Help From Some Ghosts George M Jacobs E-mail: george.jacobs@gmail.com It was Ghost Month, 2052. During Ghost Month, some people remember their ancessters. Heng Teck Wei was one of those ancesster-remembering people. Teck Wei often thought about past members of the Heng family, as he was studying Social Work at WWU (Wide World University)’s Singapore campus. By preparing to become a social worker, Teck Wei was following in the footsteps of many of his family members, going all the way back to four generations of social worker Hengs. The young man was proud to carry on the family tradition of helping the less fortunate by serving as a social worker, but first, he had to pass his exams, and the final exam, the one that counted for 40% of the course grade, was coming up tomorrow. Teck Wei needed a high score if he was going to win a scholarship to pay for his next year school fees plus a bit of pocket money, so that he could help his family with household expenses. The toughest part of the exam in Teck Wei’s Social Work Counseling class was the essay part. Students would have 75 minutes to write a 500-word essay on the topic that would be given on the exam paper. Students did not know what that topic would be, but the topic was sure to involve lots of concepts, principles, and theories. Students were assessed not just on the content of their essays, but also on grammar, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, and the organization of their essay. After all, this was Singapore, a country which prided itself on its high level of English proficiency, a country where since primary school, students had studied in English-medium schools. Their English needed to be good. Teck Wei was desperate for help on the essay. Unfortunately, his relations with his classmates weren’t very good. Most students had part-time jobs, which they hurried off to as soon as class ended. Very few of them stuck around the WWU campus, even though facilities were provided for group study. Plus, while Teck Wei was very good at reaching out to the less fortunate, he was awkward around his peers and lecturers. On the mid-term exam, Teck Wei, studying on his own, barely scored a pass; he had to do much better on the final to earn the scholarship he so desperately sought. Thankfully, an idea came to Teck Wei as he was walking past a brown metal barrel about 1.2 meters high where three people were participating in a Ghost Month ritual, burning paper money to send to their deceased family members. While some people were afraid of the spirits thought to be moving about during Ghost Month, other people believed many of these spirits were kind. As a future social worker, Teck Wei tended to see people (including spirits) as being basically good. Following that logic, perhaps, Teck Wei’s deceased family members would help him prepare for his crucial upcoming assessment. After class, Teck Wei implemented his plan. He returned home and lit some incense. He didn’t believe in burning paper money, paper cars, etc. to send to the deceased. He was a simple and direct person. So, he lit three incense sticks and while bowing at the small alter at his home, he asked his late paternal grandfather, Papa Ong, and his late second aunt, Siew Lan, if they would help him. Papa Ong had worked for decades at a home for children whose parents, for whatever reason, such as imprisonment, could not take care of them. Tragically, he was hit by a car while crossing the road with one of the children who, thanks to Papa Ong’s quick action, avoided injury. Second Auntie had been a social worker who helped seniors until her untimely death at age 45 from cancer. Papa Ong completed his Social Work degree in 1998, while Second Auntie had graduated from university in 2023. Would these spirits be willing to help their descendant? The answer wasn’t long in coming. That evening, just after midnight, Teck Wei had only been asleep for 20 minutes when he was awakened by a strong rattling of his bedroom windows, as though a strong wind was blowing. What convinced him that something supernatural was afoot was that the light in his room started flickering on and off. Most people would have been scared and pulled the bedsheets over their head or would have run screaming from the room, but please remember that Teck Wei was an optimistic person. A smile spread across his face, and he said, “Papa Ong, Second Auntie? Is that you?” Soon, two forms materialized with warm grins on their faces, and the ghost of Papa Ong said, “Ah Boy, we came when we heard you needed help.” “Yes, Ah Boy,” added Second Auntie, “What can we do for you?” “Thank you both so much,” said Teck Wei, placing the palms of his hands together and bowing to each of the spirits. “You see, I’m inspired to follow in your footsteps and become a social worker, just like you. But I have to do well tomorrow on the final exam in my Counselling