Was a great experience. The hosts were very lively and passionate (esp the Flying Dutchman). All the guests were so friendly and chatty. There was a clinical psychologist (I like her a lot), a Dentist, and the wife of an MP.... and me ....*stupid grin*. 
We were discussing the case of Jonathan Wong who was recently arrested in the UK for having 50 hard core child porn videos in his computer. He has since lost his MOE scholarship (he was en route to becoming a teacher).I won't repeat what was said on the show. But I can say... that the majority of teachers are NOT the goody two shoes you think they are..... even myself... but of course you already know that about me... since I live my life so publicly on my blog.
But expectations can be absurdly unrealistic.
I remember my ex Vice Principal once subtly mentioned something about the students being aware everytime I changed BFs (this actually during my year plus of singlehood after Skye... so I wasn't really changing Boyfriends lah... I was just dating many people in succession)... and then in the same breath she said something about students looking up to me as a role model.
(??????????????????????)
Like... what? I should stick to the same idiot Date and then eventually marry him because having many BFs makes me a BAD role model??!!
This same Vice Principal (she was a really nice lady.. just that I didn't understand what I was doing wrong, really), was the same person that told me I should not wear opaque tights to school because they were "too trendy".
HUH!? How does that affect my ability to teach? Not as if I was sexing it up dressed like a pole dancer (!)... the tights were under an appropriate length dress. So it would be ok to bare my legs under that dress, but I cannot wear black opaque tights underneath that same dress because it's TRENDY??? *boggled*
Lots more stories like this... not just with the Vice P... you get parents and even other teachers with unrealistic expectations too.
Anyway... I just wanted to tell you guys, that this Jonathan Wong type person is more common than you think. Definitely a BIG amount of teachers (mostly male) watch porn... then like in any other professon, there will be some who beat their spouses, abuse their maids, drink themselves silly, you name it... they'll have it.
The only difference is, it's not public. So... please don't just bubble wrap your kids and fire/execute/kill/deport every Jonathan Wong you come across... because that is not the solution.
Your kid will remain a useless, street-dumb, four-eyed, tit-suckling fool. Teach them from an early age how to respect others and themselves, how to distinguish between bad touches and good ones, what to do when they feel unsafe and most importantly how to assert themselves and be brave enough to say "NO".
As for Jonathan Wong, I reckon if he were never found out, he probably would have made a good teacher and his "hobby" would never affect his work (just like the thousands of teachers out there with skeletons in their own closets). But of course I cannot say this with 100% certainty as I was not born with divine powers of amazing foresight....(unlike many Singaporeans out there, it seems).
Comments
teachers watching porn is fine, watching porn is actually normal. but CHILD porn is not normal. it is disgusting and should be severely punished.
Below is from Wikipedia:
According to the Mayo Clinic of the U.S.A., studies and case reports indicate that 30% to 80% of individuals who viewed child pornography and 76% of individuals who were arrested for Internet child pornography had molested a child.
So how is it that if Jonathan Wong is not found out, he probably can make a good teacher? imagine if you are a mother, would you let someone like this go near your kids? let alone be their teacher!
Child Porn is incredibly sick and it should be condem down to hell. I can't believe you actually speak up for the pervert.
I am not saying that Jonathan Wong should NOT BE PUNISHED. It's a crime, he was caught, of course he should be punished.
But what I am saying... is tht the solution to KEEP YOUR KIDS SAFE is NOT to go on hyper alert and try to weed out EVERY Jonathan Wong.
For every Jonathan Wong we catch, there are thousands more out there. So educate your children to be more aware/informed/street-smart instead of molly-coddling them.
As for whether he will be a good teacher- I said probably... and I said I dont know because I can't tell the future and neither can you. Of course I am not saying tht despite being caught for porn, we chould still let him teach! I said tht IF HE WERE NEVER Caught in the first place... he might be a good teacher... we don't know tht he would become a paedophile or child molester ( despite your wikipedia drawn percentages... 30% TO 80%?? quite a range that is.).
PLease don't jump to conclusions and think that I am defending Jonathan wong.. I am not. I am all for punishing the guilty. But I am also saying--- get with the programme people! There are many many many more teachers just like Jon Wong. Maybe one is teaching your child right now. You cannot tell just by looking at someone, you cannot help tht. But what u can do is stop making you kid so stinking defenceless.
This entry just proves that you are a bimbo.
'As for Jonathan Wong, I reckon if he were never found out, he probably would have made a good teacher and his "hobby" would never affect his work'
This guy gets his kick out of child pornography, for christ sake!!! Unbelieveable!
