Those Who Can’t, Teach

From Stage to Print

by Haresh Sharma

Those Who Can’t, Teach turns the spotlight on the madcap lives of teachers and students in a typical secondary school in Singapore. As the teachers struggle daily to nurture and groom, the students prefer to hang out and “chillax”. With upskirting and Facebooking, griping and politicking, school takes on a whole new meaning as the colourful characters struggle to prove that those who can, teach.

Written by Singapore’s most prolific playwright Haresh Sharma, Those Who Can’t, Teach was first staged by The Necessary Stage in 1990 to critical acclaim. Twenty years later, Sharma revisits this classic to revitalise it for the Singapore Arts Festival 2010, transforming it into a powerful portrayal of the pressures and challenges facing teachers (and students) in schools in the 21st century.

“The play throws up questions on the roles of parents, students and teachers, but does not collapse into an impotent tirade against society. The script is joyous. The laughter is warmly wry, not caustic.” —The Straits Times

“Those Who Can’t, Teach does much to do away with the stereotypes and fallacies of the teaching profession.” —The Business Times

Genres: Plays, Fiction, Drama, Theatre, Literature

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2010

About the author

Haresh is Resident Playwright of The Necessary Stage and co-Artistic Director of the annual M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. To date, he has written more than 100 plays. His play, Off Centre, was selected by the Ministry of Education as a Literature text for N and O Levels, and republished by The Necessary Stage in 2006. In 2008, Ethos Books published Interlogue: Studies in Singapore Literature, Vol. 6, written by Prof David Birch and edited by A/P Kirpal Singh, which presented an extensive investigation of Haresh's work over the past 20 years. A collection of Haresh’s plays have been translated into Mandarin and published by Global Publishing with the title '哈里斯·沙玛剧作选'.

Haresh was awarded Best Original Script for Fundamentally Happy, Good People and Gemuk Girls during the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Life! Theatre Awards respectively. In 2010, the abovementioned plays have also been published by The Necessary Stage in the collection entitled Trilogy. Most recently in 2011, 2 collections of short plays by Haresh entitled Shorts 1 and Shorts 2 have been published as well. Haresh was also the first non-American to be awarded the prestigious Goldberg Master Playwright by New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2011.

Reviews

[Jolin (twentycharm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this in lwb and it was so funny i bought it on a whim and finished it on the way home. i’ve been in my singapore teachers phase with this, Secondary, and Unease LOL. will add more thoughts later but i’d love to discuss this!

it feels short so i do wish some character arcs were explored more slowly but i appreciate the different perspectives it offers of what teachers expect from their role. mrs phua, like lilin in Secondary, cares about her students a lot and she truly tries to help the delinquents, but the focus differs and i think this one was more emotional regarding her work life imbalance with no time to care for her actual family since she’s so invested in her students.

anyway more more to come!

[Nathanael Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

i remember watching this in the early lockdown days feeling a bit lonely, and it just filled me up with so much excitement and fear about the profession i wanted (and still want!) to enter. the familar narratives undergirding our "savage meritocracies" (to quote ishiguro) break down so tenderly in the play, while the scene of the ex-student confronting his teacher over the illusory nature of her past promises stay with me still, and will stay for a very long time

[amber :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I keep seeing this ad on TV. It talks about teachers. Thank you for teaching me. Thank you for changing my life. They all look happy. Have they always been this happy?”

this was a touching portrayal of teaching and schooling life in sg, what i appreciated the most was how it spotlighted educators as having their own personal struggles too and how difficult it is to balance that with being a “role model”

the play did jump around different time sequences quite a bit so sometimes i felt that it was hard to follow the storylines but i realised this is quite characteristic of haresh’s plays

i wish there were more detail about certain scenes like the affair ahaha

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is the first play of haresh sharma's i've read. this is a depiction of the intersecting lives of characters in a typical secondary school setting in singapore, and i find that sharma's writing style does impart a sort of candidness characteristic of such a vernacular environment. in other words, the text reads as effortless to me (i'm singaporean), enabling me to imagine the scenes play out with ease, hence contributing to my overall enjoyment of this play.

