there’s only one certainty in life since birth — death. but the time in-between birth to death is unknown to the individual (while some pple may argue that some higher beings/deities know/control/pre-determined it). what would then one need to do to pass the time in-between? ironically, the first thing is to find sustenance, to sustain the ever-dying shell; regardless if you are humans or prokaryotes, you do the same. in the grown up world context, it would mean “earning a living”, for most is to find a job(s) to earn an income to find sustenance and obtain things, to prevent the shell from dying too fast. when one is able to find sustenance, and there’s still energy and time and not yet time to rest/sleep to regain energy for finding sustenance, pple begin to choose things to do (e.g., entertainment, interests, hobbies).
and life goes on like that, day in day out, excluding ‘sudden death’ events, the shell slowly crawls towards the certainty.
so back to the question, 芸芸众生，日日忙忙碌碌何为？the answer is perhaps 为了不死，或知道会死但不要想太多？ so what’s death? would death means ‘nothing’ at t+1? i wouldnt know for sure, but perhaps ‘nothing’ is the conception for those who seek early ‘termination’ on the journey to certainty?
different religions (generally defined as a set of beliefs, practices, and moral codes that relate to the nature of the universe and the place of individuals within it) would have shed different lights on the question of “芸芸众生，日日忙忙碌碌何为？”. from a buddhist perspective, one is trapped in the worldly cycle of death and rebirth (aka samsara). and one truth in this trap is suffering (dukkha), which can refer to “direct suffering, being liable to suffering, a bodily painful feeling, or unsatisfactoriness, deficiency, insufficiency.” not sure if there’s another religion where suffering is absent, not there at all?
how to attain the end of suffering, the end of the cycle, and thus the 芸芸众生，日日忙忙碌碌? it would be to work towards enlightenment through eliminating ignorance and craving. the method is to follow the eightfold path (八正道): right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
so if you are a 芸芸众生 like me reading this in the midst of 日日忙忙碌碌, perhaps you can find a way in your (religious) beliefs to explain the purpose of your 日日忙忙碌碌 and if there’s a way to seek an end to it, of cos unless you love work so much and also there’s no ‘suffering’ in life. for me, the eightfold path (八正道) would be a good start, if not a reminder (:
received a notification that fb is removing its Notes pages permanently (after ‘hiding’ it for some years. here’s a post that’s created >10yrs ago, but will probably still allow some teachers today (or of yesterday?) a smile or LOL? and here you go:
a teacher is a/an:
1. instructor (delivers lessons),
2. designer (designs lesson)
3. nanny (nagging students to do their homework, study for their test/exam)
4. gatekeeper (catching students who misbehave)
5. marker (never ending marking)
6. a god-parent (for students whose parent(s) is either too busy taking care of living/him/herself; single-parent)
7. planner (plan and execute school & learning events)
8. meeting-er (conduct/attend any sort of big/small meetings)
9. administrator (handle all admin-related work),
10. input clerk (keying in of results, remarks for students’ reports)
11. role-model (moral values, lifelong learner)
12. futurist (preparing your students for 15-30 yrs down the road)
13. politician (fend off office politics for those teachers who hadn’t had enough to do, or not doing what they’re supposed to do, or simply should have joined politics instead of teaching),
14. assessor (of learning, for learning)
15. professional (require certain professional skills, while some may argue that we deal with learning too many other skills unrelated to teaching, making us a 16. generalist)
17. scientist (cos teaching is a science)
18. artist (cos teaching is an art)
19. facilitator (for all students’ activities & discourse during learning)
20. counsellor (for small and big issues)
21. judge/referee (when students disagree or quarrel or fight)
22. fireman (on standby to put out any fire that may happen in school or with your students, and sometimes their parents)
23. actor/entertainer/magician (every lesson is a show that needs preparation)
24. optimist (see the strengths and possibilities in the student, no matter how weak or how ill-discplined)
25. liar (at times while composing progress reports, school graduation certificates & testimonials and during meet-the-parents sessions)
26. interior designer (decorate classroom and CCA room with students)
27. technician (solves ICT-related issues for colleagues, hardware issues in the classrooms and computer labs)
28. lifeskills coach (teaches students about their personalities & learning styles, how to conduct research, how to stay cyber-safe, how to budget, etc)
29. financial manager (HOD manages department’s budget; form teacher unoffcially oversees class fund cos officially we cannot collect class fund)
30. loanshark (always bugging them to ‘pay’ their homework, and all kinds of money collection)
31. personal assistant (to any of your heads; AND to your students too, by following the deadlines/dates for handing up homework, tests/exams so closely than anyone of them. and you begin to wonder who’s the one studying)
32. cleaner (clean classroom, esp lower pri teachers, and CCA room with students, pri & sec)
33. FORMs teacher (going in to class to collect forms day in day out)
34. octopus (cos although we appear to have 8 hands full of things and doing all sorts of things but the 8 hands are never enough for the roles and responsibilites listed herein)
35. purchaser (make purchases for school, class, events and whatever stuff you name it; and before that you need to seek budget approval, then hunt for quotes, prepare specs docs, put up ITQ, evaluate and submit for final approvals, plus whatever other paperwork)
36. auditor (Making sure nothing you signed for go missing – constant checks need to be carried out)
37. quality assessor (Administer ITQ and when numerous proposals are made for product purchases – you need to assess the quality and sign for them. Anything goes wrong…good luck :p )
38. the Almighty-Who-Knows-All (You must always be correct and know all the answers – at least from the perspective of the students and parents)
39. motivation speaker (Always coaxing and motivating students to do better…and also motivating PARENTS not to give up, just like a 40. social worker or 41. family counsellor! )
42. delegate (when you are requested to attend official dinners at/organised by CC, CCC, RC, Istana and mingle …)
43. artistic director (when there are school/national plays to be created and directed, SYF, etc…you the (wo)man!)
