Student Name: Yeung King Yin /
Student No. 09401695
Taking
a cold shower in winter, non-air-conditioned dormitory in summer, 3 nights a
week residing at school with students, 80% of enrolled students were once a drug
user and among them 95% were concomitantly drug dealers, 70% of my students were
triad members of different ‘brand’, 95% of my students were “enrolled” here by
court verdict, most of the students I first met at courts, these “atypical” features
are the “typical” features of my school life.
(School badge painted on the rock
nearby the school pier)
Christian
Zheng Sheng College is aimed at correcting students with drug addiction and other
behavioral problems using life education and self-refection. The college is Hong Kong’s only educational
institute dedicated to helping reshape young drug addicts. My college is located at the Southern tip of
Chi Ma Wan Peninsula, Lantau Island.
Staff normally spends at least 2- 3 hours travelling from their home to
school. There is still no direct transportation
linking my school to major towns in Hong Kong.
Besides police boat, sampan is our usual transport tool.
(Students are
giving thanks together before having lunch, food are simply)
Currently
there are 113 students residing at Christian Zheng Sheng College, among them,
30 are girls and the average age of my student is around 16. Once enrolled, they need to reside at school
for at least 2 years, meaning that they are not allowed to go home for holiday
over the period. Importantly, upon
enrolment with school, they immediately resume their student identity. Thus, they are no longer stigmatised as an “inmate”. “Student identity” itself is already part of our
therapy.
(Principal
Chan is trying to play basketball with kids 30 years younger than him)
I
just could not consider myself as a good student. I was reluctantly to change my school (or I
risked being expelled from school) when I was still in Primary 3 because of ‘conviction’
of a chain stealing activity (Play-doh was the target) from school, sarcastically,
after school. My teachers did not like
me I liked poking fun at classmates in class and caused troubles to teachers. When I was in Secondary school, I usually went
school late on purpose, together with other ‘assorted’ misconducts, I was cumulatively
“awarded” more than 30 something demerits points in 5 years. In my secondary “Era”, I did not have interest
in learning or, receiving schooling at school by school system. I just did not see any good hope in my
academic life when I was in Hong Kong.
(Students are saying tearful Goodbye to their parents on Parent's Day at Government-funded
pier of Zheng Sheng, Ha Kan, Lantau Island)
When
I was 18, after expectedly failed my HKCEE (3 pass 5 fail), I ran into a great
chance with support of my parent to study overseas, where I started picking up
knowledge from scratch diligently and learnt to become an independent and
responsible person. 6 years later, I
came back to Hong Kong with my degree in Pharmacology. Then, I spent a few years at University of
Hong Kong doing a higher degree in Pharmacology followed by participating in Chinese
medicine research projects. After that,
I moved to Hong Kong Hospital Authority where I had chances to play roles in
formulating healthcare policy at hospital level. These “jobs” are challenging, but none of them
offered me an opportunity “exercise” my “inherited mission” to inspire
(influence) others, ultimately changing people’s life. It is by chance that, when I was still a
research student, I visited Christian Zheng Sheng College through a church-led
youth sharing programme, since then I had developed a sort of “emotional-tie”
with the school and somehow I had a feeling (calling) that one day there would
be part of my “stage” in my life journey.
(Students participated
in a Cultural Exchange Tour in Canada, they have never thought of standing on stage showing their new life before!)
It
is not surprised that I am always surprised that I could have become a teacher in
a very special school now! Good teachers,
an accepting and inclusive learning environment can help reform delinquent student’s
life.
My
faith told me that people can change if a chance is given them, however, chance
is not always there. The teaching post
at Zheng Sheng paves way for me to serve our younger generation. I have been there for over 3 years and I find
the time there both meaningful and graceful.
Although there is no
agreed definition of a profession worldwide, Australian Council of Profession
has a definition for profession as follows:
'A disciplined group of individuals who
adhere to high ethical standards and uphold themselves to, and are accepted by,
the public as possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely recognised,
organised body of learning derived from education and training at a high level,
and who are prepared to exercise this knowledge and these skills in the
interest of others.
Before
joining a teaching career, I had long been puzzled that whether teacher is a profession
or not. Does teaching career, particularly at elementary education level,
appear to be professional in any way in Hong Kong? When compared to that of traditional
professions, i.e. lawyer, doctor, pharmacist and accountant, (Elementary) teacher
does not look like very much professional in terms of its social status,
recognition and career sustainability.
Furthermore, it apparently seems to me that everyone could quite easily to
become a teacher so long as the subject knowledge of the teacher-to-be is
well-trained. However, after being a
teacher at Christian Zheng Sheng College for 3 years, my concepts as to the professional
roles of teacher extends far beyond than what I have been thinking of.