humour is used adequately throughout to complement heavier themes explored, a few moments timely and to great comedic effect; yet it is not exploited. my favourite is the flashback of teck liang and clare as hamlet and ophelia. the slight veil of light-heartedness hovers above the largely solemn mood of the entire play, which is an outcome of a tight weaving of themes and plot. this brutal honesty is something i appreciate. sometimes, it feels like the characters are the ones grasping at this light-heartedness for temporary relief before they face the music of their actions.

my criticism is reserved for the comparatively under developed characters, namely mr zach and mr lee, who are both presented as interesting (enough) characters with layered personalities and points of inner conflict with the potential to enrich the story. alas, they aren't fully realised. i find this to be more applicable for lee, who initially comes across as an inflexible and rigid new teacher, but is later on revealed to possess redeeming qualities which do improve my impression of that character. then there's cikgu ali, who i think is nothing more than a filler character since we learn virtually nothing about him. i question this character's necessity in the story.

to wrap this up, i want to mention that my favourite thing about this play is the coherence in its non-linear narrative structure. flash backs and alternative scenarios are not jarring at all, and transitions between the future and present effectively propel the story forward while offering tasteful juxtapositions, notably in the exchanges between mrs phua and teck liang. emotional intensity of certain moments is also enhanced by the switching between states of time.

[Sean Goh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very poignant read, especially the closing scene, when you try your best but you don't succeed. Sometimes life just doesn't serve up a happy ending. Sharma manages to challenge several education norms, like narrow definitions of success (Sabtu's 'child labour' efforts), the tendency for Singaporeans to want to avoid rocking the boat (the forum letter) and their discomfort with uncharted paths ("we weren't taught how to plan a sports day in NIE!)

___
Do what students do. Smile, nod, pretend to take notes, and never volunteer for anything!

In a relationship, one person usually loves the other more. In school, the teacher always loves the student more.

[Amy ☁️ (tinycl0ud) · Rating 4 out of 5]

reading this made me realise that maybe i do have ptsd, which explains the nightmares

‘Those Who Can’t, Teach’ seems like an exaggeration of what goes on behind the scenes of a MOE school. Maybe this is reality for some people? I’ve been lucky so I wouldn’t know. The characters are stereotypical to a certain point but there’s some really pointed critique in there. This is for the burnt-out educators and the misunderstood kids who struggle to meet expectations.

[Hao Guang Tse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play does so much for the teaching profession without resorting to cliches or propaganda. It hits where it hurts most when the most self sacrificing teacher of them all is left alone and spent. Here, love isn't as simple as we want it to be.

[Kathleen Bu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quotes that stayed with me:

1. SU LIN: In a relationship, one person usually loves the other more. In school, the teacher always loves the students more.

2.
JALI: That time... Last time... When I fail, you talk to me. Maybe you don't remember...
SU LIN: I've had so many students...
JALI: You said... You said we all got gift... We all got talent. You said we all got purpose in life.
SU LIN: We do...
JALI: You said... One day I will come back to school and I will say, "You are right Mrs Phua. I have a talent and I AM successful." That's why I come back...
SU LIN: You see... Everything worked out.
JALI: Cher... I never become any-thing. First time I take my exam, I fail. I try again. I still fail. You say believe... Believe in yourself. I believe. When I leave school, I work dispatch. I work driver. I work security. I still believe. For 15 years I be-lieve. Then today I wake up, I see the SMS and then I think...I am not special. I got no gift. I got no talent. Cher... I never become anything.
SU LIN: I'm sorry Jali...
JALI: No... It's ok Cher... It's ok because you give me hope. But I just want to say, sometimes life cannot change for some people. Sometimes, people fail...