I believe she said - "As for Jonathan Wong, I reckon if he were never found out, he probably would have made a good teacher and his "hobby" would never affect his work (just like the thousands of teachers out there with skeletons in their own closets). But of course I cannot say this with 100% certainty as I was not born with divine powers of amazing foresight....(unlike many Singaporeans out there, it seems)."
You can't just take the first half and then omit the rest.
I think you didn't even realise that while she qualified her statement by saying she doesn't actually know the outcome as she is not a fortune teller... she was also taking a dig at people who just make sweeping statemtns that someone who watches child porn will surely become a paedophile or bad teacher.
Sheesh.
p/s- kudos Holly. Well said. I caught you on tv yesterday too.
That, in my opinion, is a fair enough criticism. Having said that, however, I am comforted that the disagreements between some of your readers and you are not fundamental: you agree that child porn is a serious offense, and that no excuse can or should be made for it.
Parents can inform and educate their children all day long but they cannot do anything about the sick fantasies of some disturbed teachers.
And when you're a teacher, you invariably have SOME responsibility as a role model whether you like it or not. If you can't accept that it is a fact of the occupation, then you shouldn't be a teacher because students are impressionable and easily influenced at that age- teachers are one group of people they MAY look up to. Sure, teachers should live their lives as they want to but shouldn't let certain values of theirs to seep into the classroom where students are not mature as yet.
I was reading some of the replies and I find it amusing. If people who watch child porn have a higher tendency to act out their fantasies, then how can we neglect those who watched normal porn? Don't they also have such tendency as well? So are we going to prosecute every single one of them, rather than attempting to teach your children how to make a right judgement?
Educating the kids is definitely a more realistic way of approach. In normal daily life, we often exercise this approach but why can't we adopt such mindset for this case as well? For instance, we teach the kids how to cross the roads safely rather than stop them from crossing any roads even though there's high risks and dangers like road accidents. Same thing, educate your children to learn to protect themselves!
I do understand Holly's point though, because it's the first thing I thought when I first read about this case on the papers. Child porn is sick - correct. However, as someone else pointed out above, there are heaps of people out there with strange, often criminal fetishes eg rape porn and GOD FORBID beastiality. But there is probably only a 1 in 100,000 chance that they'd act out their fantasies. If Jonathan Wong had been smart enough to lock his files on the college network, and had never been caught, we'd probably never know there was a teacher with a pedophilic fetish in one of our schools - 'cos I can assure you he'd probably come across as being nice and 'normal'
Seems like you are taking out your frustrations of being a teacher with this entry, which might make you come across as taking Jon Wong's side here.
I sympathise with the silly dressing requirements you had to put up with but perhaps you need to put your emotions aside and address the matter.
You can teach your kids to be brave and teach them to say no, but they are after all, children under parentship/guardianship.
I graduated from secondary school 6 years ago and i remember having a friend who was having relations with her tutor. She was a loud girl, who could definately have said NO. But why didnt she? I think it was due to her family problems with her parents splitting up and causing her to feel lonely or whatever it was she felt.
So what im trying to say is, sure you HAVE to teach your kids to say no when they need to and also to be brave but in truth, children(under 18s) need to be protected. Sure, we cant weed them all out, but we sure as hell can try.
I understand where you're coming from.
but with regards to saying no... it's not about being loud and brustish and SHouting no.. and karate chopping the perp in his gonads. It's about KNOWING that someone is over stepping their boundaries, and protecting themselves by saying no/ moving away from the situation/ telling an adult.
Your friend obviously DID NOT KNOW how to say no. Her parents did not teach/ nurture/ give her enough attention to realise what was going on or that she was not coping well. ( sorry, don't mean to undermind the parents.. but it's truly what I feel). Even if she did not have this Tutor... her lack of this wariness (which should have been taught to her) and her self esteem issues (seems like) would have made he vulnerable to the neighbour, the postman, the man selling ice kachang under her block.
If we weed out EVERY single person who has a past record ( eg. Jonathan wong's peeping tom record while he was 15) and every single person we THINK could harm our children... the world would be like... almost empty.
Sounds like how you turned out.
Change the last part to "cock sucking fool".
Shayne.
Holly Jean, I am a regular reader and a fan of most of your opinions, but this one was hard to stomach.
Mainly because I think porn and child porn is very different. Acting out a porn fetish, on an adult, wrong as it may be, is not half as bad as pushing yourself on a child.
But this is IMHO of course.
I dont think it's necessary folks to resort to name calling and mean words to put your opinion across. Right or wrong, this is her blog and she has a right to her opinions and you do yours.
