The majority of Singaporeans live in public housing. The ground floor is typically left vacant, hence the term “void deck”. In recent years, many Singaporeans have taken it upon themselves to make the void deck a vibrant third space. As such, community libraries have been gaining momentum in recent years.

So, last Friday, I was delighted to take my daughter to one such library. She was greeted by an ambulance-like platform and promptly sat on one of the available chairs to simulate being in an ambulance.

She was disappointed that there weren’t any scooters around. We had seen scooters in one of its publicity photos — incidentally how I coaxed her successfully to visit this library. Nonetheless, we sat down on the bench and did some colouring. It was quite a calming time, save for her declaring her disappointment every few minutes. Haha.

I also looked at the bookshelves dotted with books. They contained a nice collection of Science magazines, something that my boy would be interested in. I made a mental note to take my boy here in the future. However, on this occasion, I brought home a thick book of assessment papers because I wanted to use it to guide me in my teaching of the sixth graders. You can take me out of the classroom but you can’t take the teacher from within me!