What the children taught me
What the children taught me
Well as usual, due to all the piling readings and assignments (plus the fact that sis is out of town, and I have to handle all her shipping documents to the bank for her also ...) I haven't find the time to blog, and xiao-di has been complaining that he's seeing cob-webs here already ... haha, better start writing something otherwise everybody is going to stop visiting this blog =)
Anyway, went for a weekend trip to an island in X country - my Field Education Placement for this semester (got to make 4 trips in the entire semester) and although it was my second visit, but as usual, I'm amazed at the things the Lord could still teach me through all the activities. I've learnt a great deal from the kids on the island this time round. So, what have they taught me?
1) Eagerness to learn - I assisted Valerie in teaching English to the M kids, and because they were quite a big group, Joseph and Jack took the boys, and Valerie and myself took the girls. I'm simply amazed at the eagerness and excitement in wanting to learn, of course, the flip side of it is their impatience that shows up. Some of the girls are apparently very brilliant and they could immediately learn and absorb all that we are teaching them, so while we are getting each girl to take turns to read out the sentences, the brilliant and faster ones were already at the second sentence, or next page of the worksheet. I'm just so humbled by their eagerness to learn, which makes me think of how our kids here at home view learning as such a chore, and dreading the fact of having to wake up every morning, lamenting all the subjects they have to take, complaining about the teachers, grumbling about homework, exams, etc. While many of the M kids look forward to having English classes once every month when the team visits the island, our kids here dread every day that they have to attend school and receive education. What a mockery!
2) Decisiveness - during the night program for the kids, we had the "dog and bone" game. Of course, the kids love this kind of running around, catching one another's game. Interestingly, what I noticed about the way they played "dog and bone" is that once the kids decided that they are going to snatch the "bone", they will go all out for it, and without hestitation grabbing it and running away quickly, as compared to what many of us back home will do - standing there with our "opponent", reading them and trying to guess when they are going to move, getting ready to tap on them when they take the bone, etc - a lot of hesitation, and a lot of unwillingness to take risk. The kids taught me about being decisive once you've decided on doing something - go all out for it, or nothing at all.
We always think that the kids have much to learn from us, isn't it? But it's just amazing how much we can learn from them as well. Thank God for all these learning experiences!
Well as usual, due to all the piling readings and assignments (plus the fact that sis is out of town, and I have to handle all her shipping documents to the bank for her also ...) I haven't find the time to blog, and xiao-di has been complaining that he's seeing cob-webs here already ... haha, better start writing something otherwise everybody is going to stop visiting this blog =)
Anyway, went for a weekend trip to an island in X country - my Field Education Placement for this semester (got to make 4 trips in the entire semester) and although it was my second visit, but as usual, I'm amazed at the things the Lord could still teach me through all the activities. I've learnt a great deal from the kids on the island this time round. So, what have they taught me?
1) Eagerness to learn - I assisted Valerie in teaching English to the M kids, and because they were quite a big group, Joseph and Jack took the boys, and Valerie and myself took the girls. I'm simply amazed at the eagerness and excitement in wanting to learn, of course, the flip side of it is their impatience that shows up. Some of the girls are apparently very brilliant and they could immediately learn and absorb all that we are teaching them, so while we are getting each girl to take turns to read out the sentences, the brilliant and faster ones were already at the second sentence, or next page of the worksheet. I'm just so humbled by their eagerness to learn, which makes me think of how our kids here at home view learning as such a chore, and dreading the fact of having to wake up every morning, lamenting all the subjects they have to take, complaining about the teachers, grumbling about homework, exams, etc. While many of the M kids look forward to having English classes once every month when the team visits the island, our kids here dread every day that they have to attend school and receive education. What a mockery!
2) Decisiveness - during the night program for the kids, we had the "dog and bone" game. Of course, the kids love this kind of running around, catching one another's game. Interestingly, what I noticed about the way they played "dog and bone" is that once the kids decided that they are going to snatch the "bone", they will go all out for it, and without hestitation grabbing it and running away quickly, as compared to what many of us back home will do - standing there with our "opponent", reading them and trying to guess when they are going to move, getting ready to tap on them when they take the bone, etc - a lot of hesitation, and a lot of unwillingness to take risk. The kids taught me about being decisive once you've decided on doing something - go all out for it, or nothing at all.
We always think that the kids have much to learn from us, isn't it? But it's just amazing how much we can learn from them as well. Thank God for all these learning experiences!
Comments