Alright, this happened two days ago, but was probably too busy to post anything. denys writes it best.
Well, it all began with a TNP article that said “Girls in VS?” along with a picture crossing the word “sons” from a Victoria Challenge 1996 picture of the geylang bahru grandstand. (aiy, I think it’s not very nice of TNP to cross out the sons like that to express the meaning of going co-ed, it’s kinda insulting IMO). In addition, there was a side article about mrs chan changing the Victorian Anthem’s line. Actually, I didn’t know about the article till some people told me about it in the com lab, and ivan said new paper from VJ bookshop sold out (!), and I only managed to read it when I got back home. ivan even said some go and photocopy the article into A3, and when he borrowed it from mrs chan and mr chua, loads of people crowded around him. lol.
And thus inspiration surged and bertrand’s idea a few weeks/months back popped up in my mind: an online petition. and thus from 7pm onwards, MSN became a warzone cum online mini-riot. everyone started changing their nicknames to reflect their sentiments (latest one yesterday was [son of victoria] which made me difficult to see who is who). I got a few people online and asked about possibility of an online petition, and soon I hooked up with jon sam and we discussed and created the site together. jon did the coding part, while I did the design. originally I wanted to use a simple guestbook open source script, but in the end, jon used his own script. and thus, the website was launched at 10.30 pm on the night itself, which is good as that’s considered pretty fast. people started signing and the current count is 800+, while bertrand started a blog, and jon created a forum later. yay, missioned accomplished. (though jon’s web hosting company is pretty stingy to give only 1GB of bandwidth -_-)
An email was also circulated to wear VS badge on the right sleeve. Ok, wearing the badge is not a bad idea, but wearing it on the right sleeve is definitely out of place and looks dumb to me. I think a better place is near the pocket (the usual place) or on the other collar. Well I didn’t do it anyway. Today, when the anthem was played, most people sang louder, especially that line, though the position where I was standing couldn’t hear those who shouted SONS.
on another note, mrs chan announced on thursday that if the school is not passionate about something, she will not pursue it. and thus she officially made her stand about changing the Victorian Anthem: since there’s not really a large majority for it, she will not pursue it. She merely mentioned it the other day just to highlight some of the things of the branding exercise. (which I wonder, what is the outcome? And I’m STILL WAITING for the new VJC website look and branding, whatever it is…) mrs chan also announced for a treehouse and possibly a broadwalk (!!!) linking through them along the trees near the road to be built, and also a students’ lounge/loft in the current SC room area. as usual, VJ is too rich. tho I wonder why she never announced the mega gym idea.
on thursday, I received 2 smses spreading the petition website. and also everyone advertised on their msn nick. well congrats jon, your domain is now famous =p
today, another article appeared in The Straits Times today saying about our reactions, and about how mr. ang called the press and said it’s good that the students are passionate to react about it. speaking about mr. ang, they say that the some of the policies he implement always go down sooner or later, such as the home-classroom system, which is gone; and the new long ridiculous timetable that my juniors experienced which is fortunately scrapped.
TODAY also published a letter from 4H/2004, which is apparently published in its entirety without much editing, and that’s quite cool.
Well, come to think of it, who would want to form the first batch of girls IF VS becomes co-ed? I mean, why will girls be willing to enter a school full of boys, no female seniors, in a very male environment, enter toilets which were originally made for males, and so on and so forth? Unless the girl is weighing the possibility of getting into VJC easier more than anything else. Or unless her father is a old Victorian and wants his child to be in VS. Or unless the IP programme is really super attractive. Other than that, I cannot imagine girls in VS. And I also wonder how many girls actually want to go VS in the first place. They must be out of their mind (or unless they have a problem with their gender…)