Child Obedience

               "The Son of the Turtle-Spirit" is a Chinese folktale which has superstitious element.

               From this folktale I learned that people in olden day are very obedient. They will follow what ever their parents told them to do. For example, the maiden sewed the thread onto the young man's coat as she was told by her mother. Besides, the son of the turtle spirit too was an obedient child. He put his father's bones in the dragon's mouth and hang the rich man's grandfather's bone on the dragon's horn which his mother told him to do so.

             But, nowadays, I found that our children are less obedient if compare to the olden day's. I have seen many parents are easily give in to their children which make them become more demanding and disobedient when their demand are not fulfilled. We should teach our children like olden days but child obedience should be achieved the right way and for the right reasons. If a parent’s goal is just to get the child to obey and do whatever he tells him to, then he is missing the point. He may only be after convenience.

Teachers do make differences

            This film is based on a true story. The teacher's name was Mrs. Thompson and a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. I feel very touching while watching it and I am eager to share it to my friend.

            After watching the short film, I feel guilty of lying to my students too. I told my Year 1 class that I love each of them and willing to teach them. But, actually I am not happy with a boy name Jason in my Year 1 class. He can't pay any attention in the class, he always busy with his own works, drawing or reading other books. No matter how hard I try to persuade him to join my lesson, he will refuse too. For sure, I met his class teacher and others subject teachers to discuss about this. All I got was the same answer.

            Now, I have a different view. Every child arrives like a mystery box with puzzles pieces inside. Some of the pieces are broken and missing and others just seem to hide. This afternoon, I found out Jason was actually staying with his grandmother only. He has parents, but none of his parents is taking care of him. When I asked about his parents, he will look on the floor. His eyes told me that he missed that. Then, I asked about his grandmother, his eyes seem to have sparkles, he had broad smile, he talks a lot about his grandmother to me. From here, I know Jason is just like Teddy who lack of love.

         This film has actually reminded me of Kafka, 1910 Diaries, he keeps on repeating this line in his diary, "my education has done me great harm in some respects." He indirectly tells us that most of his teachers have ruined his life. If Kafka could have teacher like Mrs. Thompson in this film, his life would be totally different.

         As a result, an inspirational teacher can make a difference to a student, providing guidance and support at a crucial moment in a young person's life. These films also remind me how important an educator can be in forming young minds. Sometimes the process is slow at times, some need more helps than others, each child is a work in progress, with assorted shapes and colours. So, I will try my very best to help Jason no matter how long it should take.

The secret of great relationship

            Yesterday, I watched a video titled "Boy slaps his brother with ipad" in my Facebook.  I really could not stop laughing when I first watched it. The first thing I said was "Wow, ipad also have another function!" But, when I watched the second time, I felt bad about it. Is this the right way to treat your brother when he did things that really annoying? Definitely NO.

            This video remind me of E.M. Foster's essay "What I Believe", he states,

"Tolerance, good temper and sympathy - they are what matter really, and if the human race is not to collapse they must come to the front before long." (75)

           I strongly agree with this statement. We have teach our student tolerance, good temper and sympathy in every day school life. But, what have happened to our children nowadays? Why they behaved like this? What were missing among them?

        According to a parenting consultant, Kenny Toh,  the secret ingredient that is vital to having great relationships is R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Yes, I strongly agree with him. These boys do not know how to respect each other. From this incident, I am going to let my students learn how to respect. As Kenny Toh said, just remember the first letter in ‘relationship’ … ‘R’ for R-E-S-P-E-C-T.  Put in another way, without mutual respect, relationship won't work. To respect another is to honor his or her dignity and choices. And when you genuinely respect a person, you will also avoid behaving in disrespectful manners such as criticizing, blaming, complaining, irritating, making fun of, shaming, threatening, and inflicting physical, psychological, or emotional harm.

Never give up!

         After reading the myth "Prymus and Thisbe", I think this myth is not suitable to teach to our children nowadays. This myth talks about forbidden love and how they actually suicide when they think they lost their loves one. In my opinion, this myth will give more bad impact for teenagers. They will think suicide is the best solution when they face relationship problem. Just like the previous year, our Malaysia's  teenagers were willing to suicide just because they failed in their relationship. As a result, I have found another myth which I think is more suitable for our students.

         "The Glass Knight" is a myth from Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is about a basilisk. The basilisk is about a foot in length, of colour between black and yellow, having very red eyes, a sharp head and a white spot hereon like a crown. It goes not winding like other serpents but upright on its breast. If a man touch it though with a long pole it kills him, and if it sees a man far off it destroys him with its looks. Furthermore, it breaks stones, blasts all plants with his breath, it burns everything it goes over, no herb can grow near the place of his abode. The story continues to say that the basilisk killed so many people and so many fled that the little market town had hardly anyone left in it. Then a wandering knight covers his armour in crystal glass. When the basilisk sees its reflection it dies instantly.

       When I came across this myth, I realized that we all face difficult challenges from time to time. Sometimes we may even feel a task is too hard, even impossible, for us to do. Like the knight in the myth was feeling just as hopeless when he faced the basilisk which was so powerful and could kill with a single glance. But, at last he still managed to kill the evil basilisk. I would definitely introduce this myth to my students in school. Throughout this myth, I would like them to know no matter how hard it is, we all can succeed in the future if we never give up trying. Some more, the wording in the text is not difficult for most of the year six students to understand. I like this myth very much. It creates mysterious atmosphere for the readers too. When I first read this myth, I kept on imagine how the basilisk looks like. Finally, I went online to search for it and learned that the word basilisk comes from the Greek word basileus, meaning king. So they thought of it as the king of snakes and the most poisonous creature on the earth.