3. SU LIN: I keep seeing this ad on TV.
It talks about teachers. Thank you for teaching me. Thank you for changing my life. They all look happy. Have they always been this happy? Did they have a perfect childhood? A perfect school life? I was happy once. But I was young. The older you get, the more you remember. The younger you are, the more you forget. (slight pause) The school. The teachers. The friends. The ideals. The realities. The memories.
The memories...

[Khairun Atika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Haresh Sharma's plays. They portray the different groups of people in Singapore, and not just in terms of race or religion. He talks about marginalised societies, and also different occupations. This play clearly explores the lives of the teachers of the fictional Marine Parade Secondary School. It shows the different types of teachers we see - the quintessential caring teacher who goes above and beyond her duties, the teacher who only does what is required and never anything more, and the prized scholar who thinks highly of his own merit. At the end of the day, he explores the stress and duress that the teachers in Singapore face - from the burgeoning high expectations imposed by the government and the parents of the students. The teachers try to make sense of their commitment to their jobs - they want the best for their students, yet they themselves struggle wih the changes and high expectations of the education system in Singapore. It is a no-holds-barred, honest take on the reality of the high standard of the education system - that it is a struggle for both the teachers and the students to cope with.

[faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

made me think about "normal" (by faith ng, another singaporean playwright - highly recommended!), but with a greater focus on the teachers. similar themes and ideas/depiction of the singaporean education system (particularly not at "elite" schools) - a system that pits realism against idealism, is pragmatically and methodically exclusivist and elitist. these plays explore in particular the student/teacher, student/system, teacher/system relationships, and the psychological impact on different people within the system. of course, much personal reflection, being part of the education system but in a different strata, and how these experiences compare to my own.

a particularly thought provoking/heartaching sequence was when one of the students, jalil, came back to school after 15 years, telling the teacher that despite what she said about everyone having something, despite him believing it, he didn't succeed. what we have been taught, and learned to learn - what if it isn't what truly is?

[Arti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a realistic portrayal of what it means to be a teacher today beyond the mission statements of a typical school e.g. ' Nurturing Young Minds. A Better Tomorrow. Empowering Students.'

This book elucidates the fact that teachers are people too, and like all people, the part that their job plays in their lives differs. Some view teaching as an integral part of their lives and fashion their private lives around their jobs - it is important that they be role models to the children.

Others view teaching in more practical terms , it is a job with a contract and clauses they must abide by in order to earn a living and enjoy their time after office hours as they wish.

Nonetheless it is clear that teachers play an important role in their students lives. The book includes a motley yet relatable cast of students and shows how their lives have been affected in both small and big ways by their teachers.

Overall, I found this a worthwhile read that fleshed out school life in a very vivid and gritty way.

[Shelved by Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

poignant play about singapores tragic education system and the stakeholders involved, how failures and loopholes in the system ends up affecting both the lives of students who are victims of it, and teachers who perpetuate it.

[d]

just cried to my teacher in school today because of my grades so this hit hard #lol

[themis · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very very poignant and pointed work that directly addresses the problems with our education system. i don't think a singlit work has resonated with me more.

[yahaha · Rating 2 out of 5]

sigh. this is not it.

[en le ⋆·˚ ༘ * · Rating 4 out of 5]

wish i could’ve watched the live production of this!

[Definitely Not Delilah · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing play, had the wonderful opportunity to see it live. a great starter into local singaporean plays

[Claire Soh · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a teacher-to-be, I really enjoyed this. The realism of the play is impressive and set me thinking about the kind of teacher I want to be. It doesn't feel contrived or cliched, and as one reviewer here mentioned and I whole-heartedly agree with, it does a lot for the teaching profession.

[Mabel Y-A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some parts are so poignant; some, a little too cliche. Fine, maybe I don't teach in a co-ed learning environment like that depicted in the play, but I do think things are not so bleak at times too. I like the main characters very much too, and I do see myself and my colleagues in these roles or predicaments too.