Teachers' Day 2020: Dedicated To My Students

Every school teacher would have received a mug like the above or other souvenirs that describes him or her as the perfect classroom mentor. Taken with a smile the recipient would have accepted it and then kept it away in a cupboard or drawer till the next year comes, when the teacher receives another souvenir. And so it goes...

Songs about teachers I can recall too and offered them every year to this blog's readers. 'To Sir With Love' from Lulu, 'Teacher's Pet' by Doris Day and 'Teach Me Tonight' with sexy lines like, 'if a shooting star goes by, I'll use that star to write I love you...'. Sung by the imitable Nat King Cole, these songs bring back lots of blackboard memories (yes, school boards were black once, not white like today and the writing on the board was mostly white, not colourful).

So for this post the focus will be on the children. Because there are at least a dozen or two students who still remember. And they are still in touch, even until today. I am sure it's happening to other teachers/lecturers as well.

One amazing  former student organised a lunch lately at the Jewel with a few of her school mates; another provided a huge buffet get-together at his condominium with a dozen other classmates and another cheered us on during a 60's music concert, bringing an entourage to support me while I was singing on stage at the Kallang Theatre. You guys know who you are. I won't mention names. But thank you all so much. And that Raffles Country Club meet; we must get together...

I  have students who touched my life more than I touched theirs.

It's been going on for many years and as I remember, one young lady brought her two children and we met at Novena Square for a wonderful lunch. I still have to return her lunch. Another lady got married and sent photographs of her new born, happily together with her handsome hubby. At another 60's music show, a student brought friends to watch our band perform at the main National Library open hall along North Bridge Road. She's the same student who took us to Jewel and always kept in touch.

Grateful to  the classroom monitors who looked after every aspect of the daily affairs in class; carrying heavy Audio Visual Aids, arranging desks and chairs, the immaculate cleaning of blackboard filled with chalk dust, the pinning of  time-table and posters on the walls, etc and most importantly, looking after the class register, without which lessons will never begin. One lady monitor I shan't forget; she's the best ever. She did everything in class. Like a secretary.

Another student: a mother now who writes so well on her Facebook pages: I stole her articles and posted them on my blog. She writes better than me; that's for sure. She writes about life's challenges.

Lately while I was lost in a hawker's center looking for the best Chee Cheong Fun, I heard my name called. The sweetest young lady remembered me after 25 years.  We chatted the morning away about school days...

One works in a far-off land, near where the vast deserts lie. *She still remembers me and we keep in touch but missed each other when my family stepped on Arabic sands. (*A happy birthday to your mum on 4 Sep.)

Performing on stage both as a Mandarin MC and pop singer, another student has made a name for herself in the SG Chinese community as versatile, pleasant and effective as a variety show hostess!

Another young lady became a scientist, a doctor in bio-chemistry who came from another land, visited me one day while I was teaching at the university. She kept in touch while studying in England, came back and said she still owed a lunch. I told her, if she called me, Sir, I would call her, Doctor!

I'm still in contact with most of them today, with their numbers on my phone. I should present mugs for BEST  STUDENTS EVER to these heart-breakers.

'Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry.  So just look at them and sigh, and know they love you...'

You who are on the road, Must have a code that you can live by, And so become yourself, Because the past is just goodbye. Teach your children well. (Crosby, Stills & Nash: TEACH YOUR CHILDREN. Video: Mofromusic.

Thanks to all my students who have been with me for so many years.

A Happy Teachers' Day but remember our students.

Images from Google and A Personal Collection.

Original Article: Andy Lim.

The only photos I have. Please excuse me if I don't mention you by name. Also to the others; unless you send me your pictures and allow publication.

Andy 60s Music Remembers Teachers Day 2019 & Blackboard Jungle 1955

No, no Lulu or Doris Day singing on this post.

We're looking at the other side of midnight.

Yes, it's what teachers had to face in classrooms, in other countries.

One of the better movies from the mid-fifties, it drew crowds when it was shown at the Capitol Cinema. It starred tough guy Glen Ford and Sydney Poiter (a teacher in, To Sir With Love) but a student in Blackboard Jungle. 

A much-used phrase in the English vocabulary those years was the concrete jungle so blackboard jungle was just as appropriate.

A classic on the bookshelves, it became a classic on the silver screen; the story involved a group of US inner-city teachers who had to deal with teenage violence, anti-social behavior, and racial disharmony. 

The switchblade fight was one of the highlights of the show.  What's interesting also was its soundtrack with teddy boys dancing to Bill Haley's Rock Around the Clock: The Blackboard Jungle Theme Song (2 million copies sold in the mid-50s), Go Down Moses and, a lovely hit by Joan Weber, Let Me Go, Lover. 

