Reflections

It all started with the meeting with Ms Chris. We secured an interview with her and we met up at Dhoby Ghout MRT. We found a nice little cafe at NUS to have the interview. One thing leads to another, then we were offered a chance to conduct our mini-trial with the organization she's working with.

The following Wednesday, we went to a soccer court in Ang Mo Kio to meet up with the youths. Before we went there, we were joking that maybe they won't be receptive of us. It turns out the tables were turned on us -- we were the ones that were quiet while the soccer youths were very welcoming. We had dinner at a nearby shop and we were quiet throughout the dinner and just observed the youths. Evidently, we were the ones that needed to be more liberal.

We came to know that the soccer youths are mostly teenagers of around 13-17 year olds. Some of them come from low-income families; some have commited crimes and been discharged from Homes; and some have affliations with gangs. But all of them are considered "at-risk youths" from the legal standpoint, and all of them share a common passion -- soccer. Ms Chris explained that soccer can help them to bond together and work as a team. In addition, it can also train them to control their temperament and instill some values in them.

After dinner, Ms Chris brought us to a HDB flat nearby, the one that we would give tuition. To return Ms Chris the favor for letting us conducting our mini-trial, we agreed to give conduct tuition for the at-risk youths.

For the following weeks, we just went to the soccer court to hang out with the soccer youths and get to know them better. Initially, we were quiet with them. Slowly, we became more comfortable with them and interacted more. As for the tuition, we don't really mind the tuition because we find teaching to be fun.

One day, we decided to conduct our mini-trial -- to interview the soccer youths, and to lend them a voice. We promised Ms Chris that we would conduct interviews and post them on the website, Youths United. We went down to the soccer court and found a corner to interview the youths one-by-one. Slowly, through the interview, we got to understand them in a greater depth. We got know their family background, their hopes and dreams. We got to know that through the soccer programme, some of them have become more disciplined.

Also, we asked some crucial questions -- What do they think of JC kids? Have their perceptions changed after meeting us? What do they think of meritocracy? Have they ever felt robbed of opportunities because of their financial status? These questions produced some intersting answers. And we found out that, just like us, they had some stereotypes about JC kids at first, but their perceptions started to shift after we got to know each other better. And they appreciated the fact that we even bothered to interview them and ask for their views.

Well, for me, I find them to be very welcoming -- in fact, more so than some of the people in school. True, I had some stereotypes about them at first, but I soon realized that some of the youths are even friendlier than some of the people I know. Meeting them have definitely been an eye-opener.