VOICE 2006

"Hi, Mr Ong!"

I turned around, and saw a P-three-er grinning a toothless smile and waving at me. It's almost deja-vu every week or so. They make me out a lot better than I them. And these are P3 kids from the TPS VOICE program and I am a "40-hour parent volunteer."

The 40-hour parent volunteer is a unique creation of the primary school system in Singapore. MOE accords priority in its annual school admission process to parent volunteers who have clocked in at least 40 hours of service at a primary school of choice. Now the 2006 admission is for children born in 2000, a popular dragon year. Like most (not all!) parents who are "kia-su", we did our homework, and set our mind mid last year on two good schools - one in Tampines and one in Bedok. Because we are not within 2 km (another oddity of the admission process), we thought we had better volunteer. The Tampines school requires 80 hours of volunteer work (because we have twins), but the neigborhood school in Bedok is more reasonable - 40 hours even for twins.

So that was how I started out in the VOICE program at TPS (why not at the other school is another story for another time!).

VOICE is a character enrichment program aimed at primary 3 kids. Held once a week, four modules a year and four lessons per module, parent volunteers (including the 40-hour PV) spend about an hour focussing on attentiveness, obedience, truthfulness and gratefulness. There are memory work, songs, art and craft, stories, etc to keep the kids occupied. Overall, this is a very well thought-out program.

But what I think is significant are the values this program is trying to instill and reinforce. And the many teaching opportunites that arise.

Some teaching moments.

The kids have branded one of their classmates as dishonest. "Why?" "He lies." "He cheats." "He is dishonest."
The next lesson, that so-called dishonest kid admitted to a wrong doing. A teaching moment. "Thank you for owning up." I said with the other kids within earshot. "No, you are definitely not dishonest!"

There's this boy who refused to participate in memory work. He would stand with his arms crossed and looked out defiantly when all his classmates were reciting and doing the actions. Clearly, he was being "difficult". The next chance I had, I spoke to him and saw that he brought his Pokemon book to show his friend. I started talking to him and asking him questions about his favorite Pokemon. The next time, he wanted to lend me a book he was reading/read. Just the other day, as I was walking pass the G class, he stuck his head out and said hi. The current PVs were surprised, as they found him to be difficult to handle. A little attention makes a big difference.

All kids love stickers. So we dish them out for completing various tasks. Some creative kids decided to "double-dip" and presented their completed work more than once. They were made... and we gave a stern lecture to reinforce the virtue of truthfulness. I think these kids remember such lessons much more vividly than listening to definitions of truthfulness. Experiential learning.

A kid threw down his card in frustration when I didn't give him a reward Pokemon card. This boy has been "difficult" - as are many in the J class. I realized my mistake and picked up his card and brought him aside. I asked him if he had made the card himself, and when he affirmed that, I gave him his reward and thanked him for participating. I think he appreciated that.

The boy from Mongolia is not very good with his English, and he is tall and strong. We were forewarned about him, and how disruptive he could be. But we find that he likes drawing and he is really good at it. The first time, we praised him for drawing a nice tiger (think you can draw a tiger?? Try it!). This week, he came up to us at the begining of class and presented a picture of spiderman (in full color!). Needless to say, we thank and praised him for this.

That same day, he had to be physically restrained as he was pushing his classmates around in the rush to get stickers. I was a little worried that he might shut himself out. But the next thing I know, he was all over me asking me to take his book about Mongolia. I had to tell him that I really appreciate the book, but I would much prefer if he drew me a thank you note (the lesson was on gratefulness). That he did, and not one, but two notes.

At the end of the class, he gave the two pokemon cards back to me, "You can have it!" He was really happy, not with the cards, but with the attention.



The kids from last two terms still smile and wave when they see me. These are the children of our world.