apollo, proed, thoburn.

talking to a few people about fac and sch spirits in the past days (wow) made me think more about the failures of hc and the successes of other schools in this aspect. for the benefit of those who do not know, thoburn is one of the houses in ac, and i used to be in it :) anyway, that's not what i'm concerned with right now.

look at the title. they represent three concepts, adopted by three different schools (i assume that hcjc and tchs are fundamentally distinct entities), but somewhat homologous in function. that is, they serve to segregate the school population in some manner. but the extent to which we are segregated varies, when you compare all three ideas, with the faculty system causing the greatest divisions.

in my opinion, the whole concept of having houses/consortia/faculties was to group classes together to facilitate certain administrative matters. for example, having coordinators for each faculty helps to relieve the administrative burden on the school exco. the secondary purpose of having such systems was to have a systematic way of running events. for example, when the school is down to support the track team, each faculty can cheer, one by one (i know that it sounds idealistic, but that might have really been one function of the system!). or rotating certain responsibilities among the various houses/faculties/consortia (think about things like rotating chairmanship within asean).

but what results in a faculty system is that too much is being brought down to the fac level. many events (that people wanna participate in) are done by the fac com e.g. fac outings, rehearsals for cny dance competition, wargames etc. even if major events are done by the students' council, many people still see the events as things organised by "X from athena" or "Y from artemis" etc. the pride students have lies in the fact that "X from athena" or "Y from artemis" is the person-in-charge (which means a coup for the faculty, if you would like to think so), rather than in the competency of the chairperson. if so much are being done (or are perceived to be done) at the fac level, i find it hard to even have a school spirit.

now, contrast this to ac's house system. the only time when houses have meaning is the time when their athletes are competing in the intra-school championships. at all other times, the students' council organise events for the entire school, without a single mention of the houses. because, the fundamental purpose of student-led activities is to encourage participation by EVERYONE, not just students from a particular house. there's no practical need for segregation of the population for such activities. by resisting the temptation to decentralise control of the school, it seems to me that ac people have succeeded in creating a strong school-wide identity and the indomitable acsian spirit.

on retrospect, i identify myself as an acsian and a chi high student. but, for now, i am only an apolloian.