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- Oct 3, 2013
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Appalled by school pupils' behaviour
Monday, 30 September, 2013, 11:26pm
Actresses perform Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew in Hong Kong. Photo: Xinhua
Last Friday, my friends and I attended the Globe Theatre's production of The Taming of the Shrew. We thought we had ideal seats - the middle of Row E of the dress circle - but no. We were virtually surrounded - in front, behind, and to the right - by students apparently from Sha Tin College.
Throughout the first half, these rude teenagers talked non-stop, which included those in front talking to those behind; moved forwards, backwards and sideways; played with mobile phones; passed pens to each other to fill in their rustling worksheets; and crunched crisps non-stop. Our glares and occasional whispered request for better behaviour were futile.
The first half of our evening was a waste of HK$600 each.
At the interval, we looked for their teacher. However, such a person was conspicuous by their absence, either because they genuinely weren't there, or because they were embarrassed by their students' unacceptable behaviour and their own inability to control it.
At this time, one of my friends asked for the name of the school from a boy in front.
If he deliberately gave us the wrong name, I apologise to the Sha Tin College community.
Fortunately, for our equanimity and enjoyment of an excellent and thought-provoking production, we were able to move to other seats for the second half. However, this should not have been necessary. Attending any professional theatre is a privilege and comes with certain responsibilities. These students did not display any sense of this privilege or any understanding of their responsibilities as members of the audience.
We are not old fuddy-duddies. My friends and I are all experienced secondary teachers. We work with teenagers daily.
Between us, we have taken students to numerous theatrical performances in many countries. Our students are told what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. They are not given worksheets to fill in during the performance, even if the performance is specifically for schools.
Teenagers are able to sit through a Shakespearean play without behaving as if they were at home. Unfortunately these students could not.
Until and unless they are able to do so, I suggest that the school does not inflict its students' poor behaviour on Hong Kong's theatre-loving public.
I also suggest that theatres do not sell block bookings of tickets to schools when seats within those blocks have already been sold to the public.
Julie Moffat, Ma On Shan
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Appalled by school pupils' behaviour at Shakespeare play
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mercedes2233 Oct 3rd 2013
2:25pm
2:25pm
SCMP- I have a problem with your commentary section.
1. Sometimes the section is blank, and after one writes, you find a number of articles which are already there, and you would have written differently if you had read them first.
2. Sometimes no boxes for Like, Dislike, Reply appear, so you have to write a new commentary because you are unable to respond to existing comments.
3. After you have written, and you get a reply that your comment has been 'posted', it is baffling when you can't find it, even after several tries over a length of time.
4. And if you open the article again from the source, none of your recent posts appear, although some might if you clicked on 'all comments'.
5. Please will you adjust all this? And when a comment is 'posted', please make it stick, however and wherever you open the article from.
Thank you.
1. Sometimes the section is blank, and after one writes, you find a number of articles which are already there, and you would have written differently if you had read them first.
2. Sometimes no boxes for Like, Dislike, Reply appear, so you have to write a new commentary because you are unable to respond to existing comments.
3. After you have written, and you get a reply that your comment has been 'posted', it is baffling when you can't find it, even after several tries over a length of time.
4. And if you open the article again from the source, none of your recent posts appear, although some might if you clicked on 'all comments'.
5. Please will you adjust all this? And when a comment is 'posted', please make it stick, however and wherever you open the article from.
Thank you.
mercedes2233 Oct 3rd 2013
12:40pm
12:40pm
If a school can't control it's students in a public arena, it deserves to be named and shamed. Ow4126 asked the wrong question. The writer did not write to 'feel good'. She wrote because she was unnecessarily deprived of her right to at least listen to a performance that she paid for. The fact that you should choose to criticize her rather than the offenders indicate what an unfair and pompous person you are. You must be their misguided teacher, or a misguided parent! We were all teenagers once, but I was never a hooligan. I hope the School, now named, would make a point of controlling its students in future. If they are not interested in the play, don't make them go and spoil the event for others. And yes, there is a need to 'publicly scald them', and if the school has any decency, it should apologise to the writer and buy tickets for her and her friends as retribution. I think ow4126 is the one, along with the kids, who behaved on this occasion like xxxxs.
ow4126 Oct 3rd 2013
9:34am
9:34am
Let's begin by asking a question. Does it really make you feel good to have tarnished an entire school's reputation based upon the behavior of a few individuals? I believe that if you really felt upset by their actions you should have sent in a letter addressed to the principal so that he could resolve the issue confidentially. I personally do not believe that any single person in this world has done nothing wrong, you surely must have been a teenager once and I do not think for one second that you were a perfect person. I conclude by saying that you; the poster of this letter behaved as an ****. There was absolutely no need to publicly scald them.
pslhk Oct 2nd 2013
2:14pm
2:14pm
Shrews played off stage in interactive education
by copycat “international” scholarisms
democrazy coming home to roost
thru practical experiments in “liberal” education
by copycat “international” scholarisms
democrazy coming home to roost
thru practical experiments in “liberal” education
abcd1234 Oct 1st 2013
11:15pm
11:15pm
Lets begin with a question. Is it really necessary? does it make you feel better knowing that you have tarnished the reputation of a newspaper with your petty problems? does it make you feel accomplished flaunting your sophisticated occupation of a schoolteacher in charge of polite children? does it occur to you that you've manipulated a form of social media to defame an entire school when you've barely met 1% of the student body?
