Sacrifice to make someone happy

Looking through the once worn-by-me clothes when I was 3 years old, I could smell the rich history the clothes gave out. Among the pile of clothes, I gradually took out a pair of baby shoes and placed its sole against mine, and I could see the "big" difference in size, it was like a piece of bread. Did I actually used to wear all of these? I have grown out of all of these clothes, and somehow just do not want to lose them. It was like they were a part of me. Taking them away was like taking away your face! My mother told me a few years ago that one day; we would be donating all of these clothes to the less fortunate. Back then I was in Primary 4 when the house was still fresh and spacey. Now that the house was cram, stuffy, and full of unnecessary stuffs, it was time to clean things up.

All my family members knew that I was terrible at cleaning things up; I even stuffed primary school work into any gap or space I can find. But that was not my worst fear. I was afraid that my mother would take away my baby clothes that I loved so much. It was like a relationship between history and me. I protected these “treasure” for all these years, but the time has come, for me to sacrifice something meaningful to me. I was starring at the pile of old clothes when my mother came crashing in with a plastic bag, “It’s time”. I could not resist the temptation to reject to her idea but something tells me that it was time to let it go. However, I argued with my mother that I would keep these “treasure”, and in the end, I was reprimanded and forced to place all of the once worn-by-me clothes. I was pretty down for that moment.

We took the bulky plastic bag of my old stuffs to the nearby church. We were rushing before the gates closed. Finally, placing the bag into the donation drive basket, where the clothes will be given to the less fortunate. At least I made a sacrifice to make someone else happy…

Character to Studies

Schools should emphasize more on character development than academic development.
Do you agree or disagree?

I feel that schools should emphasize more on character development than academic development, as students should be able to express themselves more effectively when entering society. Without proper character development, students do not have the right attitude or values to keep up one's. However, academic development is important too, it gives you the sufficient knowledge to produce quality work. Therefore important to have a balance between these two developments.

Without proper character development in one's life, can lead to the wrong attitude like giving up immediately after meeting up with a problem. Nowadays, children are too pampered by their parents and in result, they depend too much on others for help and have no independence for his or herself. It would be very crucial, for a student to start learning his or her values when their young in order to enter the society with the right attitude. Mainly values such as "Discipline, Respect, Honesty, Inquiry" should be known to all of us if we want to overcome challenges. It is common that those with poor character development tend to development very low self-esteem and think too highly of themselves. Which will mean that the affected person will not be able to carry himself well when he or she enters the society. Therefore, character development is very important for have good self-esteem and able to carry oneself throughout the society.

With proper character development comes with a proper balance with academic development. Nowadays, the society concentrates more on academics than character development in order to get a better job in the society. In my opinion, this form of bring in people into the workforce is a bad idea as they do not have the right attitude and mindset. The society should want the more risk takers and thinkers, not just doers.

However, it is important to have a balance between these two developments in order to truly succeed within the society. With great knowledge comes with great decisions to make. When you have the correct values, you would think twice before executing the move that will cause you to lose it all. Unfortunately, academic excellence is a little bit more important than character when it comes to the society and it provides with oneself more opportunities. Values and character development should come even before academic excellence, as it plays apart in making who you are.

Therefore, schools should place more emphasis in character development than academic development, but there will have to be a balance in order to carry oneself well throughout his or her life.

Cheers,
Ryan Lau :3

Ideal School ~Something Many Schools Should Reach For~

I think that an ideal school should be stress free, have better student-teacher relationship and, be more organise in cooperation among the teachers. Further more, with academics regarded highly as a form of requirement to fit into the fast developing society. As more students strive to be the best, some would be left out and some might not be able to cope. In my opinion, schools in Singapore just do not know how to have fun~!

I think that an ideal school should be stress free as nowadays, youngsters like myself have to handle of resist a lot of depression and stress, be it examinations, homework or project work. Especially in Singapore whereby the education system aims to be at its best, tend to have its own backfiring. Some of the effects for e.g. Students tend to be very quiet as teachers are strict, not enough freedom to voice opinion, some teachers do not accept stupid questions etc. Unlike the schools in Singapore, the schools in New Zealand do not have any examinations at all until students reach grade 6, which is like primary 6 in Singapore, to take their Final Examination before proceeding to High School. Under stress-free conditions, students would be able to think clearly without any worries, thus producing a higher quality of work.

I think that an ideal school should have better student-teacher relationship as it promotes students to be more active and interactive during classes or lessons. When we compare normal Singaporean schools to government schools, the students in government schools tend to be more interactive as from primary school onwards, they have their own current affairs session, which involves being aware of today's or current current affairs. Through this session, students are encouraged to voice out their opinions which lack in many students today. In schools, with better student-teacher relationship, the teachers are able to understand the students character and is able to finger out the weaknesses and the "solutions". Therefore, in my opinion. I think that the schools should focus more on student-teacher relationships.

Lastly, I think that an ideal school should have better cooperation with each other so as to reduce stress among the students. The idea is that the co-operation helps to spread the work and reduce the work depression by receiving less work per day than bombing everyone with work in one day. Thus in my opinion I think that with better co-operation, students are able to have free time each day to indulge in their active lifestyles and hobbies/passion.

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