless they hung them up permanently, which most Singaporeans do so. Our citizens' patriotism towards the country has diminished every year.

One of the causes may be because of the National Day Parade, in which I feel they are all similar every year. The dances, the marching of the soldiers are all almost the same, and I think the reason which Singaporeans want to watch them is probably because of the fireworks. However, though we do not show our love for the country openly, it does not mean that we do not care about our country at all. We are still patriotic, but its just that it has decreased over the years. In conclusion, patriotism should not be over emphasised, as it will not really affect the country that much. Patriotism comes naturally, but there's no need to show it openly.

YOG torch at HCI

On 11 August, the YOG torch came to our school, Hwa Chong Institution. In the morning, everyone was very excited about the torch and we were discussing about it. "What is it going to be like?" "Are we really going to see the lighted torch?", are some of the questions we asked. Its 8.30am. Some YOG cars passed. The sponsor, Samsung, came and distributed flags to advertise their product in which most of those who took them were the Secondary ones.

Its 9.30am. Our history teacher, probably bored of waiting, came to chat with us. "Is this really worth waiting?" this was generally what he said and what he meant. "Mind you, we are waiting here, in Hwa Chong, where the students in 1956 protested when the government wanted to wipe out the communists in Singapore. And mind you, this YOG will also be recorded down in history." So is this event really important such that we had to give up our curriculum time?"

Finally we were asked to stand up. Finally, the moment we have been waiting for. We were expecting the torch bearer to run the 100 metres along the road, with the trucks, the support runners, and the camera. However, what we saw was just the torch bearer carrying the safety lantern, with one of the support runner holding the unlit torch. That's all we were going to see? Unfortunately, yes. That's all that we saw yesterday. How disappointing. As a Singaporean, I am proud that my country is the first to hold such an event. However, I do feel that they should use this chance to showcase the capability of Singapore and not make this so small scaled.