School excursions

Today, 1700 students, staff and parents trekked off to Tuen Mun Park for the school picnic. I somehow imagined a national park-type place up on a mountain, or at the very least, somewhat away from the city. Foolish me. Nevertheless, it was quite pleasant. Also, as I invited Christen to join us on this school excursion, I was relieved from any teacherly duties -- ie. rather than sitting at our assigned spot to chat with students, we were free to roam the park and choose our sitting spot. I must say, I do enjoy the fact that students here commonly share their snacks and food with their teachers, as well as their friends. Aside from the fact that I get free snacks, it's just nice. At school even, I periodically have students come up and offer me candies or treats. Yay, sharing is caring.

Of the two school excursions I've been on (the other being sports day), the picnic was definitely the winner. It was hot out, but it was good to see the children actually running around. For once, there were no teachers yelling at them over loudspeakers and some even joined in the games. Lots of parents showed up as well, which was refreshing. I'm not particularly surprised given the amount of attention parents pay to their kids' schooling here, but still... One thing that I hate seeing though is kids letting their parents carry all their crap. When they're young -- grade 1 or 2 -- ok, maybe. You can argue that their bags are too heavy for them, they're too tired/weak, etc. But when they're older, and especially by the time they're in grade 6, I'm positive they can carry their own stuff. I was appalled to see a couple of grade 6 boys with their little old grandma, letting her hold the umbrella over their heads and carry one of their bags. And, mind you, this grandma was of the short, frail variety and the boys were of the big, strapping variety. Now, really...

Another point for the school picnic excursion was the fact that we travelled on regular buses. Going to Sports Day, I felt like I was in a crazy storybook a la Harry Potter or the Magic School Bus -- only this school bus didn't have magic properties exactly, just the look of one that should. Hanging all throughout the bus were dangly Hello Kitty characters and little plastic jewels. At every slight turn of the bus, the Hello Kittys would swing vigorously from side to side. While you might think this would have a soothing, somewhat hypnotic quality, the effect is more nauseating than anything. How many people ever for colourful Kittys swinging to and fro to the sounds of shouting children....

And one final thing -- despite my own fairly positive memories of fun Sports Days doing 3-legged and potato sack races, running with an egg on a spoon or crawling under nets during the obstacle course, Sports Days in Hong Kong are nothing of the sort. Rather, the school's top athletes take part in a track meet against other schools and some of the other less athletic students are taken along to sit in the stands and cheer on their classmates. For added effect, the teachers pass out pom poms and multi-coloured clown wigs as props for the cheerleaders. How clowns are associated with cheering, I'm not really sure, but if nothing else, it makes for a colourful crowd.