Humility

I hate bullies. Just yesterday, it was reported on Straits Times that a third-year NUS student, Ms Keira Chen was flamed online by many netizens because of an article she wrote in an online student newspaper.

Now, some of the comments (insults) she received on the USP Facebook Group were vicious and personal. For instance, someone commented that 'she wasn't the brightest crayon in the box'. Another said something like 'Keira Chen, YOU ARE VEH STUPID AND YOU SEEM SO PROUD OF IT'.

I'm disgusted and appalled at many of the comments made. It shows a total lack of humility. Bullies think (or try to think) that they are like 10 times better than their victims. And since they are better, they have the right to scold, abuse and make fun of their victims.

Okay, not all of us here are bullies of any kind. But in any case, I think in order for us to be a life-long learner and succeed in life, we ought to have the character of humility.

To me, a person with humility is someone who accepts diversity and considers others better than himself.

Everyone has his own talents and strengths, experiences in life, values, perspectives, etc. We are all so diverse and that's what makes this world interesting and colourful. Even as a teacher, I find that there are many things I can learn from my students.

For instance, I have this student in my school who had an horrific accident last December. He was seriously injured and was hospitalized for a few months. When he first returned to school, he was on a wheelchair and could not walk on his own. A couple of months later, this student went on to clinch the top spot in the National Schools' Sailing Competition (B Division byte class)! (You can find an article on him here.)

I am amazed at what my student had done - such resilience and courage, all in the face of adversity. I feel that I have a lot to learn from him.

Hence, my bottom line is this: don't look down on anyone or make nasty remarks about anyone. Everyone - EVERYONE has something you can learn from.

Integrity (who I am when nobody's looking..)

Before I say anything about integrity, please understand that I am not there yet, in all the values mentioned. I'm still pretty much work-in-progress and I just want to share some insights on these values, based on my own personal experiences.

Let me begin with a story.. 10 years ago, when I first got my driving license, I did something that was shameful and till date, it still pricks my conscience. I was involved in a 'hit and run' incident. (Ok, I didn't kill or injure anyone, in case you're wondering..) I was trying to park my car and I hit a pick-up. I made the worst decision possible - that is to drive off. I was afraid of the consequences and since no one saw the incident, I might as well...

My act came out of fear and total lack of integrity. Though in a sense, I got away scot-free, this whole incident replayed itself in my head many times. Even now, I could still remember how it all happened.

Upon reflection, I realized that many times, we need to make choices in life. And usually, the choice that is more difficult to make, that would be the choice of character.

The above incident taught me a good lesson. From then on, I decide to always make choices of character. I want to be consistent about who I am on the outside (which everybody sees) and who I am on the inside (which few or on one would see).

A person with no integrity, no matter how talented, just a hypocrite. Once someone finds out his true character (or lack of), he would be deemed as untrustworthy. And once you break the trust in any relationships, it would take a long time to heal.

To sum it up, people would trust a person who has integrity.

Let me end of this post with a more positive story. A few years after that incident, my uni course-mates and I had to take this quiz in a lecture theatre. It was supposed to be a closed-book quiz and there was only 1 supervising lecturer. You can guess.. many of the students actually discussed answers with one another during the quiz and some even took out notes and referred to them.

I made a decision not to do any of the above. I did the whole quiz on my own without cheating. Whatever results that I got out of that quiz truly belonged to me. 

The Last Lesson

Last Thursday, I had my last Science lessons with all my classes in my current school. Instead of just doing the usual teaching, I shared with my students some things that really matter to me. This was kind of inspired by Randy Pausch, who did the famous 'Last Lecture'.

Basically, I shared briefly about values and life lessons that meant a lot to me personally. I hope that my students would not make the mistakes that I did.

Here it goes (I amended some stuff below after listening to Dr John Maxwell earlier today):

1. Integrity (it's about who I am when nobody's looking)
2. Humility (appreciate diversity and consider others better than myself)
3. Resilience (it is okay to fail - no big deal)
4. Run my own race (excel and not compete)
5. Have a purpose in life and be passionate about it!
6. Be others-centred (the world seriously doesn't revolve around me)

Over the next few blog posts, I would share more about the above-mentioned things!