(Photo: Students are assigned to clean
their dormitory and “campus” on a daily basis)
An
effective teacher is definitely a profession it is because teachers in Hong
Kong have (to be asked to have) strong commitment in diverse stakeholders,
which include students, school, parents, teachers themselves, community and our
nation.
Different people might have different
definition for the term “profession”.
What I have in mind for “profession” are attitude, competence,
qualification, commitment, value and passion.
(LegCo members support us by wearing our T-shirt，Don't Go through life withgoal!)
In
view of my school’s mission, academic excellence (extensive effort paid to
maximise exam skills) is not our prime objective. Instead, we are here to help reshape juvenile
delinquency and to help correct their deviated behaviours by spending time
being with them in the ‘unprecedentedly’ college. At Zheng Sheng, we are just learning to face
life adversity together in the small but holistic community.
(Protest demonstration against our
proposed relocation to Mui Wo’s empty school site)
As
far as I have observed, academic excellence doesn’t guarantee one’s attitudinal
excellence. General public tends to emphasise
student’s academic achievement partly because Hong Kong’s job market is highly
competitively. To me, competitive-edge or
“success” should not lie exclusively in academic achievement. Instead, competence should include good attitude
and responsible behaviour. After all,
success shall lies in the attitude of never-give-up no matter how high a person
can fly.
(Real-life engagement is part of school’s
rehab therapy, students are cooking and washing for themselves)
Without
exploitation of physical punishment, foul language or other threatening act, what
else can we do to handle those problematic students at Zheng Sheng? The question
apparently has no straightforward answer.
Christian Zheng Sheng College provides students with a small community
that comprises the following 4 core values (dimensions) namely, religion,
schooling, laborious work and peer interaction. Through engaging in such holistic setting,
students gradually rethink their life values and qualities of a responsible person
in a society. These multi-dimensional
interfaces also help student to develop social and cognitive skills necessary
to deal with conflict, engage in positive self-appraisal and control aggression
and express temper properly.
Fortunately,
teacher at Zheng Sheng have trusting relationship with Principal as well as
senior management. Teachers enjoy high
degree of autonomy in designing their curriculum and teaching strategy because
we all believe that frontline teachers are in a better position to understand
what student needs most in their learning capacity.
(Laborious
work is major part of their life at Zheng Sheng, they are moving sand bags from
pier to campus)
Due
the nature of my school, I have diverse roles to play at school. We act most of the time like a teacher,
sometimes we act like a social worker, warden, guardian, counselor and
classmate and friends in some way.
Students are regularly invited by other schools to participate in many
life-widening sharing programmes. They
actively take part in Inter-School Sports Competition every year. Students have won many prizes in different video-shooting
competitions. My school stresses that ‘guided’
social participation, as part of our rehab programme, is vital for the resumption
of their civic roles. With respect to
the residential nature of Zheng Sheng, teachers of Zheng Sheng must be highly
disciplined and adhere to high ethical standards.
(Book arising from Zheng Sheng Students' life)
Right
beginning my teaching role at Zheng Sheng, in pursuit of a more quality
teacher, I soon started to study my PGDE in liberal studies and I regularly
attend workshops, seminars and training programmes organised by Hong Kong
Education Bureau and HKEAA. Since my
colleagues have different background in their previous fields (social work, engineer,
designer and so on) and their sharing and experience really can enrich my mind in
designing more interesting teaching materials.
In addition, I have chances of partake
in a guitar class as well as basketball programme at the college. The roles allow me to get a closer look at my
students in different interface so that I can timely spot their personal
problems.
In response to the requirement of 334 NSS
(New Senior Secondary) system, I have developed a school-based student monthly
progress report (see attachment). Attitude
and behaviour performance are of the priority of this report. Besides, the scope of this report also cover student
class room performance, community services, staff comments, parent expectation,
student’s goals, extracurricular activities and disciplinary record. The report helps student to keep track on
their learning progress and guide us through the student’s progress at school. The reports will be summarised and returned
to students once they leave school for their future reference.
As with other teachers do, I do experience
frustration occasionally when students stubbornly give up their chances at school,
resist listening to our guidance and consider our intervention as hindrance to their
pursuit of “colourful” life. However,
most of my students are not that stubborn and they are hopeful.
In
conclusion, it turns out it is never easy to become a good teacher in Hong
Kong. Teachers are entitled to shoulder increasingly
expectations and responsibilities from general public (Parent, school, university,
Government, business sector and other countless interested There is a Chinese
old saying that “it might take 10 years to
grow tree, but a life time to cultivate people”. Cultivating one person is both a lengthy and
labour-intensive work and the outcome of our effort is hardly seen in a matter
of a week or month. Passion does play an
essential role in it.
Last
but not least, teacher is definitely professional!