There were a few more songs that were in the movie, like, Auld Lang Syne and The Star-Spangled Banner.

Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock was not much known as a sort of theme song for the movie, Blackboard Jungle. But it hit the charts so high, nobody bothered where the song came from. It is still a classic even today and known as the Rock n Roll Anthem.

Billy Fury, Dean Martin, Anne Murray, Peggy Lee, Patti Page, and Teresa Brewer covered Let Me Go Lover and the versions became hits too, in their own rights. If I remember correctly this same song was popular during requests programs on the radio.

Dean Martin's version of Let Me Go, Lover from the movie, Blackboard Jungle.

Haven't you seen this movie? Go watch it.

In Singapore and for so many years, it's still great to be a teacher.

A Happy Teachers' Day to those in the honorable profession.

A scene from Blackboard Jungle taken from a YouTube screengrab.

Ms. Tracy Ng (image below) was a student of mine and sent the above gif.

Thanks Tracy. You've been a great student too.

https://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/search/label/Teachers%27%20Day

'What A Wonderful World' Connected Incidents

                                  TTC Paterson Road Campus 1960's

Good friend James Kwok doesn't reveal himself too much because he is a quiet and private person but when I asked him to write a little tale for me for this blog, he relented and sent this piece below. Just shows how songs influence our lives in so many ways.

Thank you James for connecting Louis Armstrong's famous hit with memorable incidents in your life:

"Earlier this month some former students (many years my junior) from my primary school organized a get-together to celebrate Teachers Day.   They invited former teachers and students who are still contactable for a time of memory recollection by friendly folks over food and fun. 

           What a Wonderful World: Louis Armstrong. Video: atyourserviceable

Among the songs played was ‘What a Wonderful World,’ which sure brought back memories for me. I first heard it over Rediffusion back in 1967. The following year, at the Teachers Training College Dinner n Dance, all of us in the final year joined in singing it as our farewell song. 

As the years passed, the song, with its meaningful and uplifting lyrics sung to an unforgettable tune, has been aging without growing old. Then just last weekend at the birthday party for one of my grandsons, his parents played it on the karaoke and got all the parents and grandparents to sing along. 

As I looked at my grandchildren and all their many young friends, and at my children and their spouses, the words of the last stanza are right now still echoing in my mind: 

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, 
they’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know. 
And I think to myself, What a Wonderful World. 
Yes, I think to myself, What a Wonderful World. 
Wo Yeah..."

Learning Rachmaninov's Music With My Grandson

  
A HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY FROM SING60sMUSIC !

A Teacher's Day 2014 Posting.
Inspired by my grandson and Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) 2014 activities.

It isn't easy for an 8 year old to watch a live orchestra play *Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 unless the child has had some classical music background or enjoyed a concert previously.  But there was an audience of children with enthusiastic families who watched our Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) perform at the Republic Polytechnic at Woodlands on Thursday evening at 7.30pm at the institution's Cultural Centre Theatre. My grandson was one of them.

www.sso.org.sg

We travelled 40 minutes in dense after-office traffic to reach the concert in record time, just two minutes before Lan Shui (right), the conductor for the evening's concert, walked up to his podium to conduct Rachmaninov's work.  

The SSO On Campus: Pre-Tour Concerts Programme, which was given out at the lobby, helped me to understand in simple terms what the piece was all about.  

For my grandson, I was just glad that he agreed to attend the concert and watch the wonderful musicians performing on stage.  It was his second time listening to a symphony orchestra (read other posting on Jason Lai).

He nearly lasted the full hour and as he showed signs of tiredness about 10 minutes before the end (he came direct from school and a long afternoon) I told him to pay attention for just a little bit more but an encore performance surprised us and we were treated to one in the form of a short March which kept everyone enthralled to the end.  The applause was deafening.

It was well worth the trip.  And, as usual, the audience triumphed as much as the musicians who, with their magnanimity and dedication, were on stage to perform so magnificently.


"Would you like to come again son," I asked him.

"Not tonight," he said sleepily but from his cheeky grin I knew he enjoyed every moment.   At 10pm we had chicken rice in Thompson Road because we didn't have dinner earlier.  

Once again, thank you Lan Shui and the SSO for making our outing such a precious one. And thanks to little J. for agreeing to come at the last minute...

The SSO leaves for London to perform at the Royal Albert Hall on 2nd September, 2014.

A Happy Teacher's Day everyone.

