Arrow Heads and Tails

I used to live in Kowloon Tong for many years. Sometimes I took buses number 7 and travelled on Dorset Crescent and Kent Road either by car or on foot.

Two weeks ago when I was in Singapore, I saw buses number 7 again not only in the city proper, but also near Telok Karau. These double-deckers gave me a warm feeling which brought back many funny memories of the past. On that Saturday, January 20, we boarded one to Clementi (same name of our Government school in North Point). On the day I went to taste Pork Ribs Soup at Farrer Park, I was startled to see the names of the two roads, Dorset Road and Kent Road nearby. They are so familiar to me!

My daughter, Connie, studied two years in Kentville Kindergarten. There were two campuses, one on Kent Road and the other on Dorset Crescent. We sent her to this kindergarten because of three reasons. Firstly, all her cousins had their pre-schooling there. Secondly, it was near home and thirdly, she could take a school bus with her classmates to school. She began to widen her social circle at school and in the bus.

This kindergarten was famous for its teaching children to write, draw, paint or make handicrafts. Each day my daughter brings home her homework books, or pictures or crafts, sometimes even test papers. We enjoyed looking at her study progress. One day, as usual we opened one of her homework books. We were puzzled to see a strange thing. My daughter’s teacher asked her to practise drawing arrow heads "<-- "that day, but instead she drew them like this "--<". My hearts sank to the bottom because she was unable to draw an arrow in the usual way. Instead she drew the tail of an arrow with feathers. “Was she mentally-retarded ?” came to our mind. We did not go to meet the teacher nor we took her to see a doctor. We decided to take observation. Okay later on she was able to draw arrow heads after practices and observations. She was a normal child after all! Well, looking back, I believed that my daughter either had creative power in turning an arrow head into its tail or she was rebellious enough to draw the arrows her teacher demonstrated the other way. Maybe she was at that time fond of psychology, testing her parents for their reaction on such an impact of her daughter's wrong perception of a symbol. The example below is often used to test people’s perception of length like these " <--> " and “>--<”. People are often asked if the straight lines have equal length.

Now my daughter is in psychology and social service field. Thanks to Kentville Kindergarten for its teachers , big campus and school bus.