Devoid of Anything Useful

This has been lying in my thumbdrive for a while. I thought I would shake the dust off.

Yes. You definitley heard it before if you had spent ample time in Singapore as a student. Your teacher asks the class to write stuff down, then the noise starts to build up. Soon...

"Why are you all so noisy? You are not writing with your mouth!"

Then, the cycle repeats till everyone has done writing. However, during the looping, I usually ponder over something. "What has 'not writing with your mouth' got to do with 'not talking'?", I ask myself. Then, sometime in 2006, I was enlightened. I found "it", the answer to my own question.


"What would really stop us from talking? Something else to occupy our mouths with. Something readily available..."

"Like our pens! What our teachers should really say is 'You all better stop talking before I ask you to write with your mouth!' (Quoted from a friend, after mentioning to him this matter)."

So there is our answer. Teachers, if you are reading this, please preach this to your colleagues. Students, at the risk of your counduct grade or any other impression, gently remind your teachers of this.

Of course, do we really want to care?