(This posting is dedicated to Ms Chong Y.L. who feels that the date for T.D. should have never been changed.  I agree.)

*A Programme Note about the piece, written by Ruth Rodrigues, can be read by clicking Comments below.

                 Venue: Republic Polytechnic Cultural Centre Theatre @ Woodlands:

The 1,000-Seat Theatre:

Modelled after the famous Kirishima International Concert Hall in Kagoshima, Japan, the auditorium boasts an acoustic design worthy of international music performance. 

A highlight of this auditorium is its ability to turn into a full fledged concert hall capable of full scale musicals in just 45 minutes.

Image 1, 2: SSO Website.
Image 4: Google. 
Image 5:  http://zongyi.blogspot.sg
Information on theatre: http://www.rp.edu.sg/campus_tour/trcc2.htm

*******************

News Flash:
Dazzling Reviews for SSO in London (2nd September, 2014).

Two British newspapers the Guardian and Telegraph gave four out of five stars for SSO's recent outing at the Royal Albert Hall in London. They played the same piece, Rachmaninov's Symphony No 2, with other ones.

It was done in conjunction with the 120th BBC *Proms.  Some members of the audience were even waving the Singapore flag, proud and excited during the orchestra's (98 members) performance led by Shui Lan.

*The Proms is prestigious, done for 8 weeks per year and organised since 1927 by the BBC.

Singapore's First Female Pop Singer Impersonator?

On the Singapore Music Memory Trail

The Cathay at its oldest?

It was near the end of November 1958.  I was about to celebrate my birthday and enjoy the last few years of my teens. I couldn't forget that period because what was more interesting in the music scene was a newspaper report about young girls performing live at a major cinema.  Some of them were still at school.  

Live bands in cinemas before a movie was common in the 50s and 60s.

Singaporean movie and music fans were in an uproar because nearly everyone interested in English language movies and songs were concentrating on the finals of a singing contest held at the Cathay Cinema in conjunction with a film that had the country talking.

There was hardly any entertainment those years so you can imagine the ruckus that was going on about school girls singing on stage. And it happened before any Singapore's Millie Small, Connie Francis or Cliff Richard impersonators were around.

Mamie Van Doren (not Doris Day) with Clark Gable.

The film was a romantic comedy about teachers and featured pop singer and down to earth  clean cut actress Doris Day*.  Her male lead was Karlok Kaypor (in Hokkien parlance) or Clark Gable in simple English.  He was a 1950s Johnny Depp or George Clooney?

The movie, Teacher's Pet, won two academy awards and was a local hit those years because of our dynamic duo (Day and Gable) and more so because of blonde bombshell and Playboy Bunny's favorite cover girl Mamie van Doren (right) in a co-starring role.  Like a Marilyn Monroe copy and paste, she was sexy and voluptuous.

With all this publicity in mind, the show at 9.30 that evening was a sell-out. On stage were four girls, chosen to appear for the finals of Singapore's Doris Day Singing Competition and they included, Nancy Renjaan, Ellen Ong, Pearl Silus and Nelly Martinus. 

 

Image of an applause meter. Clap hard and hand will move!

Since an applause meter was used to pick the winner, supporters and fans of the contestants cheered and screamed their hearts out at the end of each song after the applause sign lit up because the more noise there was the further the hand of the meter moved.  

The sign lit up when it's time to applause.

When the winner was announced, Nancy Renjaan (image right: Straits Times Press) from the Singapore Telephone Board clinched the title and became the Doris Day of Singapore, one of the first few pop impersonators on our island.  School girl Ellen Ong was second and the others were runners-up. 

Were you at the Cathay that night?  Were you one of those who participated in the contest? Love to hear your story.  Let's hit the Nostalgia Meter button and create some noise too.

*Doris Day appeared in 39 movies and ranked the biggest box-office actress/singer.  She was the only woman on that special list, for four years, from 1960 to 1964 and ranking in the top 10 for ten years, from 1951 to 1952 and from 1959 to 1966. 

She was the top female box-office star of all time and is today ranked (believe me!) sixth among the top 10 box office performers, both male and female, as of 2012. That is a champion indeed. If you've heard, Que, Sera, Sera, that's her song.

Images: Google and The Straits Times Press, Singapore.
Original article with information from newspaper advertisements.

