Pages

Monday, March 2, 2009

Discrimination of Those We Do Not Understand



Today, Mr Tan highlighted to us about jeering that was mostly directed at iSpark.



At Angles Workshop, when Mr Tommie Chen called out "1I1", all the other consortiums( and maybe some in the same consortium) jeered and booed, causing a little chaos and noise.



Last week, while Miss Soh was talking about animals that could represent a character in a story, we stumbled upon an image of a serpant.



" A serpent is generally regarded as a sly, evil and slippery animal. That's why
the Slytherin House's symbol is that of a snake."

Suddenly, one of my classmates shouted


" That's why iSpark's logo is like that!"



When he said that, the whole class erupted in laughter! Miss Soh was unhappy and scolded the whole class.



Reflections and Thoughts

Problem: Why do we discriminate others?
We discriminate others because of their differences.

Evidence: Jeering at iSpark consortium during level meetings/assemblies.
2 incidents mentioned above

Assumptions: iSpark students are not very popular. Why?
General opinion of iSpark students are:
  • Nerdy
  • GEPers
  • Cocky
  • Boastful
  • etc.

But this is not true for all iSpark students, although I admit that some are in fact like that.

P.O.V : A concerned Ortus student
Me, obviously

Consequences of this discrimination: No Unity, Hatred, Segregation.
Discrimination will lead to hatred between the consortiums and there will not be any unity within the school. Soon, everyone will only mix with people of the same consortium, which is actually segregation.

Solution: Understanding--Tolerance--Teamwork--Unity

We need to understand iSpark students. eg. How are they like? (character) Are they really all that cocky and nerdy? Next, we must realise that they, like us, are also part of the HCI family and deserve respect. These things will lead to...

Tolerance. We need to tolerate with other's differences. We need to tolerate with their supposedly higher intellect. We need to tolerate their pride and ego. Only then can we be a...

Team. Teamwork will bring about mutual respect and utimately unity.

Conclusion
We must take the first step in understanding iSpark students. Followed by tolerating them and working with them. And in the end, build a united Hwa Chong to beat Raffles!

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

Martin
Luther King, Jr.


Comment please!


















5 comments:

Yee Hark said...

Lol. Ok, this are my views. Personally, I think that this jeering should be put to an end. But do you honestly think that iSpark consortium was jeered because they are nerdy? I think not. Some are most likely jeered because of their ego. They think that they are superior. Anyway, we should learn to adjust and just learn to know that that is their personality. They are who they are. Just try and communicate. Thx.

Anonymous said...

I feel that the jeering should be put to an end. However, do you honestly feel that they are discriminated by their peers because they are nerdy? I think not. They are usually jeered because they have too big of an ego. To stop this jeering, I feel that stopping the iSpark kids to stop being egoistic is unlikely as it is their personality. However, we, as peers, can try to communicate with them and get used to it. They are who they are. We should just try and appreciate them.

ryan said...

Rather well said. Alot of us generalize iSparkians as geeks/nerds/boastful/cocky etc. The key-word is Generalize. Everyone is special in their own way, and we should respect one's strengths and help with their weaknesses. Also, I do not really see iSparkians being boastful or egoistic actually, I have never really seen anyone (so far) boasting infront of us. However, because of their high intelligence, we are blinded by human cruelty and we start treating them differently (Closely linked to Flowers for Algernon/The Scarlet Ibis). We should promote inter-consortium bonding and help to forge good friendships with our peers, regardless of their background, consortium etc. In summary, I feel that we should treat them equally, understand, respect their differences, in order for a more bonded student cohort.

Xavier the Confused said...

Well, I think this discrimination is very two-faced. Can we cross our hearts and say that there are no such people in other consortiums as well? I don't think so. Thus, I feel that the reason behind all these jeering is jealously. We(in general) don't like feeling inferior to people, so we ostracize people who are supposedly smarter than us. And this, I feel, does not reflect very well on ourselves

Bryan said...

Dear Samuel,

I agree with you. When Hwa Chong set up this "school within a school" consortium, it induced a certain level of competitiveness among the different consortiums, and those who are of different consortiums are seen as "enemies". The iSparkians are especially "hated" because they are so called "different" in terms of intelligience level. I personally feel we should not just treat the iSparkians just because they "differ", which I don't see where, other than intelligience. Everyone should be equally treated with respect.

Bryan