Is it the rich, and not the clever that succeeds?

Last week, a student from my school asked Mr Heng (Minister of Education) if today in Singapore, it is the rich and not the clever that succeeds. He felt that many of his friends who were more well-off attended tuition / enrichment classes outside of school. He didn't, mainly because his family didn't have so much resources. (I thought that was a very good question..)

Mr Heng's reply was that basically the government needs to ensure that there is social mobility in Singapore. Even students that come from humble background should have the chance to do well in school, obtain scholarships and get good jobs.

I do not think that it is easy for the government to regulate tuition or enrichment classes. If the parents are wealthy enough to send their kids for these classes, so be it. This is the same as pre-schools. Well-to-do parents can afford to send their kids to expensive centres that cost more than $2000 a month, whereas some send their kids to PCF. 

It is true that some kids have may have a headstart because of their family background. It is also true that in this sense, life is unfair. There is really no point in lamenting about this. We just have to accept it and move on. 

I think that inspiring and cultivating the right values and character in a child is more important than all those expensive classes. And this, every family can do it - be it you are wealthy or not. I have so many friends who didn't come from wealthy families and yet are doing reasonably well in life. This can be said the same for many of my students too.  

After all, my opinion is that character lasts - not knowledge, mental capacity or talents. 

Winning Isn't Everything

How time passes. I have been the teacher I/C of Raffles Basketball for nearly 5 years. I was just asking myself this question recently - when was I proudest of Raffles Basketball as teacher I/C?

Yes, I was proud of our team when we won C Div National's 3rd in 2008. And of course, all the South Zone titles that we have won over the years - I'm proud of that too.

But the memory that I really cherish is not any of those.

It was 2011. National's round 2. Our B boys have lost our first game to Jurong Sec by 14 points. We won our second game. Still, if we want to make it to National semi-finals, we have to win our last game by 10 points or more. The only catch is, we have to defeat Dunman Sec - East Zone Runners-up, and highly rated (and yes, eventual 2011 B Boys National champions). And we have to do it without our key player - CC who dislocated his shoulder.

The game started with Dunman Sec completely outclassing and dominating Raffles. Our players couldn't find our shots and their players couldn't stop scoring. At one point, Dunman Sec was leading by around 30 points. Many people - perhaps even myself - thought that was it.

Then gradually, things began to change in the 3rd and 4th quarter. Our players did not gave up. They clawed back into the game by hustling for every single loose ball, playing tight defense and shooting the ball really well.

Finally, with 5 seconds left, the scoreline was leveled at 46-46! Our point guard BK stood at the free-throw line and missed two free throws, perhaps hoping to go into extra-time so that we have a chance to beat Dunman Sec by a larger margin. Alas! We couldn't get the rebound, and we accidentally fouled their star player who calmly put in the two free-throws.

Yes, we lost the game 46-48. But I dare say that was the proudest game for me as teacher I/C. Why? Because our players fought relentlessly and demonstrated resilience despite the overwhelming odds. They stood up tall as a team and showed everyone what Raffles is all about.

Every player contributed and gave his best. This kind of experience for the boys can never be taught nor imparted. They have to go through it firsthand themselves. And this is probably more important than winning the championship. In my opinion, that's what school sports should be all about.

Well, I particularly like it when the Dunman Sec coach told me what he thought about our basketball team - "RI 象一只打不死的蟑螂，真难搞！" (Translated: RI Basketball is like a cockroach that is really hard to kill!) Somehow, that gave me immense satisfaction.

Tuition(s)? Is this for real...?

I read about this today in the Straits Times - Parents hiring help to do tuition homework. This blows my mind - that some parents are actually hiring a second tier of tuition teachers to help their students with tuition homework of 'elite' tuition centers.

How can this be..? I am totally dumbfounded.

