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Welcome to Parables II Page
EXAMINATIONS BLUES … Some of my students would get nervous and stressed out during examination times. The usually jovial and confident students would be overwhelmed by worries about not enough preparation and failure. I found it a pity that such thoughts should distract them … because in my heart, they were an intelligent lot, capable of passing the papers with flying colours. I wanted to tell them that they should not let those worries affect them and they should believe in themselves … Height vs Capability … I began by walking along a straight line on the floor (about the width of a human's foot). I told the class that I'm CAPABLE of walking along a straight line just like they were CAPABLE of passing the examinations. I would always be able to do that unless something distracted me.Suddenly, I stepped on top of the teacher's table and told the class to imagine that I was standing on the same straight line with a HEIGHT that was much greater than the table's (eg. a 1000 m height platform).Then I asked the class," … am I still able to perform the task of walking along the straight line like I used to?" Their answer was a straight "NO!". Why? Because of the " HEIGHT".I seized the opportunity to tell them that they were capable of passing their examinations, it was just that they were overwhelmed by the " HEIGHTs" that they were standing on … Some of the heights may be:
With or without those HEIGHTS, they were still CAPABLE! They were much happier after that …
A TREE FULL OF APPLES … A NPCC senior member approached me one day and said that she had difficulties caring for all the members of the junior squad. I told her that if she found it tough to handle ALL the members, she should focus on a few individuals to be more effective. I used an illustration of a tree full of apples. A person could not possibly finish all the apples at one go. If he should harvest all the apples and store them up for the future, some would turn bad. The best way was to pluck the number of apples one was capable of eating and then go for more when he had finished. The senior was trying to care for ALL the members (which was good of her). She did not realise by being focused, she could actually "do more by doing less".
YOUNG WARRING LIVES … Young people quarrel among themselves. What some do not realise is that these quarrels are parts and parcels of their friendship. In fact, they help to make the friendship stronger. I like to use the good old story of two porcupines in a winter time to help them understand … A Tale of Two Porcupines Friends … Two porcupines were living in winter. They hugged each other to keep warm. However, the spines poked them and feeling the pain, they stopped hugging. Soon, the winter cold bit into their fresh and they had to start hugging again. That process went on and on until the winter season passed. I use the story to illustrate that conflict is a necessity in friendship. If they were confronted in a mature manner, benefits would be reaped in the end.
Well, dear friends, that was PART II of PARABLES at the request of Yong Tian. While doing all these, I want to be careful not to be like a hunter showing off all his prized catches. After all, these stories would not be possible if it was not for God my Lord. I promise to come up with PARABLES III when time permits. The purpose of doing that is to encourage, to teach and to learn. Just one more before we go … CONFRONTING A FLIGHT OF STAIRS … Some students get panicky when they are faced with a lot of tasks to be completed almost at the same time. I often ask them," How do you climb up a flight of Stairs?" "How?" they will ask. … " By climbing one step at a time."
Thanks for taking time to read this page!
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