1956

By Stuart Lippe (Class of 1959)

For some years now, I have engaged in friendly sparring over appropriate recognition of the first person to leave SAS and go out into the world, even if only to 10th grade. That would be me, when SAS ended at the ninth grade in 1956. However, I would not want to take away that "first" designation from Louise Feng, the 12th grader who graduated in 1958, the year SAS expanded to include that grade.

SAS considers the case closed. I don't and here's why.

SAS opened its doors on Rochalie drive in January 1956, and packed a lot of learning and progress into that first school year, during which the ninth grade was as far as it went. There were two ninth graders, along with several seventh and eighth graders studying on the back porch, when principal Al Fisher and his wife took turns teaching, in the style of an old one-room schoolhouse. We were there first. I passed final exams and graduated; my friend Elie did not. Is it my fault that the following year SAS did not expand to 10th grade so i could stay? Believe me, Singapore was more interesting than Hudson, Ohio.

So, I count myself among the oldest surviving students from SAS. Jim Baker (66) was there in 1956 and so was Kathy Saludo Tan (67). I can remember Lee Kuan Yew, who was just beginning his career. David Marshall was prime minister and Singapore still a Crown Colony. We lived at 21 Leedon Park. I Googled the house recently and can't recognize the neighborhood for the number of swimming pools, but the curve in Holland Road, where we took the bus into town is still there.

Lots of other things have changed too. They tell me the river is cleaner. And the buildings are a lot higher than the then-tallest Cathay, Bank of China, and the Asia insurance buildings. Raffles Place is traffic free, but Change Alley is still there, isn't it?

During that first year, SAS's remarkable history began: The Reporter began and eventually became The Eye, and our sports teams were already powerhouses, at least in the elementary school. SAS was multi-racial at a time when the Singapore Swimming Club didn't admit Chinese or Malays, Javanese, Tamils, Sikhs, or pretty much anybody else. In fact, non-Europeans were only allowed as "guests," and this after much debate and a bare 36-35 vote at a special general meeting. The doors didn't open for Asian members until 1963. I was elected Student Council president. OK, that wasn't so remarkable. Elie was ninth grade representative. I think we flipped a coin for the jobs, and it may have been the other way around. There was no yearbook to record events like this.

But, think about what that year did. Already we had the beginnings of an outstanding record: a school newspaper, good sports teams, a multi-racial student body, and student government. Not bad by any score. That first year at SAS began much that has survived and grown.

I respectfully submit that 1956 deserves special recognition. I'll be happy with an asterisk somewhere noting this, maybe on a plaque with my gift of an early copy of The Reporter to the alumni collection. There is a plaque, isn't there?

* This article originally appeared in the Fall 2012 issue of Journeys, Singapore American School's alumni magazine, on pages 40-41.

from Singapore American School http://ift.tt/1JL87Z5