44. professional photographer (no budget to employ a professional one…you can do it for FREE…during prize giving days, meet the parents sessions, camps, any school events that is. sometimes you may need to carry TWO equipment and double up as a 45. videoman)
46. sports coach (again, you should be fluent in soccer, basketball, hockey, floorball, …, etc)
47. (eco-)gardener (for the school science garden … plant flowers, taking care of plants, add fertiliser … and feed & rear fishes like an 48. aquarium expert if a pond is part of the package)
49. medic (for small cuts big wounds and any other injuries that do not require immediate referral to a doctor/hospital; conduct temperature-taking drills)
50. talent scout (to hunt down talented students to represent the school in various competitions)
51. event manager (recommended talent for mtt-wannabe, as cited in ST & CNA reports on 17/4/13)
52. police(wo)man (to patrol the neighbourhood and let your presence be felt by GOOD students)
53. career guidance-r (to discuss with students their future employment opportunities as if any of these will still be around in 10-15 yrs time)
54. emergency planner (to plan SOPs for (un)foreseeable situations and conduct dry-runs with colleagues and students so that they are emergency-ready)
55. detective (to uncover where students hide contrabands as defined by the school rules)
56. multi-linguist (switching between the use of different languages to aid students’ comprehension. languages include but not restricied to singlish, english, chinese, malay, tamil, dialects)
57. insurance agent (to issue insurance policy schedule to students, and assist in claims during unfortunate circumstances **touch wood**)
58. travel agent-cum-tour guide (to plan, organise, and eventually lead students on local & overseas trips)
59. PR manager (to manage relations with partners in education, including community partners, and overseas partners)
acknowledgement of contributors:
24 to 28 – Chun Kiat
29 & 31 (heads part)- Sharon Goh
30 – Wilkie Tan
31 (students part) – Lily Teo (Shu Hua)
32, 35 – 39, 42 to 44, 46 to 49 – Darren Nonis
34 – Hui Nin (Wei Yan)
50 – Yan Ling
53 & 54 – Szu An (Si An)
23 (additions) – Michelle (Xue Qi)
55 – Geok Joo (Yu Ru)
56 – Yanli
57 – Yan Oh (Xiu Yan)
58 – Yin-Chiao
59 – Chin Guan
and Joyce Meitian for reminding us that a slave’s job is more simply defined than ours (:
change log
version 2.2 added no. 59 on 18 Jan, 2018
version 2.1 added no. 57-58 on Mar 6, 2015
version 2.0 added no. 53-56; revised no.23 & 49 on Aug 22, 2013
version 1.5 added no. 52 on Aug 21, 2013
version 1.4 added no. 51 on Apr 17, 2013 (MOE promotion ceremony was held the day before)
version 1.3 added no. 50 on Apr 5, 2013
version 1.2 added no. 47-49 on Apr 25, 2012
version 1.1.1 revised no. 31 and fixed some typo errors on Apr 24, 2012
with the blazing speed that LLMs are (or commonly known as “chatgpt”) developing, some people may be worried abt job security.
it looks more like a case of “the rich gets richer, the poor gets poorer” 贫者愈贫，富者愈富, not in the monetary sense, but the knowledge creation sense. more precisely, LLMs/chatgpt are going to make the expert-layman’s speed/efficiency gap ever bigger. layman can only (blindly, unknowingly, ‘trustingly’) copy-n-paste without understanding (cos they do not have enough prior knowledge to assess the output), while the expert can build on what LLMs/chatgpt throw out and idea-improve repeatedly with the system with further prompting and/or data input.
based on the above theory, to ensure everyone’s livelihood and well-being tmr (not limited to those who are worried abt job security), the idea of universal basic income (UBI) would probably need to upgrade to at least a 4.0:
UBI – food, water housing UBI 2.0 – food, water, housing, power/electricity UBI 3.0 – food, water, housing, power/electricity, wifi UBI 4.0 – food, water, housing, power/electricity, wifi, negotiate/prompt LLMs
so what would UBI 4.0 mean for a k-12 school teacher? oh btw, openai just released its Code Interpreter within chatgpt4 few days ago. another game changer?
and thanks ziwei for the early brain-waking convo (:
there’s 3 depts – teaching, admin, and tech team. fries is the only teacher-HOD (without another teacher!) in the teaching dept with 2 other sch counsellors. one of the counsellors randomly appears in office, while another counsellor’s on permanent wfh arrangement.
in the staff room, fries is the only one designing lesson, preparing worksheets, and her movement creates echoes in the room cos she’s the only teacher (cf. counsellors’ job)
the admin dept is next to the staff room, so randomly fries sees them but other times don’t. and anyway, their job’s totally different from hers. the tech team sits on another level so fries also don’t see them, not forgetting, their jobs’ different from hers too (and they probably din know fries also led a tech life, and whatever they’re doing, fries can also do)
as fries admires her own lesson design, feeling proud of the worksheets, fries also imagines herself being the HOD with at least one other teacher working with her in the vision painted for her.
the painted future is, however, akan datang and the echoes sounded more solid than this fiction occurring in gotham.
