No regrets: Scully's new three R's

By Justin Yuen

Vanessa Scully is a beloved teacher at RCHK, teaching in the English department and branching out to TOK. With her retirement (and freedom) coming soon, we sat down with her to ask a couple of questions.

Where are you going for retirement?

Phuket, Thailand.

What are you looking forward to in retirement?

Not working. I’m looking forward to resting, relaxing, reading — the three R’s. I’m going to study Thai in school. [I’m] looking forward to devoting time to myself entirely [and] selfishly.

What has been your favourite memory from RCHK so far?

Well, I mean the students are great, I think I have to say that. I have enjoyed working with the vast majority, the overwhelming majority — but not all, because [saying otherwise] would be wrong.

What has been your favourite project in RCHK?

[RCHK] Leeks!

Why English?

Well, I trained as a French and English teacher, [but] when I was in school, I always thought English was by far the easiest [and] the most enjoyable. The pleasure from reading and talking about ideas is really cool. To try and encourage young people to read and engage with the world around them is really valuable and important.

Of course, I teach ToK as well, which is obviously the best. I’ve really enjoyed teaching TOK actually. Going back probably, I would say the most enjoyable new thing is ToK. I kind of wish I’d done that before. I don’t think I’m very good at it, but I enjoy the reading. It’s nice to meet students in a different context.

Well, you make ToK very enjoyable.

Thank you. So sweet. You can put that in the interview.

What’s your favourite unit in English?

I really enjoyed doing the Beyonce unit in Language and Literature. We did Lemonade. I’ve never taught visual albums before and I’m not really a huge fan of Beyonce, but I was really pleasantly surprised and I think the students really enjoyed it. So that was cool. That’s probably my…. is it favourite? Yeah, [it’s] the one that universally appeals to students. I have favourite books, but not everybody likes them.

On the topic of books, which ones are your favourite?

I mean, it’s really hard. I’m looking at my shelf. The books you teach at school are not necessarily your favourite books. I don’t have a favourite book, it's like having a favourite child. Great Gatsby is a great novel, and, like, Pride and Prejudice. Like there are some books that you read when you’re a young person, and it’s wasted on you. It’s about adult things, and you don’t know, so Gatsby I think has that kind of very mature view of your dreams not turning out, it’s very poignant, very beautiful.

What is or was your least favourite subject in school?

Didn’t like physics very much, but that's probably because I wasn’t very good at it. I liked school, [but] the problem with school for me wasn’t the subjects, it was the teachers. So I chose subjects because of the teachers. Yeah, and so, Mr. Gibb was my Physics teacher, didn’t like him very much. I’ve tried to get over that, but I think still, for me the person who's leading you is really important.

If you had to choose another subject other than English what would it be?

I used to enjoy teaching French, particularly beginner French. You do things like prepositions. Teaching beginner language is a lot of fun, so I enjoy that. I think in the past as well, when i’ve taught adults, I really enjoyed [that]. In Brazil I taught English to adults, and that was so different from teaching kids because they want to be there. They paid to do this course and they want to learn to speak [the language].

What hobbies do you enjoy outside of school?

I’ve taken up running, very slowly. I [also] do Pilates. In my house in Phuket, I do a lot of beach cleaning, so I get up very early, before the sun. Meditation is also a hobby of mine, meditating on the beach. I have a pick up stick thing, so I pick up the litter on the beach, and then it’s maybe half past seven, time to go home. It’s really nice, so that’s going to be me on retirement. That’s my morning routine, it’s much more contemplative than when I was younger.

That sounds really nice and calming!

I’m hoping! This kind of Buddhist mentality, I’m hoping to develop this equanimity. So stop being horrible to people, be loving. So it’s gonna be a project, my project to grow.

You’ve been teaching for 35 years, what kept you interested in teaching all this time?

It’s a job, you know, if I won the lottery, I would have stopped straight away. No doubt about it.

Well, because my husband is also a teacher, so we’ve been able to travel extensively. So I’ve worked in Brazil, and then Norway, then like, Thailand, Portugal, China, Hong Kong, so that opportunity to move is really empowering. It’s [also] really fulfilling. People get a job and feel stuck in it, and you become very materialistic. So you buy a house and a car and all that stuff, but I think the opportunity to every three, four or five years, you know, is there something else we want to be doing or a new experience, a new place to live? I think that’s very empowering. So that’s one of the main reasons why I’m not staying in one place. I mean I lived eleven years in Portugal, that’s the longest I’ve lived in one place.

What’s one last piece of advice you would give to students?

Don’t regret things, move on and find people to surround you because you’re not on your own.