As a teacher, of course I believe in the importance of education. Perhaps, I can understand if parents would like to have tuition for their kids in certain subjects that they could be struggling with. But having extra tutors to cope with existing tuition homework just simply doesn't make sense. I don't want my son's childhood to be just completely about studies!

Honestly, so what if you have excellent academic grades but you do not have sound values and good character? There's really so much more to life than academic grades - and seriously, I don't think that life is going to be rosy just because you make it to an IP school (many parents will do anything to get their children into IP schools).

At the end of the day, I really believe that it is the character and values that we developed in our adolescent and teenage years that is going to see us through our adulthood.

I pray that this is just a false alarm - very few parents are engaging second-tiered tuition teachers. I hope.

Discipline

Discipline - it's a dirty word to most people, especially youths. The general perception of it is usually negative.

For those on the receiving end, discipline often includes things like withdrawals of privileges, scoldings & even beatings.

I'll like to paint a perspective from the other end. As a teacher & cell leader in church myself, I have disciplined many young people before. When I see somebody doing something wrong (like latecoming), if I don't correct him, I'm encouraging him to continue doing this wrong thing & I'm not helping him build his character.

Take for example. A child of 5 years dashes across the road without his parents. The father can perhaps smack him on the hand and remind him not to do it again. The child may not understand completely, but the father is teaching him that the little pain he feels is nothing compared to when a car knocks him down. That's discipline.

There is a price to pay when you discipline someone. You risk rejections from that person. You risk relationships. But honestly, you only discipline someone whom you care. If you don't care about that person, you wouldn't bother correcting him. .

Of course, there're people who have abused their authority and disciplined out of anger and selfishness. I myself have being like that before - perhaps being too harsh and use hurtful words. I would like to apologise to those whom I have done that to, especially my students and my cell members. I am sorry.


Don't always view discipline as something negative. You only discipline those whom you care.

Dream. Team. Fight. Win.

After months of training and preparation, and a month of intense competition, the RI 'C' Division Basketball team finally defeated Yuying Secondary in the South Zone Final and emerged as the new South Zone 'C' Division basketball champions!

The road ahead isn't going to be easy, we all know that. We're right now in the midst of the nationals round 1. We're up against Bukit Panjang, Dunman High and Presbyterian High.

We won our first game in nationals against Bukit Panjang today. 7 more games to the national's title. We can do it.

It is a dream that the RI basketball team is built around. We'll fight together and win it.

Doing things with great love?

Last week, I read somewhere about what Mother Teresa once said.

"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love."

It caused me to ponder for a moment to do some self-reflection.

I realised that I often do things with my very own self-interests in mind. I didn't do them out of a heart to love others. Not all the time anyway.

For instance, when I do discipline a student in school, I need to do it with the intent that I want him to change for the better, and not just to do it for the sake of doing.

RI Community Day 2008

Earlier this year, RI dedicated 20th of March as RI Community Day. It was a day when all RI students collaborated with external VWOs (Volunteer Welfare Organizations) and serve the poor and needy.

RI Basketball worked with TOUCH Community Services in doing something very unique. We were featured in the TOUCH Newsletter.



It is truly more blessed to give than to receive!

Ordinary People doing Extraordinary Things

Today in school, we had our Sec 1 level meeting with the parents. One thing that impressed upon me was what our Year Head shared at the end of the briefing.

It's that all teachers should believe that our students - no matter how ordinary they seemed - are capable of doing extraordinary things. Just like what the video below shows.




Do you believe it?

Malaysian Montage 2008

Last week, the whole of the Sec 2 cohort in RI went for a 5-days 4-nights trip to Pahang, Malaysia. The name of this annual trip is known as Malaysia Montage.

It was a trip whereby the students were exposed to several things that they would not be able to find in Singapore.

The main thing that struck me was that you don't always need to have handphones, PCs, TVs, Internet, PSPs, etc to feel happy and satisfied. Many of the locals that we saw during our trip don't have most of the above-mentioned stuff. But they are still as contented and happy as they are.

Sometimes, we Singaporeans (whether young or old) do need to slow down and simplify our lifestyles.


Here are some of the photos of the trip.

