Is it necessary?

Attended my daughter's prize presentation ceremony this morning. Was greeted by the vice-principal scolding the children in the hall. This despite having the parents all sitting at the back of the hall. The vice principal demanded absolute silence and no fridgiting from the student. She will continue to issue command until there was absolute silence and the children are sitting properly. After that there was a roll-call for the classes. All this while 3 classes were still making their way into the hall each being lead by a teacher. When the roll-call was over, 2 classes were apparently not present.This started her to say that the ceremony will start without them! With that she passed the mic to the MC who promptly said that the ceremony will not start yet and will wait for another ten minutes for the missing classes to file in. The ceremony finally got started when the remaining classes make their way into the hall and to their respective places. The ceremony started smoothly enough. However midway through the ceremony, it was briefly interrupted when the MC chided the children for making too much noise! This quieten down the children and the ceremony resumed. The "noise" level got progressively higher as the prize presentation got underway with some students actually "screaming" when their classmates' name were announced. This abruptly brought the ceremony to a halt with the MC again 'reminded' the student just to clap appropriately!

I wonder why this school is so straight-laced. I find it strange that the VP should reprimand the students when the parents are around. I would have thought that such reprimands and reminders should be done behind close doors and only the best 'appearance' should be seen by the guests - in this case, the parents. Granted this is technically a chinese school where discipline is paramount, but maybe some subtlety may be in order. The mood of the ceremony maybe marred by such situations.

It is natural for anyone who are happy and cheering their fellow students to sometimes be carried away with their cheers. Mutterings and exchange of happy chats regarding the prize winners is something natural. Imagine with children from 3 levels of primary schools, even whispers will be magnified. And what is wrong with some 'screaming' when this is done in appreciation and not in antagonism? Of course if there were catcalls, then the students should be reminded about such 'hoogalism' act. Friendly cheers should be encouraged! Even if the school does not condone such friendly 'screams', maybe the MC should have waited for the end of the ceremony to reprimand the students.

Don't take me wrong. I support the school although I may no entirely agree with some of the things they do. I think discipline is important and should be strictly enforced. However I feel that sometimes it should not be over-zealously enforced and only if the 'offence' is not too serious, maybe there is an appropriate time and appropriate place for its implementation.