Honestly not. As an experienced "fuddy duddy" and a member of the education industry i believe that you- of all people, should be able to understand teenage mentality. These school children definitely owe members of the public an apology for their appalling behaviour, but you owe the entire school an apology for being detrimental to their image because of something so minor. Dont get me wrong i reserve you every right for complaining but not through social media, it simply presents you as sassy and unnecessary.
Honestly not. As an experienced "fuddy duddy" and a member of the education industry i believe that you- of all people, should be able to understand teenage mentality. These school children definitely owe members of the public an apology for their appalling behaviour, but you owe the entire school an apology for being detrimental to their image because of something so minor. Dont get me wrong i reserve you every right for complaining but not through social media, it simply presents you as sassy and unnecessary.
mercedes2233 Oct 3rd 2013
1:58pm
1:58pm
(A reply from me appears to have disappeared, so at the risk of repeating myself, I wish to respond to the above.)
Students are ambassadors for their schools, and they have tarnished its reputation already. Why is blaming them in public more objectionable than the writer's loss, when the students started the incident? As to the points others make about them being in the vicinity but not bothered by the interruptions, my reply is: babies crying during a church service will not bother their parents, but almost everybody else. A car driving past with loud boom-boom music is going to bother passers-by but not the car's occupants. Try that behavior in a cinema, and see if the neighbors will not shush you down. I am amazed that the self-proclaimed fuddy-duddy and teacher above takes this attitude on the whistle-blower rather than on the culprits. With teachers like this, how will teenagers learn responsibility and etiquette? If name-calling is in fashion, you present as passé and irresponsible, and probably a bad teacher.
Students are ambassadors for their schools, and they have tarnished its reputation already. Why is blaming them in public more objectionable than the writer's loss, when the students started the incident? As to the points others make about them being in the vicinity but not bothered by the interruptions, my reply is: babies crying during a church service will not bother their parents, but almost everybody else. A car driving past with loud boom-boom music is going to bother passers-by but not the car's occupants. Try that behavior in a cinema, and see if the neighbors will not shush you down. I am amazed that the self-proclaimed fuddy-duddy and teacher above takes this attitude on the whistle-blower rather than on the culprits. With teachers like this, how will teenagers learn responsibility and etiquette? If name-calling is in fashion, you present as passé and irresponsible, and probably a bad teacher.
mercedes2233 Oct 3rd 2013
1:23pm
1:23pm
It presents you as biased and bigoted too. A baby crying in a church service will irritate many attendees, but not its parents. A car driving past with loud blaring thump-thump music will not bother the occupants, but will certainly the bystanders who don't like thump-thump music. If such behavior by the students does not bother you, it doesn't mean that others should put up with it. If the students had behaved at the performance, the complainant would not need to complain. Students are ambassadors of their schools. If they misbehave in public, they damaged their school's reputation themselves. Thank you, Ms Moffat for letting us know. I understand teenage mentality, but that doesn't mean we have to condone it. With teachers like you, abcd123, no wonder some teenagers behave they way they do.
Andre Pannu Oct 1st 2013
10:06pm
10:06pm
Being part of the group which had gone to attend the performance of The Taming of the Shrew, I wish to apologize, and do so expressing my deepest regrets to Ms Moffat, and to any others who may have had their experience of such a wonderful, enjoyable play somewhat dampened; I am certain we are all sincerely sorry.
As I was seated also on Row E, albeit far off to the right, near where the rows of seats turn off at an angle, I am aware of the disturbance we may have caused to the nearby members of the audience. And although I feel that some of the accounts above may have been exaggerated (at least, from what I had noticed), I do not deny that we could, and should, have been more respectful and more responsible. And so, on behalf of those who have caused the disruption to the audience, I apologize.
As I was seated also on Row E, albeit far off to the right, near where the rows of seats turn off at an angle, I am aware of the disturbance we may have caused to the nearby members of the audience. And although I feel that some of the accounts above may have been exaggerated (at least, from what I had noticed), I do not deny that we could, and should, have been more respectful and more responsible. And so, on behalf of those who have caused the disruption to the audience, I apologize.
