Since I became a high school senior, I have suffered a lot more from our dear teachers, or rather from their selfish competition.

Our physics teacher, James, demands we read physics during the morning reading time while our chemistry teacher, Forrest, orders us to do chemistry in the same slot. It’s impossible to read both subjects for we have only a quarter. Therefore, we end up being reproached by either James or Forrest on a daily basis.

The day after the first exam, I was invited to the Chinese teacher’s office, where I was told off by Ms Wang for my miserable Chinese grade. I confessed that I had spent virtually all my waking moments on science subjects. Hearing that, Ms Wang warned me in a stern voice, “If you do not learn Chinese properly, boy, you are doomed to failure in the last exam.”

For the next few weeks, I devoted most of my after-class hours to Chinese papers. Then the second exam took place. Hardly had the results come out when I was summoned to my class director’s office. Pulling a long face, the serious man asked, “Boy, why did your science grades plunge so sharply?” Red-faced, I explained that I had been swotting up on Chinese recently.

“Every man on the street knows Chinese. What is the use of the language?” the master snapped in my face. “Science matters the most.”

As you can see, my reader, whatever I might do, I will be treated to a scolding by one of my dear teachers. On the surface, all the teachers act ladies and gentlemen; behind the scenes, there is a fierce tug of war going on silently between them. Each of them wants us to value their own subject, but our time and energy is limited. Don’t the wise masters and mistresses know that you cannot eat a cake and still have it?

Of course, they do. The problem is that each of them cares only about their own performance, which is rated by the school admins based on the grade we have earned for their subject in tests.