Mid Friday afternoon, multiple middle school students rushed into Ms Guan’s extended mandarin lesson holding bags full of grapes. The last time this particular group met, Elizabeth Knight-Hassell jokingly suggested each student bring int grapes to celebrate a running joke that the classmates had created.
An astonished Ms Guan, allowed the grapes to be devoured and continued teaching the lesson. The excited squeals of the students slowly escalated as the number of grapes began to lessen. Sunny Cho, aged 13, can be quoted to say “Wait, don’t finish them all! Save a couple for me!”
In the frenzy to grab the last couple of grapes, a few unlucky people, including Arin Pantja, dropped their fruit and were left with nothing to eat. These discarded grapes were left on the floor to rot, causing them to slowly get crushed and leave pulpy mess across the floor.
As the class went on, the grapes were quickly forgotten by the students in the rush to be the first one who completes their work. After the hour and a half long lesson ended, Ms Guan noticed the grape and frantically called out for the students to clean the mess before they left.
Marla Rinck was the last to leave, and was left with the tedious task of cleaning up the mess. According to her departing classmates, “that was their best Chinese lesson yet.” Despite the mess, Iris Fagniez confirms this is not a lesson that will be forgotten easily, especially for Marla.
As Marla Rinck slowly started wrapping up the cleaning process, according to an unnamed source, an elderly lady came stumbling into the room, grumbling about all the work she would have to do. Upon viewing Marla’s gesture, the lady profusely thanked Marla before stumbling out almost twice as quickly as she had come in.
Surprisingly enough, the habit of leaving your mess in classrooms, is not uncommon especially in international schools such as UWCSEA East. Many aren’t even aware of the amount of work that goes into keeping this school environment clean.
UWCSEA is slowly becoming more aware of this and working towards teaching students the importance of contributing to the cleanliness of this school. According to Mr Johnston, multiple food wrappers and plates can be found around the campus at all time, carelessly left around by students. How does this behaviour relate to the skills and qualities the students at this international school are constantly taught? The simple answer is that it doesn’t. As a school and a community, everyone needs to realise how greatly their absent minded behaviour can impact another human’s life. Keep that in mind the next time you leave your naan plate on the table.
Written by Akanksha
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