New & Old

That's me teaching a financial literacy course on entrepreneurship to P6 boys at my sons' school a few days ago.

Was really fun, hadn't felt so alive in a while :) i still have one more session next week so am looking forward to that.

This is probably the last "assignment" for 2010 as a parent volunteer.

In fact, when my regular reading programme with the P1 boys ended last week due to the exam period, i miss it somewhat :(

This week, i bumped into many parent volunteers cos besides the financial literacy course, volunteers were needed to babysit the boys during the oral exams. It was nice to catch up with some of them cos i haven't been very active outside the reading programme.

Some of my "older" mummy friends told me they feel left out ever since the new committee took over in June this year. "Older" as in their children are in the upper primary and/or have volunteered for many years. i feel for these friends but at the same time, when it's time to let go, let go. The new committee has a lot of work ahead and it makes sense that they start building up the pool of volunteers from parents with lower primary kids and not having to rely on the old ones all the time.

That aside, there is one mummy who has changed since she was elected. She becomes more atas lah and has stepped on the toes of a handful, both new and old volunteers. She used to be humble and nice when i knew her last year. Even the security guard complained that this mummy no longer smiles and greets her. Childish lah, is there a need for exclusivity?

But aren't we all guilty of that sometimes too? For the financial literacy course, i partnered 2 other mummies who are also Reading Mums. We thought it made perfect sense since we know each other and we meet for reading duties, it would be easier to come together and discuss the lesson plans etc. The other volunteers mostly grouped themselves with those they know. But to Mrs Atas, she thought otherwise. She insisted my friend, P, goes to another class and partner another mum. P, you see, only started volunteering this year, so maybe Mrs Atas thought P is easier to push around. In fact, Mrs Atas had already "pushed" P once at another event. The other mum in my group, T, has an even longer history of bad blood with Mrs Atas, lol.

i guess we could have just let it go and let her have her way. But me being errr me, i went to the teacher-in-charge and sweetly presented our case. The teacher said no problem to our grouping since it wasn't as if there were no more volunteers to partner the other mum Mrs Atas had in mind. Matter settled quickly and i probably earned a spot in Mrs Atas' black book from then on, lol.

At the end of the day, new or old volunteers, all helping the boys/school what. The boys don't draw a distinction with that, why should we? When i met some boys at recess before the 2nd day's workshop, they called out to me enthusiastically and asked if i was going to teach them also on the 2nd day. See? Old volunteers also popular okay? bwahahahaha

:)