Child porn is not normal porn, most pple get that, and anyone who likes child porn can't possibly be labelled as normal or healthy psychologically. Thank God he got caught.
It's about TRUST. Would you trust you child to be in the same room as Jonathan Wong knowing he enjoys watching innocent children being sexually abused? even if he's a really good teacher!!!
Although you did not take a stand on child pornography in this post, and I assume your position is that you do not think that it is right to do so. The line here is very clear, whether public or private, paedophilia is not normal.
It is a natural extrapolation based on your arguments for people who do not watch the video (no idea what you said on it) to infer, from your blog post that the inclination towards paedophilia is in the private domain and consequently, it is an infringement of personal/private rights to address the issue of paedophilia? Surely, this cannot be right.
Being a public figure as you are holly jean, i am not sure if you are sending out your message in the right way.
I trust you have now read the post the mention that many users of child porn are just one step away from being a pedophile.
There are many cases reported around the world of teachers having sex with underage children.
How could you be sure that Mr. Wong would be a good teacher if he were not found out?
What would you think years from now, when you might very well be a mother, when your child comes home teary eyed and frightened from a teacher fondling your 10 year old child genitals?
David
The education system has way to improve indeed.
Try not to misinterpret then argue against the misinterpreted version people!
(E.g. Anon 7:16, should try to improve reading skills)
As another point to add, how should MOE filter for pedophiles, procedurally?
Should they put a "Have you ever jerked off on an individual below age 10 Y/N"?
No one teaches in Singapore to both read and understand what was written?
you should just stick to what you do best which is to blog about make up, budget fashion, keeping skinny and dating white men. If you can't see how comparing the tough stance on paedophilia to dubious dress codes would outrage people, then I'm sorry but you deserve whatever backlash you're getting. You said "please don't just bubble wrap your kids and fire/execute/kill/deport every Jonathan Wong you come across... because that is not the solution." I don't see how you can't see how apathetic and insensitive you are coming across on the very real problem of child pornography! So you felt some infringement on your lifestyle while you were teaching... It does not mean that you're entitled to flippantly use Jon Wong as an example of parents/teachers overreating to everything. I've never had a
problem with what you've written Holly Jean but you should really listen to the comments here, and by that, I don't mean the readers Molly coddling you & defending your ignorance.
if it was clear in the first place, there wouldn't be room for 'misinterpretation'. I respect Holly's point of view and believe she certainly does not advocate child pornography.
The bottom line is, I agree that paedophilia is not the topic of debate in this entry, but all I am saying is that the manner in which the entry is presented does not ring fence the issue sufficiently, hence causing a ruckus, as you can see for yourself. It's just a comment to Holly for her to choose whether or not she wishes to take the point on board.
This is a good platform(albeit may be not the most appropriate, sorry Holly!) to discuss this issue. But let's discuss opinions backed by facts, not aggression. Also, please do not 'misinterpret' my arguments, because I think that you're missing my point entirely.
Anon 7:16
Agree with what you say regarding this. And from your personal examples given, I understand and agree that teachers aren't saints, just like nobody is. It's just that many of people's faults aren't exposed. so we should bubble wrap out kids in an unrealistic world.
BUT.........this point of yours is very WRONG imo,
"But what I am saying... is tht the solution to KEEP YOUR KIDS SAFE is NOT to go on hyper alert and try to weed out EVERY Jonathan Wong."
we should weed out EVERY Jonathan Wong whenever possible because he has committed a CRIMINAL offence. That is NOT normal things character or personality faults, but CRIMINAL. This is not about being wild or hot-tempered or selfish or promiscuous etc etc etc... I think that makes a big difference, CRIMINAL OFFENCE. if he's not caught, it's too bad. just like a murderer who's not caught is too bad, but that doesn't mean society should not try to expose these criminals if they know about it and try to weed them out. society can never weed criminals out, just like weeds can never be completed weeded, but we should always try to weed out.
1) The whole incident felt very shameful and I was ashamed to tell anyone.
2) The touches felt good to me and I was confused.
3) The person was a family member.
The nature of such incidents is that the kid will very likely keep it secret and fear consequences if they tell. I had sleepless nights over it and headaches every weekend when I knew I would be facing the person.
It's not as easy as you think to "equip" your child against such people. Paedophiles are very cunning and manipulative and often will become the child's "friend" first. What us parents are saying is, definitely TRY to catch ALL the paedophiles out there!!! It doesn't equate to parents being overprotective. When you have your own child, you will finally understand. We will of course do what we can to educate our children... really, do we need you to tell us???
