I WAS in Singapore to attend a nephew's wedding this month, but my family had planned for me to attend the 20th anniversary and award celebration of my niece's school on the day of my arrival.

Flying in from Los Angeles, I was hoping that the school auditorium where Huamin Primary School was holding the event would be air-conditioned. It wasn't. But once events started, I doubted anyone one would have minded the heat.

I was sincerely touched by the whole event, which featured former pupils, teachers and pupils performing one show after another. Teachers, too, participated in the performances. And to top it off, the principal sang a solo to the applause of everyone in the auditorium.

The most impressive moment for me was the giving away of awards to present and past teachers, some of whom had spent their entire teaching career at Huamin. The cheers came loudest for teachers who had spent 20 years in Huamin, since the school opened.

As a Singaporean who has been teaching in Los Angeles for the last 20 years, I was deeply affected by the warmth of the students, teachers, staff and parents. For a brief moment, I could see myself as one of the teachers there, doing work with children to help them with the basic skills to meet the new challenges of our world.

The difference is that the kids I teach now are older (I teach in a college) and they are of different ethnic groups. In a way, I was a little envious and wondered again, a little more deeply perhaps, on Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken.

In this trip home to Singapore, I had brought with me my retired, 74-year-old professor, to see my homeland.

She commented: 'It would have been easy to see you among one of the teachers here.' She then changed the topic and added: 'I wish we could cultivate this kind of school spirit in Los Angeles as well.'

I concurred, in part, wishing silently that I had made the choice to return from the US years ago, after my studies; but mostly, I was in a congratulatory mood, shaking hands with the vice-principal of the school with many well-wishes and other niceties.

Ong Wooi-Chin

This article was first published in The Straits Times.