Dominic Chua
The Time Machine
We wanted to teach our students what good jokes looked like , and that if you want to play a good joke , it takes planning and effort .
Rafflesian Times
28
Those were really the days . I met one of my ex-students recently , and as we were catching up he said , ‘ Wah you teachers ah , I ’ ll never forget that National Day Flashcard joke .’
There was really a bigger point to all our pranks — we wanted to show the boys how to play pranks with more class . In the school ’ s Grange Road days , one of the more common types of April Fools ’ jokes involved getting teachers wet or dirty . For example , some boys went so far as rigging up a pail , filled with water , and another filled with flour , to a door — and then when female teachers went into class they would get soaked . It was really terrible .
We wanted to teach our students what good jokes looked like , and that if you want to play a good joke , it takes planning and effort . We also wanted to show our students not to take themselves too seriously , how to see the humour in life and how to laugh at themselves .