Classroom Memories: For Teachers' Day And Queenstown Festival

This special posting, to celebrate both Teachers' Day and the Queenstown Festival, is written by a dedicated education officer who lives in Queenstown. Ms C.Y. Lin taught English in a secondary school and used popular songs to teach the language to Chinese school students.  Here is her story:

"In the mid-'70s, I moved to the periphery of Queenstown and taught in a neighbourhood co-ed bi-lingual secondary school where many pupils came from the heart of the township - Prince Philip Avenue, Margaret Drive, Tanglin Halt, Stirling Road.  It was already tough teaching the English Language to the English stream kids - more so to the Chinese stream and preparing them for the 'O' level examination.

           

ABBA I have a dream

One way was through songs - pop songs.  My love for Abba came in handy. Though the principal at that time was no-nonsense and frowned on new-fangled acts, I played Money, Money to illustrate at an assembly talk.  I Have A Dream was used to teach English tenses.
                      

Parents of those days and from such a heartland were too busy making a livelihood to keep their children indoors after school.  A number of those kids of different races found themselves in my home for extra 'lessons' - of fun and games--all speaking in English.  There were also sessions of tennis with the boys at the then Civil Service Club at Portsdown Road. 

Queenstown image from National Heritage Board.

Some were given treats at the MacDonalds at the Japanese Garden - Queensway - the road not the shopping centre.  Class camps at PA holiday chalets run single-handedly saw to more singing of others like Boney M - Hooray It's A Holiday; Brown Girl In the Ring...  No written consent nor indemnity forms from the parents were necessary for their kids to attend.  Such trusting folks."

Original article by Ms CY LIN.
Images: Google.
_________________________________________________________________

I thought of another song for teachers' day. Though it is not an appropriate one like Teacher's Pet or To Sir With Love, this particular one has all the ingredients or vocabulary to pass.  Or could it? The phrases and words are all appropriate, don't you think? Take a look:

Did you say, I've got a lot to learn?
Well, don't think I'm trying not to learn
Since this is the perfect spot to learn
Teach me tonight

Starting with the A, B, C of it
Right down to the X, Y, Z of it
Help me solve the mystery of it
Teach me tonight

The sky's a blackboard high above you
If a shooting star goes by
I'll use that star to write, 'i love you'
A thousand times across the sky

One thing isn't very clear, my love
Should the teachers stand so near, my love
Graduation's almost here, my love
Teach me tonight

One thing isn't very clear, my love
Should the teachers stand so near, my love
Graduation's almost here, my love
Teach me tonight, teach me tonight

Happy Teachers' Day!

A Happy Teachers Day With Lulu and Doris Day

I know Singapore teachers celebrate this special day that falls on the first of September every year but didn't realise that it has been changed to the first Friday in September from 2012.

The  Songs:

1. To Sir with Love a song by Don Black and Mark London was taken from a movie with the same title starring Sidney Poitier and a living legend, Scottish singer Lulu. It reached number one on the U.S. pop charts in 1967 but was never released in the UK as a single, although the film was a box-office hit.

Poignant with meaningful, expressive lyrics, the song tells of  British teenagers' anti-establishment attitude in the 60s and an African-American teacher's effort to help them understand the ways of the world.

Thanks and praise for his love and respect:

Those schoolgirl days of telling tales
And biting nails are gone,
How do you thank someone
Who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
If you wanted the sky
I would write across the sky in letters
That would soar a thousand feet high.
              
The farewell and the tears:

The time has come for closing books
And long last looks must end,
I am leaving my best friend.
A friend who taught me right from wrong
And weak from strong,
That's a lot to learn, what
What can I give you in return?

 Their appreciation:

If you wanted the moon
I would try to make a start
But I, would rather you let me give my heart
To Sir, with love...

(My opinion: Best pop song tribute ever to a teacher.)



Wow I'd like to be this teacher's pet!

2. Teacher's Pet:
Singer: Doris Day
Written by Joe Lubin.

It's also the title track from her 1958 film, co-starring Clark Gable and Gig Young.  Frivolous, tongue-in-cheek and full of mirth this is definitely someone who wants to be the apple of the teacher's eye. And different in mood and tempo from the Lulu song:

Flirting:

Teacher's pet,
I wanna be teacher's pet...
Mm, teacher's pride
I wanna be teacher's pride
I wanna be dated, paraded, the one most likely at your side


Obviously giving the come-hither signs:

I wanna learn all your lips can teach me
One kiss will do at the start
I'm sure with a little homework
I'll graduate to your heart

The conquest (or so she thinks):

Teacher's pet, I wanna be teacher's pet
I wanna take home a diploma and show Ma that you love me, too
So I can be teacher's pet long after school is through

(My own line: Teacher, teacher be careful!!!)

So a Happy Teachers Day to all educators out there in Singapore. I hope you like the two lovely songs on this posting.

Image: Google.
You Tube videos.