Of course if someone breaks the law, we will jail him or punish him.
But I am saying that THAT alone will not protect your child.
How do you intend to hunt down a paedophile when he hasn't committed the crime?
Stigmatising somoene who has committed an offence while he himself was a child ( e.g being a peeping tom at age 14), how is that fair?
JOnathan wong is not a paedophile (no matter what the statistics say)... he is only a paedophile if he is caught for THAT crime. ANd yes he should be punished for his crime of watching child porn. ANd of course because of tht he will no longer have a career in MOE.
I am saying that he could have JUST AS EASILY not have gotten caught... and ended teaching in your kid's classroom... and you wouldn't be able to tell that he is a paedophile ( or any other teacher for tht matter)... and yes, he would PROBABLY make a good teacher in that classroom even.
ANd there are many people out there will ill intentions running free around your children, btw.
obviously you cannot put people away simply because they look like a creep, or peeked under a girl's skirt when he was a child, or has sick thoughts in their heads..
SO THEN WHAT? Too bad so sad.. let your kid get raped silly? hmmm... yes... I guess I don't need to tell you.
P/s- anon12.14 , sorry to hear abt your childhood experience. But even having the iron hand and going on a rampage to crush all paedophiles would not have saved you from your awful experience with you uncle. You do realise that right? :(
writing her teaching experience about not wearing her opaque tights and Jonathon wong case all in 1 breath just doesn't sit well with many readers. we all know that she is NOT condoning what Jonathon has done or paedophiles nor do we need her valuable "advice" of telling us to teach our kids, it's just that the way she wrote about such a topic seems to be trivalising it and no matter what we readers try to say, she will be very defensive so let's just leave it as that and let her move on to the topics that she is well informed on - fashion, being skinny & white men.
"majority of teachers are NOT the goody two shoes you think they are" This is an extremely biased statement of yours and you are being very unfair to so many of the passionate, caring, morally upright and dedicated teachers out there who truly care for their students. I agree that there are teachers like you who are not really as good a person as they portrayed themselves to be but you shouldn't overgeneralize things and claim that MAJORITY of the teachers are not good people. Yes all teachers are not saint but it is because they are still humans afterall! Throughout my teenage years I have met many nice and dedicated teachers who care for us and openly let us into their lives; visit to their homes, play with their kids, telling us real life stories etc and as such we trusted them and created a bond that was a strong motivator for us to excel in our studies. They are not like what you said; "with skeletons in their own closets".
Maybe you will never understand what I'm saying here because you were never like them. You don't even agree that changing boyfriends frequently is a bad thing! You could be those teachers who were in it just for the money and didn't bother to build rapport with the kids and just do the minimal. But please don't publicize your own prejudice without any reservations it is extremely unfair to the teachers who are fit to be a teacher.
Nobody is officially referring jonathan wong as a paedophile; if any, it will be due to societal labelling by the public. I agree that paedophile cannot be caught until he/she is caught for that crime. However, it is still very premature for us to determine that jonathan wong is not a paedophile. There is a reason laws come to be enacted in the first place, in this case, laws prohibiting child pornography. Once again, you can choose not to believe "no matter what the statistics say", but you can never deny the knowledge and power of correlation which statistics present regarding certain individual behaviours, ie peeping, child porn, and paedophiliac outcomes. True enough, these might not be definitive in ruling a person as a pedophile; but these are definitely telltale signs which we choose to be cautious of.
Education stems upon the premise of research and statistics; it is only through these knowledge that we can equip our students in schools. As many people above have said, do not take out your frustrations of not becoming a teacher in this line of argument here; it just makes matters worse in you trying to discredit many teachers who believe in the real cause of education. Surely you do not want others to discredit your so-called pursue in dating so as to find your true love? Just stick to your usual blogging about fashion and make-up.
People have to remember they are just regular humans who chose to teach for various reasons, some good, some questionable. The ratio of weirdos versus our standards of norm in the teachers population are probably more or less like the ratio of the society as a whole.
Honestly, there isn't any way to weed out possible troublemakers from the genuine teacher wannabes. People need to see things for what they are and stop going on a witch-hunt persecution thing. The MOE is only responsible in training applicants and if someone is determine in keeping their perversion a secret, there is little chance it will surface... It was just luck that it was uncovered in this case.
Hmm..you should really find that poodle hedgehog hybrid and beg it to give you English tuition.
Isn't this post on the geek faced pervert?? Why pick on one another's grammar? -.-
So why pick at grammar? obviously to be a humorous diversion from what degenerated into a cut down war.