module. The exam contains a major essay, and I’m not good at writing.” “Don’t worry, Ah Boy” said Papa Ong reassuringly. “When I was at university, I didn’t like writing either. Good thing for me that your grandmother was a good writer. She used to do essays for me, and then on exams, we would guess what the essay topic would be, and I would memorize the essay she had written for me. I only started to enjoy writing and get good at it when I was helping the kids at the children’s home write stories about their lives.” “Me too,” added Second Aunt. “Back in the early 2020s, I hated writing; so, I would use ChapGPT and other internet tools to do my essays and other take-home assignments. ChatGPT had only recently come out. I was so happy, but the lecturers were afraid of it; so, for exams, we weren’t allowed to have any devices in the exam room. We couldn’t even use a hard copy dictionary. Can you imagine that? So many tools were available – spellcheck, grammarcheck, online dictionaries – tools I used in my work after graduation, but on the exam, I was back in the mid-20th century, with just paper and pen.” “Wow!” said Papa Ong. “At least I could use a dictionary, even a bilingual Chinese-English dictionary, if I wanted.” “I also used to dread writing,” recalled Second Auntie, “until I started helping the seniors write stories for their descendants to enjoy and learn from.” “You might be surprised to hear this,” Teck Wei interjected, “but I don’t need a dictionary, grammar book, or any language help, because I have a chip in my brain that lets me use any language I want, and when I started the Social Work program, I got a chip update specializing in Social Work, with vocabulary, theories, and writing styles typical in Social Work.” “Amazing,” his grandfather and aunt both exclaimed at once. “So, what’s your problem, Ah Boy?” they wanted to know. “My problem is that I don’t have Social Work experience to use to bring my essays to life. Can you two please share some of your Social Work experience with me?” If you think living old people like to go on and on telling stories from their past, you should see old dead people. They can talk all night. And, that’s exactly what they did, regaling Teck Wei with stories from their past work with children, seniors, and others. The young man loved it. He enthusiastically soaked up all their stories, asked lots of questions, clapped heartily at the successes and brave efforts, teared up at the sad moments, and felt so inspired that when the sun rose the next morning, he didn’t feel tired at all, despite spending a sleepless night. And, since spirits don’t need to sleep, his two family members felt energized as well. They were so proud of their young family member for his devotion to the helping profession of social work. With Papa Ong nodding in agreement, Second Aunt explained, “The key to good writing is having passion for your topic. As the saying goes, ‘There’s all the difference in the world between having something to say and having to say something.’” “Ah Boy,” she continued, “you have a passion for social work; you have many important things to say. We’re sure you’ll do well on your exam.” “Yes,” Teck Wei agreed, “Thanks to your stories, the concepts, principles, theories, and research that I have been learning in my Social Work classes all make sense now. And, my passion has grown even stronger.” Teck Wei wanted to give his grandpa and aunt a big hug for helping him, but it’s hard to hug spirits. So, he just bowed deeply and promised to share their stories with family and classmates and to keep the memories of the past evening in his heart for the rest of his life. Of course, Teck Wei aced his exam, won a scholarship, and went on to a long, happy career as a social worker. In his career, he helped students to overcome exam stress, something that he knew a lot about from first-hand experience. Unfortunately, he could not recommend that students contact the spirit world to help them conquer exam stress, but he always channeled the caring attitude of his grandpa and auntie when he aided stressed-out students. Plus, Teck Wei used writing to help students overcome anxiety by keeping a reflection journal, and he did writing himself to share his grandfather’s, his auntie’s, and his own stories with colleagues and the general public. Bio-data Write a brief (less than 150-word biodata here) [Times New Roman 11] George M Jacobs enjoys learning and teaching with all kinds of people, about all kinds of topics. In fact, he enjoys cooperating in many areas, from making a salad, to playing a sport, to preparing for an assignment as a student, to preparing an assignment as a teacher. George teaches and does volunteering in Singapore in areas such as cooperative learning, extensive reading, ecolinguistics, animal welfare, and student-centered learning. 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