By Ng Yan Bo, Channelnewsasia.com | Posted: 30 April 2009 1621 hrs

SINGAPORE: Every school kid falls into one or more stereotypical categories in school.

There’s the popular kids – half the school know who they are, there’s the goody-two shoes who play by the book, there’s the jocks – they spend half their time playing sports and the other half wooing members of the opposite sex, there’s the brainy kids in their triple science classes, and there’s the rebel kids – they spend half their time trying to break all the school rules and the other half serving detention.

The cast of “My School Daze” may be all grown up now and acting the parts of teachers instead of students, but we reckon if we put them back in a classroom, they’d very nicely fill up every category.

Three of the cast members were complete badasses who have fought, cheated or smoked their way through school. And because when there is yin, there is yang, another three of the cast members were so well-behaved they sailed through their education trouble-free. The seventh was a jock while the last two went through school in a daze.

Channelnewsasia.com rounded up the cast at a recent press conference, where they boarded the school bus down memory lane and told us who was naughty and who was nice.

The Goody-Two-Shoes

The bad kids are evened out by the good kids three against three.

Rui En sailed through school with ease, going from Singapore Chinese Girls’ School to Raffles Junior College (RJC) to the National Technological University of Singapore. The naughtiest thing she has ever done? A mini water fight in the RJC canteen. Her only woe? Bad Chinese language results.

“I was my Chinese teacher’s worst nightmare because I was never very good in Chinese. Isn’t it ironic right now that I’m playing a Chinese teacher?” She joked. “So this is a message to all the kids: please pay attention during Chinese because you will get your Karma when you grow up you will end up playing Chinese teachers.”

In contrast, Chen Han Wei learnt his lesson the hard way. He tried to cheat on a test in Primary School but was caught by his father, who was the teacher of his class then, and was caned in front of his classmates. The humiliation caused the father-son relationship to sour for almost two years, but the incident transformed the actor into a role-model student.

“I totally changed, I studied very hard,” he said. “But I was stressed because I maintained my grades at the top three positions in class all through Secondary School. I was like a tutor and I helped a lot of my classmates, I took part in a lot of co-curricular activities, and my teachers and parents never needed to nag at me.

Also on the good student list is Eleyn Kok, who was the “goody-two-shoes, wear spectacles, look nerdy, nerdy Bukit Panjang Government High prefect”. Her most mischievous act was to draw graffiti on the chalkboard – just once – and got caught. “I drew some comics on the board because I was bored, and the only time I was naughty, the vice-principal had to walk past and catch me! But I was just lightly reprimanded.”

MediaCorp Channel 8’s new family drama “My School Daze” features the star-studded cast, with its plot centring on school life in Singapore, revolving around students, teachers and parents.

Chan Han Wei plays a stuffy, traditional Chinese teacher who fails to command the respect and interest of his students, and eventually quits his profession to join his wife’s (Ann Kok) tuition centre.

In contrast, Rui En plays a popular and trendy teacher who gives her students rides in her sports car. She shares a romantic relationship with freelance deejay Terence Cao.

Darren Lim and Cynthia Kok take on the role of typical ‘kiasu’ Singaporean parents who bombard their kid with endless courses and classes.

Catch My School Daze on Channel 8, every Monday to Friday at 9pm.

Source: CNA

Categorised in channelnewsasia.com, My School Daze 书包太重.