Candy Apple Oct 1st 2013
9:37pm
9:37pm
I have attended the performance myself, and like Stacy, I have been sitting very near to the group of students as well. To be completely honest, I feel like your opinions are a little exaggerated and I don't think it's necessary to use the social media to make your point. I, too, heard some rustling and small discussions but I believe that this is tolerable due to the fact that they were assigned mandatory work from their teachers, and the theater was poorly lit, so I understand if they would require their phones to provide light in order to complete them. Although their behavior might have somehow caused annoyance, but definitely not enough to 'ruin' or waste your $600 dollars. Sitting near the group of students, I've still found it an enjoyable experience.
We all know that teenagers are not easy to control, and are all still in the process of learning how take responsibility of their actions. I believe on that night, they were, like all of us, just trying to enjoy a night at the theater with Shakespeare's comedic play. Basically, we all have made mistakes before and I believe it's not really necessary to allocate separate seats to the schools and the public, as they both have equal rights to choose whatever seats they please in a public theater.
We all know that teenagers are not easy to control, and are all still in the process of learning how take responsibility of their actions. I believe on that night, they were, like all of us, just trying to enjoy a night at the theater with Shakespeare's comedic play. Basically, we all have made mistakes before and I believe it's not really necessary to allocate separate seats to the schools and the public, as they both have equal rights to choose whatever seats they please in a public theater.
cly123 Oct 1st 2013
8:52pm
8:52pm
I find this letter rather exaggerated (in my opinion), as I attended the performance myself and I was actually sitting quite close to the group of students myself. Yes, as Stacy said, there was indeed some rustling and chit chat coming from the students, but they were not talking "non-stop" throughout the performance. I did not see them crunching on crisps and most certainly did not see them moving in between seats. Although I do understand that you may have been annoyed at the occasional noise created by the teenagers, I do believe that many of them may have never been to a theater before. Maybe you may remember yourself; it is quite an exciting experience (especially with friends!). What I am trying to get at here, is that perhaps we should take into account the possible excitement and age of the students attending the performance, and be a bit more tolerant and forgiving. I myself am sure that not all (if not none) of the teens in the world can be perfectly silent and still during any performance. However, I perfectly understand your point, but I am only giving my humble opinion and a perspective on how I felt while I was in the theater, sitting close to the students. P.S. I do agree that the students should have been more mature though!
robin86259 Oct 1st 2013
8:19pm
8:19pm
As another Sha Tin College student, I feel ashamed about this and I would like to apologise on behalf of the school. Just like the other person, I did not attend the show, but I understand that the students were given worksheets to complete, as they were studying the performance for their GCSE Drama.
I am not trying to justify their actions, I feel that they should apologise too. It really hurts our school's reputation.
I am not trying to justify their actions, I feel that they should apologise too. It really hurts our school's reputation.
catalyst223 Oct 1st 2013
7:17pm
7:17pm
Although I was not part of the group which attended the show, I feel that it is my responsibility as a student of Sha Tin College to apologise for this incident. This letter has scarred our school's reputation, but I do not blame Ms. Moffat for it. It was our fault and I believe our teachers could have handled this better. I personally know the 87 students who attended the performance, I hope they would apologise for this matter and mend the reputation that we lost. I hope we won't disappoint anyone again.
scmp1324354657687980 Oct 1st 2013
9:31pm
9:31pm
You make it sound like all 87 students from Sha Tin College who were there joined forces, for lack of better vocabulary, against Ms Moffat. I was at the performance. Not everyone acted immature and inconsiderate. Yes, I agree that their behavior was inappropriate and should be apologized for, however I do not think that you should generalize all the theatre/drama students because of some excitable teenagers. I was sitting not far from the middle, yet I was able to watch the performance in peace. Speaking as one of the students who enjoyed the show and was silent throughout, I find your comment somewhat offensive. In my opinion, the teachers were not to blame; and the article could have been less rude about this point as well.
Vanessa Lambet Oct 1st 2013
6:47pm
6:47pm
I can see where Julie is coming from, I was there at the performance too, however, I did not notice the noise and commotion said to be produced by the students of Sha Tin College. I was sat in row D in the middle in and although I heard some noise and rustling it did not interrupt the performance. Perhaps I am just more tolerant than you are seeing as I am a social worker. I too would find the students rude, but I think putting the blame on the teachers is a bit of an overreaction. Taking it a step further, this article could potentially ruin Sha Tin College's reputation. I will be discussing this with my family, being sure that my children do not act this way on a school trip.
mercedes2233 Oct 3rd 2013
2:06pm
2:06pm
If teachers were present and didn't control them, and teenagers according to some correspondents are justifiably excitable and 'young', who else is responsible and therefore worthy of blame? Shouldn't they be doing their job, or isn't proper behavior important in the school? Naming it is not a fault, misbehavior is, and, don't worry, all readers know that it is not the entire school.
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