by Peter Woo Yam Poon, School Cert. 1957 [email protected], 7/16/2004

        When Mr Chu came to teach at QES, it caused a stir. Not only was it a breath of fresh air, but some would say a breath of frightful air. I was in class 4A, he was head teacher for class 4B, and some friends there told me he was very good, but very severe, and all said he taught very well.

        So one day he started to teach our class. He was confident, full of energy, and his lectures contents were rich and well-organized. But he was severe. Soon he gave us a table of "valencies" to memorize, such as sulphate is 2-, ferric is 3+, aluminate is 3-, bicarbonate is 1-, etc. Then a week (?) later, he quizzed us orally in class. One classmate loudly proclaimed that oxide is of valency 1, and he was immediately punished to write it 100 times. He did give us warning, so the diligent students did not get caught.

        Another student of my class sneaked into another class one day (perhaps his girlfriend was there) and Mr Chu found it out. He was punished to stand on his chair or table with plenty of verbal obloquy. This was what I heard, but did not witnessed it myself.

        After this we know he meant business. I wish I could have used such methods of pedagogy in my undergrad math classes in US these days, but I had no such freedom. I do sincerely believe public humiliation, when used properly, can generate great motivations to improve student behaviors, better than the whip or the spanking ruler can.

        I began to like him. He is very confident that his teaching will generate great results in terms of distinctions and honors in School Cert and Matric exams, and we never even dream of challenging him in class. So I thought he had taught in another high school before, but I also believed he was a fresh graduate of HK Univ. (I still don't know.) He enunciated English very clearly, even with his peculiar Hong Kong accent. He was better than other teachers who would pronounce "same thing" as "Sam sing". He invented some special English phrases which he threatened to use on us if we misbehave. One of them is "that is a stupid fool."

        I don't recall him writing very much on the board. He simply dictated his lecture notes orally, and we copied like crazy. He would write on the board only special terminology here and there. So we learned there are something like 12 properties of oxygen, 15 properties of chlorine, and some 20 properties of phenol and benzene. Why so specific? So that we can reproduce them at the School Cert or Matric exams. This may sound like a ducks-stomachs-stuffing pedagogy, but we did understand the stuffing stuff, and immediately we scored better than Kings College and caught up and even beat Queen's College when results of these public exams came out each summer.

        So his teaching method is simple: Prepare the students for the public exams, and they will be eternally grateful.

        But he was so full of energy that we students also learned a lot of qualitative analysis and titrations at the lab.

        He taught us how to mix very dilute lead nitrate solution to a very dilute potassium iodide solution, and after a few seconds, sparkling golden crystals will precipitate in the test tube.

        Another time he taught us to fill one test tube with hydrogen sulphide, and another with chlorine, both gases. Hold them in both hands, the tubes being plugged with our thumbs. Then face the test tubes mouth to mouth, and remove the thumbs. In a second or two, there will be an explosion in a small "pop". This was absolutely delightful for us students. Then one classmate took a test tube, filled it with the hydrogen sulphide, but stuck it into the outlet of a chlorine generating Kipp's apparatus, and turned on the chlorine tap. The result: a giant explosion, filling the lab with fumes. Mr Chu turned green with rage, and, I guess, must have shouted "Stupid fool" at him a few times, but I saw a touch of his kindness by asking us to open the doors to clear the air, and he still did not forbid us to do this experiment in future.

        One day, at a mid-term test (or a final exam?) he gave a problem something like this: A mixture of X and Y were dissolved in x amount of water, and titration showed that it took p amount of P or q amount of Q to neutralize the mixture. Find the percentage by weight of X and Y.

        Luckily, I was good in algebra. So I solved it. It turned out I was the only one in class that got it. In fact I thought it a bit unfair to those in class who may be weak in algebra but were otherwise good students. I did other problems in that test very well, so I got 107 points out of 100.

        Mr Chu is unsparing in giving very low grades to students, and 20 or 30 points out of 100 was quite common. So that was one of the glorious moments in my life. Mr Chu never praised me in front of the class, but he would give me a smile which can also be thought of as a grin. But that was good enough for me.

        I had him as teacher for 3 years or more, and I majored in math and chemistry at undergrad in HK. Back then, many of my friends want to become Einsteins, so they worked very hard at physics. I did too, but I blamed it on poor teachers that I eventually lost that ambition, and went for math instead. I never got any distinctions in physics.

        I can still recall those high school days when my enthusiasm for chemistry, being fanned by Mr Chu, would prompt me to acquire my set of test tubes and chemicals in many bottles, at home.

        After we went to HK Univ., sometimes we would come back to QES, to visit who? Mr Chu of course. He would kindly inquire on our affairs. He is genuinely in love with his students.