1967 -THE SAM TET Michaelians

By Mr Lee Soo Mee , Michaelian Sixth Former 1967

Principal of SMJK© Poi Lam,Ipoh (2000- 2006)

In 1967, I passed my Senior Cambridge Examination and was amongst the privileged minority  to qualify to enter the sixth form. At that time, only three schools in Ipoh ,namely,  St.Michael’s Institution Ipoh,  Anglo Chinese School Ipoh and  Anderson School Ipoh offered these pre- university courses. As SMJK Sam Tet was run by the Marist brothers and  St Michael’s Institution by  the La Salle Brothers,  Sam Tet students were traditionally sent to SMI to continue their studies in the sixth form.

To move from Sam Tet to SMI was a ”rusa masuk kampong” experience for my classmates and I, as the former was still a small school then compared to SMI. I could still recall that the sixth form block was newly completed and the new paint was still shiny and had its strong aroma. There were four  Lower Six and 4 Upper Six classes (4 science and 4 arts). In Lower Six Art One  where I studied, there were all together four students who came from Sam Tet. All of us were from the science stream and only switched  to the arts stream when we joined  the Sixth Form.  To study in a class with more than 20 girls from the convent schools was indeed a culture shock for us because Sam Tet was an  all boys school and we did not

    Mr Lee Soo Mee ( Left) with Mr Ang Ken Meng (right). Educators par excellence .

even have a single lady teacher in the school at that time. So students from other schools always referred  to Sam Tet  school as the Sam Tet Monastery and to  us as Sam Tet He Shang or the Sam Tet Monks. (The Sam Tet Monk is the name of a fictitious monk  who was a great kongfu master in the famous Shaolin Temple in China).  As we always spoke Mandarin in our former school, we were handicapped by our poor command  of  spoken English and as such we became timid and shy in front of our female  counterparts  from the English schools. However, in the English speaking environment of this magnificent institution (SMI) , it did not take us long to learn to speak the language fluently.

Brother Paul was the Brother Director of SMI at this time. We came to know him even before we joined the new school because he used to come to Sam Tet school to conduct the Senior Cambridge  English Oral Examination.  Brother Paul always had kind and encouraging words for us from other schools. As many of our seniors from Sam Tet had excelled in the HSC examination, we, the students from the small Chinese school were the pride of Brother Paul.  In fact the small community of Sam Tet students  made a name for themselves by their excellent results in the HSC examination for many years. Many of these fine Sam Tet – SMI hybrid scholars   have gained places in the world renowned Ivy league universities in the United States, top universities in the United Kingdom , universities in Australia and New Zealand and our own Malaysian universities  and many of these graduates are  holding important posts in the government and the private sector.

Brother Vincent was my form teacher in Lower Six.  This young, handsome, gentle and soft spoken Irish gentleman was my English literature master who taught me how to appreciate the masterpieces of William Shakespeare.  “ King Lear” and “Measure for Measure” were the literature texts we used for English literature. He used to recite with feeling and emotion excerpts from the works of the great playwright and poems by the great American walking poet Robert Frost during our lessons .I am sure his beautiful pronunciation and masterly command of the language had won admiration from the many lovers of English literature in my class. Brother Vincent was  also the founder of the Michaelian Chinese Orchestra which was started during my time. The orchestra had a humble beginning with only a Chinese drum, a few bamboo flutes and erhu.

SMI had a strong team of well qualified sixth form staff. My friends in the science stream always boasted of  their physics teacher Mr. Yong Man Fong who held a first class honours degree in physics from the University of  Malaya . During that time, to get a degree was considered a great achievement. To get  first class honours is something hard to imagine.

Mr. Cheong Kui Lam was another wizard in mathematics. This Chinese scholar who held two degrees  was in charge of the mechanics section of our mathematics syllabus. The text book we used was the book “Mechanics” by Humphrey and Topping, a three- inch tome containing questions taken  from the various examination boards in England.  However, Mr. Kui Lam was able to answer any questions we took from anywhere from the book. Being Chinese educated, our teacher could not pronounce the words “this is” clearly. Instead he would  pronounce them as “Ti Yi”. Because of this he was given the nickname “Ti Yi Lo” .Literally Mr. Ti Yi.

Two years of form sixth life was very short, especially as we had to handle the great pressure of preparing for the Cambridge Higher School Certificate (HSC) examination.  During the era when no one was conducting tuition classes, not much revision materials for examinations were produced. Good teachers were vital to ensure our  performing well in the examinations. Thanks to God, we had such a group of dedicated and qualified teachers. By now all of us have retired and many of our beloved teachers are no longer with us today.  God bless their souls but we still cherish the wonderful time we spent at SMI. QUIS UT DEUS.