BLISSFUL IGNORANCE


Now it seems so real. I've never thought that standing in front of a class and using a whiteboard to teach would come this early.

Received an SMS on Wednesday from Daniel Chye, inquiring whether would I be available to take a 2hours tuition class for him this Saturday in the afternoon. JC1. Chemistry. The per-hour pay rate is definitely attractive, I would say. And it will only take up 2hours of my time.
I pondered for a moment, and didn't take long to agree. I have nothing to lose and all to gain, anyway.

I had initially thought it would be a typical one-to-one, home tuition session. But, of course, it soon became apparent that I'm very much mistaken when Daniel mentioned that he has to meet me up today to pass me some teaching material, as well as send me some email attachment to print out for the students (note the pural tense).

I was shocked. It is not a home tuition as I had initially thought it to be. Suddenly, my self-confidence came crumbling down with a speed faster than a diarrhoea-induced expulsion of digested waste, and my ego deflated like a balloon pricked with a needle.

One JC1 student on a one-to-one tuition, that I think I can pull off. But teaching a class of JC students? This is absolutely something different. To make things worse, I took Physics and Biology back in Secondary school, and I'm only a TP graduate currently armed with a Diploma in Biomedical Science, and not Chemical Engineering or Chemical Processing and such.

As you can clearly see, the discipline Chemistry and yours truly are THE perfect strangers; that is, until I ended up majoring in Chemistry last year. And yes, it's a big and crazy leap. There are countless times I itch dearly to set fire to my lecture notes and reference books and see them up in smoke.
And don't ask that question which I know you're dying to ask. I've asked myself that a million times. This is academic suicide. Why on earth am I studying Chemistry at varsity level when I have not even the slightest background on it.

Hastily, I sent back an SMS.

"Wah. Tuition centre ah? So that means teach class? JC I'm not so confident of taking. How tough is JC1 chem? Learn what one?"

Yes. I'm a bit sua ku. Applied for JC for the 1st 3months, and ended up skipping 99.9999% of the classes during my temporal days in NYJC. So, I have absolutely no idea what are the contents of a junior college education, and what's the level of difficulty.

"Haha. Only 3 students. Dun worry, it's not a big group. This Sat is teach them chemical equilibrium. On Le Chatelier's Principle and stuff."

3 students. And I'm armed with teaching materials. At least this makes things simpler. And Le Chatelier's Principle, Equilibrium Constant and etc are fairly chicken feed. Really. It was taught even way back when I was in Poly Year 1, when we had to take Principles of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry (PIPC) as one of our core modules (Don't ask. I never managed to figure out what on earth do Inorganic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry have to do with Biomedical Science). And, thank goodness, it was also covered during my first year in university.

I may not be a Chemistry prodigy, but well, I figured this topic on Chemical Equilibrium would not knock me off my dainty feet and give me a brain concussion. I've read through the teaching material and really, it's just like a recap of what's been taught in poly and uni1. In fact, I'm quite surprised. I thought simple stuffs such as Le Chatelier's Principle are taught in Secondary school.
Anyway, I'm fairly confident that I have a sound knowledge of the topic, and will not end up teaching a doctrine of my own. Afterall, Hydrogen is the heaviest element in the Periodic Table. No?

So I ended up taking the challenge. Besides, it's only 2 hours of lesson. And I'll teach to the best of my knowledge. Their lives would not be utterly and irrevocably destroyed in the span of that 2hours.

Had wanted to ask Daniel which JC are they from. But decided not to in the end. Because if it turns out that they're from RJC or NJC or HCJC and etc, I might lose sleep every night until Saturday arrives.

Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.
Heh!