I recently learned from my younger brother that Mr Wong Kiow, ex-mathematics teacher cum discipline master at my alma mater, Jurong Secondary School, died peacefully in his sleep late last year. He was 62. (eh, not that old leh...)
I shall always remember him as the teacher who actually twisted my ear (albeit not painfully) during a maths test as a way of telling me that one of my questions regarding logarithms was incorrect. And how could I forget those thick brows, furrowed to a frown, accompanied by a volley of fierce yells whenever he was displeased about something or other? The mere thought of having maths period used to send shivers down my spine. But probably that was mostly because I constantly had the phobia of flunking maths due to not being able to understand his lessons -- he was one of those old-school teachers who taught, half of the time, in mandarin.
And when he wasn't too busy reprimanding students, he had quite a mean sense of humour.