MM 2008 - SuRvIvor Day 5

After such an eventful night the day before, my group woke up early for some team-building activties. We gathered at the multi-purpose hall at the Lanjut Resort.

Mr. Gabriel Chan, with the help of the JC1 facilitators, conducted 2 activities. The first one was getting each cluster to come up with two structures (made of straws). One of them is a tower (to be as tall as possible) and the second one is a bridge.














The second activity was similar to table soccer. Both sides are to try to move a giant ball to the other side. The guys really gave all they had as they compete with one another.






After the above activities, we started making our way back to Singapore. It took us almost 5 hours in all. But it's really "Home Sweet Home"!

MM 2008 - SuRvIvor Day 4

Time passes really fast when we're having a great time. As I'm writing this blog post, we have just ended the 4th day of the Malaysian Montage 2008.

We started the day by visiting the Water-craft museum. We saw many boats - either war-boats or fishing-boats that the Malays used to use in the past.







The second stop of the day was a place where Tun Abdul Razak used to reside. He was the 2nd Prime Minister of Malaysia and was a former student of Raffles Institution! We learnt about top-spinning and some other traditional games that the royalty used to play.







In the afternoon, we were so glad to have the local Malays hosting us at their kampung. We were also able to experience a traditional Malay wedding (mock one of course) whereby one of our students, Jordaan Goh, was asked to act as the bridegroom. The bride was one of the local Malay girls.







At night, we had our SuRvIvor Finale. Each cluster was to come up with a performance and present it to everyone. We had lots of fun laughing at one another's skit. In the end, Cluster 7 won the Best Cheer award, whereas Cluster 8 (my cluster!) won the Best Performance award.

MM 2008 - SuRvIvor Day 3

Our first stop of the day was the Deerland. It was like a zoo whereby there were many interesting animals like flying squirrels, deers, bears, hedgehogs, etc. Some of the students had really close encounters with them.











Within the Deerland itself, there was also a flying fox. Each cluster sent out two student representatives to compete. The winner would be the one who went through the flying fox in the most dramatic way.








Then we went on to the Elephant Sanctuary and learnt about the conservation of elephants. Many students had the opportunity to ride on the elephants.





Finally, for the last activity of the day, the students were asked to help clean up the Elephant Sanctuary, interview the staff over there, paint the fences, etc. This constituted part of their CIP.








Exhausted, we made our way to Lanjut Resorts. It took us almost 5 hours of travelling in the coach.

MM 2008 - SuRvIvor Day 2

The day started with a sumptuous buffet breakfast. All of us were treated with free-flow fried mee, toast bread, eggs, coffee, tea, etc.

All of the students and teachers were split into two groups today. Each group will do a different set of activities and on the following day, the activities will be swapped. I was together with Group B throughout the day.

Our first stop was the Batik Factory. The lady in-charge gave us a brief 10-min introduction on what batik painting is all about. Subsequently, the students began to make their own batik-designed handkerchiefs. Just look at how creative each and every single student can be.

In the afternoon, we went on to the turtle sanctuary at Pahang. We learnt about how the people over there help prevent certain species of turtles from becoming extinct. It was a rather interesting process.

The agriculture park was our next stop. We found many interesting fruit trees like cross-breed durian trees (between Thai and Malaysian durians). We took a tour on the tractor and went around the park.

At night, we had a buffet dinner back at the hotel, which most of the boys really enjoyed after a rather eventful and tiring day.

MM 2008 - SuRvIvor Day 1

We started our day with great excitement and anticipation. We left Raffles Institution early in the morning and crossed over to Malaysia via the Tuas Checkpoint. We stopped briefly at Yong Peng (a rest-point) and had some food.

In the afternoon, we visited the Dara tea plantation at Pahang. We were introduced to lowland tea-plants. And we also saw a live demonstration of the harvester machines.





Later on, we went on to Pandan Waterfalls. Many of the students have never seen a real waterfall before. It was indeed a great sight for most of us.





In the evening, we ended off the day with a simple BBQ dinner.