Op-Eds

Spilling Out Of The Lines: In Celebration Of ADHD Awareness Month

Reading Time: 4 minutes

By Mirella Ang (22A01C)

A pair of boys went to a park, smashed a beehive, got chased by bees, jumped into a reservoir, got caught in a whirlpool, and almost drowned. Luckily, they were saved by a passing policeman who threw them an oxygen tank. This was what my brother wrote for a primary school composition based on the picture of a cartoon beehive. 

His incredulous story’s origins aren’t all that incredulous. A few years ago, he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a neurodevelopmental disorder. 

Think autism, but a little crazier: several studies have identified overlapping traits that people with ADHD and autism possess. (However, autistic people hyperfixate on the little details; people with ADHD hyperfixate on every detail.) 

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A Panoply of Perplexities – Film’s Comeback, Stronger than a 90s Trend?

Reading Time: 5 minutes

By Edna Lim (22S03F), Hong Wan Jing (22S06F), Sonia Maya (22A01C)

Analog photography is particularly en vogue among JC students, even in Raffles now, with the burgeoning of a substantial film community in recent years. To the uninitiated, this pursuit and its enthusiasts may seem puzzling and almost…paradoxical? To find out more about the comeback of film, we took to the ‘streets’ to interview a few film enthusiasts among us. 

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Maskfishing: Of Making Friends and Forging Relationships

Reading Time: 4 minutes

By Andrea Ng (22S06B)

A little less than two years ago, only famous celebrities wore masks, which served to hide their faces from the public when they wished for anonymity. Now, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, mask-wearing has become the norm, and only those who don’t become online sensations. 

This mandate by governments in most countries has given rise to a new phenomenon—mask fishing, a neologism coined as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which refers to the phenomenon where a person appears to be more attractive because they are wearing a facemask. 

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No, I Don’t Speak Tamil: Understanding Non-Tamil Indian Languages (NTIL)

Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Samyak Jain (21S03A) and Snehal Sachde (21S07C)
Cover image by Neo Xin Yuan (21A01D) 

Chances are, you’ve complained about taking Mother Tongue before. We sure have. However, some of us have more to complain about than others. On top of the regular boredom which many associate with the subject, students who take Non-Tamil Indian Languages (NTILs) face a unique set of challenges that are generally not considered by the wider school population. 

Chances also are, you know that most Indians in Singapore speak and learn Tamil. However, this isn’t an accurate representation of the languages spoken in India at all. 

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A Look Into The Lives of Our “Unsung Heroes”: The EJ-RI Perspective

Reading Time: 9 minutes

This was written in collaboration with EJC Press as part of Issue 3 of Cross Island Impressions, an inter-JC Press collaboration. You can read Issue 3 here.

By Faith Ho (22A01A; RI), Eliora Tan (21-E5; EJC), Jolina Nair (21-E5; EJC), and Richard Tiew (21-I2; EJC)

Have you ever thought about who cleans our school toilets? Or who ensures safety on our school campuses? And who prepares the food in our canteens? 

These are the day-to-day responsibilities of the “unsung heroes” in our school. Without their contributions, our schools would not be operational. This op-ed examines the experiences of the non-teaching staff we see everyday: our school custodians (cleaners, gardeners and estate staff), security guards and canteen hawkers, who form the backbone of our schools. 

However, we are frequently preoccupied with other matters in our daily lives, so their work often slips under our radar and they remain invisible and unacknowledged. 

Are these non-teaching staff really seen as part of our school? What are the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis? And can we truly call them both “unsung” and “heroes”? 

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