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Say it with ABC

“The School of the Arts (SOTA) is set up by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts. SOTA is Singapore’s first national pre-tertiary specialised arts school. For youths aged 13 – 18 who have an interest and talent in the visual and performing arts, SOTA offers a dedicated development path, providing them with a new teaching and learning environment where both their artistic and academic potential can best be realised.”

So. I’ve been part timing at SOTA for.. -gulp- 3 weeks?! Wow!! I promised to be back with updates and stuff. Think this is a good way to tell the story.

A for Art Form For the first time, subjects like Music, Visual Arts, Drama and Dance are given unspoken reverence and treated with great respect. It is given unquestionable priority over all other subjects (well almost) and needless to say, being an arts school, a lot of time, effort, energy and resources are devoted to each art form to develop the best in each student. Art form teachers are also excused from many other duties e.g. form teachership (form teachers are referred to as class mentors in SOTA)

B for Boss My direct head is so different from the previous one. First of all, he’s male. He’s Australian. (And I suspect he might be Christian because he mentioned he had a church wedding and when we got into his car to go for lunch, one of my colleagues protested against the music, “Aw Sean turn that holy Christian shit off” – or something to that extent. And that pretty much sums up my colleagues, I work with 3 “ang moh” men who talk like that all the time. Anyway I digress, supposed to be talking about my boss who is really really nice! “Nice” is an understatement, sometimes I think he is almost bullied by this loud mouthed colleague (P) of mine. But that does not mean he’s a pushover, he knows what he wants for the faculty and fights for it, it’s just that he is really easy going and understanding and generous with his coworkers.

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