As I was on my way to school as usual this morning, I met a student at the lobby. She looked quite lost, and after checking the lift panel against her timetable, she asked me, "How can I go to the seventh floor?"
"You may take the lift to the ninth floor and then go down the escalators to the seventh floor," I replied. She thanked me and then we went into the lift together. She then went on to tell me her frustration on getting to school on time: "I am half an hour late again today; I was late for half an hour as well yesterday," she sighed.
I could not help but asked, "Where do you live?"
"Sheung Shui. I have tried to wake up around 5 but I am still late to school. Two days in a roll…" She sighed again. "How on earth can I manage it?"
Feeling that she might be a bit distressed by her lateness, I said, "Don't worry; with several more days, you will get used to the route and be on time."
While I fully understand how important punctuality is, it is the first time that I have seen such a distressed student on this matter. Her frustration on her lateness dawned on me that as newcomers, the first year HKCC students may easily be distressed by things we thought to be common knowledge, such as the whereabouts of drinking fountains and printing machines, needless to say the new subjects that they have registered for. This makes me think of Mary Clement's "10 Things to Make the First Day (and the Rest) of the Semester Successful," in which she mentioned things such as noting down the names of the students, allowing students to get to know each other, making the agenda of the day known to students and letting students have a taste of the subject as good routine for the first day of class with the view of familiarizing students with the new subject. Please click here for more of Clement's thoughts on the first lesson of the semester.