By Raffles Press ’23
Foreword by Anamika Ragu (23A01A), Chairperson, Raffles Press ’23
Teaching seems to be quite the endeavour.
Like every job, it must have its own ups and downs; marking a legible paper with precise terminology you spent weeks drilling into students’ minds and a (highly flattering) moment of fame whilst opening your inbox and finding— sandwiched between consult requests— an email from a Raffles Press reporter hounding you for an interview about your life. Or perhaps, taking a question mid-tutorial only to end up beginning your response with, “As mentioned in the lecture…”
Despite this, teaching can hardly be classified as just a job. It is by far the only one I have observed with such an overwhelmingly large proportion of highly qualified individuals driven by passion and very little regret for what they do. As unwavering pillars of support, our tutors consistently go above and beyond for us with the sort of dedication (and sometimes, sacrifice) that is not something that comes from just doing a job. Rather, they take real pride and care in everything they do.
What then culminates in elaborate and engaging lesson plans, memes squeezed into lecture slides, and relatable anecdotes in between content explanations, also leads students to wonder: what are our teachers like when they are not teaching?
Hence, what follows is yet another learning opportunity from our tutors— this time, about who they are outside the classroom and perhaps even some conversation starters for in between tutorials.
From introductions (“New Teachers”) to a scoop on their social lives (“Teachers’ Pets”) and fashion sense (“Teachers’ Drip”) to big ‘what-if’s (“Alternative Careers”), this Special hopes to satiate your curiosity and offer you a lighthearted break from studying, even for a little while.
Dear teachers, this is Raffles Press’s letter of thanks to you: a series of articles offering the school populace a window to your lives, to your multidimensional hobbies and fascinations, and more. You likely get this a lot— and yet not enough at all— but thank you; you are indispensable to this school, to who we are, and to who we will become.
And so, fellow students, join us in wishing the only learning resource from Raffles Institution you cannot sell on Carousell a very Happy Teacher’s Day.
View the Special Edition as an interactive flipbook at https://tinyurl.com/teachersdayspecial2022.