Felicia Chin Was Slapped By Her Teacher On Her 1st Day Of Primary One; Says The Experience “Scarred Her”

Class 95 DJ Jean Danker, 43, recently launched her own podcast, R U Okay?, which is centered around conversations about mental health and wellness.

On the fifth episode, Jean invited Felicia Chin, 37, who sat down to share more about how she’s realised in recent years that she “doesn't know how to relax” ‘cos she has a fear of “not being good enough”.

According to the actress, she believes that her fear stems from a particular childhood trauma, which happened on her first day of primary school.

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  1 of 3How could she do that?!

  “I was slapped by my teacher. And back then [in the ‘90s] this was still “acceptable”,” she recalled.

  Felicia added that the slap was super forceful too, with the female teacher pulling her cheek all the way back, before hitting Feli.

  “I can’t remember what happened but I thought [to myself]: 'There’s only so much I can do as a Primary One kid, like a scared little kid on the first day of school,” she said.

  And regardless of whatever mistake Felicia was deemed to have made, who would treat a kid like that?!

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  2 of 3Say no to corporal punishment

  Felicia went on to share that the experience “scarred” her, and that it made her afraid to mess up.

  “To me, if you make mistakes, it equals to pain, [it] equals to punishment,” she said.

  After that experience, Felicia said she was driven to ‘prove' herself, and started studying really hard to make it into the teacher’s good books.

  She shared that the students in her class were segregated in different groups, with the “Apple" group being the best, and the “Orange" group being the worst.

  “I wanted to be an 'Apple', so I studied really hard, [and] I was top of the class. But I realised that looking back right, that affected me,” she said, adding: "I think it affected the way I viewed things or lived as an adult growing up.”

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  3 of 3Learning to let go

  Feli also shared that as an adult, she still doesn't know how to relax, and often finds herself consumed with work.

  Even after a long day of filming, she would head home to go through the next day’s scripts, leaving no time for herself.

  Thankfully, Feli said she has found a way to let loose and let go of this drive for perfection in recent years.

Watch the Feli's full R U Okay? episode below to find out how she destresses and unwinds at the end of a long day.

Photos: Mediacorp, Jean Danker/Instagram, Felicia Chin/Instagram