Such is the way to the Stars

Well, yeah.. I missed class today. Hurm, what can I say, Rawang and Cyberjaya is far far away and just the thought of riding the KTM Komuter scares the shit out of me. Or maybe I'm just lazy.

Well, yesterday was surely hectic for me from the hour I woke up till the minute I went to bed. See, I went to Alice Smith School to attend this seminar on Promethean's ACTIVboard which in essence is a interactive whiteboard that you plug into your computer and do all sort of things. Imagine doing a slide presentation with a projector but being able to manipulate stuffs just by pointing the stylus on the board and not the computer. That's what we're selling. Oh yeah, I'm working for this company, Inforexus as their presenter and technician and it is one of two or three companies that are offering this product in Malaysia. By far, we're the badass: we sold 30 boards to Alice Smith School to date.

It was my first time attending such an event and I'm the only one there that is still below 30 years old which quite scared me since I don't know how this sort of people talk to each other. Nevertheless, I think my physique look quite maturish to them since none asked me anything about my age or where I'm studying except for this one Scot lady working with British Council. Other than the marketers, there's also a group of teachers from Penang that is under the government's pilot project for the use of this board. Some of them are lecturers at maktabs while the rest are your everyday secondary school teachers.

From my observation and listening, I believe that to some of these teachers the trip here was just a jalan-jalan trip. They seemed uninterested at the whole product as well as the presentation. Well, maybe because the guy who's talking is British.. there's always the translation problem but then again, these teachers were sent to get English training aren't they? Not to mention they now are supposed to teach in English. These teachers are also lacking in participation during the presentation where that poor British fella was trying to engage us all in the activities, the teachers sit at the back of the room and did nothing save from simple chats with one another. Remember folks, these are the teachers who probably scold their students for not answering a question in class. Talk about pot calling the kettle black.

Anyway, on the brighter side Alice Smith School is a child's dream school. You can really see that the student engage themselves thoroughly with education with the noticeboard along the main corridor full of student's work.. and this is a primary school mind you. The environment is nice and relaxing which is the benefit having the school at Jalan Bellamy near Istana Negara. The whole complex was clean without any trash of any sort while the students are very very disciplined. Imagine, they were playing futsal on the courtyard during break and the the bell rang. What happen? The whole team stopped playing, one boy picked up the ball and all walked in back to the building. Exactly the moment the bell rang. Our school? Go figure.

Well, some of the Penangite teacher said that we can be just like that school if we have their kind of money. Well, yes of course if you are talking about the infrastructure but can you buy children's discipline with money? Hell no! Those kids were disciplined enough because the environment they live in is one that is stimulating and they have teachers they can look up to as role models. It has nothing to do with money. Yes, this kid are filthy rich sons of expatriates same as some rich kids at our schools. Does being rich makes you more mannered? I don't think so.

Oh how I wish one day I could send my kids to a Sekolah Kebangsaan and get an Alice Smith sort of treatment.. Sic Ad Itur Astra. Such Is A Way To The Stars.

footnote: I do have pictures but it's in my camera. Maybe later I'll post it here.