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  This was the message from the Class of 76 which
Chan Hian Young was supposed to convey to all teachers at the
ACS OBA Teachers’ Day Dinner on 01 September, but never did. The
prepared speech was inadvertently overlooked as everyone was so
caught up in the excitement of meeting their old teachers. But
better late than never, we are reproducing the message (see
below)
 which speaks volumes for all our wonderful teachers; it
also reflects the sentiments of many who have passed through the
portals of ACS.
The 76 cohort turned up at the dinner in full force and full marks to
them for taking the lead in recognizing their dear teachers who have
made such an impact in their lives; they even organized a goodie bag
that included a NTUC voucher as a small token of appreciation for the
teachers. Their gesture affirms the great influence teachers have
 on
their students, and these words from the American journalist and
historian, Henry Brooke Adams:
“A teacher affects eternity. No one
can tell where his influence stops”.
More than 120 members of the ACS family, including 60 retired teachers
and principals, turned up for the dinner despite the rain. Among the
guests was Mr. Wee Kim Cheng, a true blue ACSian (ACS Class of
53) and former ACS teacher and principal, who expressed his delight
on being remembered by the ACS Oold Boys' Association on Teachers’ Day.
“I am always happy whenever an ex-student comes forward to greet me
or just give me a friendly wave when they see me”, he said.
When we asked Mr. Wee to share with us his teaching experiences, he was
quick to identify two challenges that he had faced during his teaching
career. The first was taking charge of the ACS school rugby team, a task
that turned out to be more challenging and rewarding than he had
expected.
 “To
begin with, we were greatly disadvantaged right from the start as we had
neither a proper field nor experienced coach. But our boys were
undaunted and played on like true sportsmen, and it did not take us long
for us to be rated among the top flight rugby-playing schools in
Singapore. Today, I am glad to note that a few of our earlier players
are helping out in the game at ACS”, Mr. Wee related.
The second was the relocation of the Junior school to Cairnhill which
was fraught with challenges. “We tried very hard but failed to find a
suitable site within the time frame we had. As a result, the P1 & P2
classes had to be temporarily housed in a separate campus, inconvenient
as it is. Everyone put in a lot of hard work before the Cairnhill campus
was finally completed, but it was certainly a satisfying experience”
according to Mr. Wee.
Finally, Mr Wee has this advice to share with our readers: “ ….
put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than
light and safer than a known way.” This, as many ACSians would
know, is from the illustrated poem “God Knows” by M. Louise Haskins
featured on the frontispiece of many of our ACS Annuals.
Photographs courtesy of
Broncomedia |
However, we recognise all the
teachers. You may not look so intimidating now but we recognize
each one of you.
who taught me how to pronounce correctly the 8th letter of the
English alphabet and to say “I should like to” and not “I would
like to” when expressing simple futurity. As for Mathematics,
whenever I use a calculator now and perform a square root
function, I think of the late Mr. Tan Soo Hian, who
taught me how to use the long division method to arrive at the
square root of a number, and how to use the logarithm table and
the slide rule. I will remember forever the equations for the
parabola and simple harmonic motion which Mr. Wan Fook Weng
taught me. Don’t ask me why, but I remember. 
