Applying the 7Rs to St. Francis Methodist School

Roots

I once counseled a student from a neighborhood secondary school. He came in, shoulders slumped with a really sad and frustrated disposition showing on his face. He seemed like he really needed to unload but wasn’t sure if he could trust me. I offered him a seat and a drink and told him that he could talk about anything when he was ready. He looked back at me, eyes welling with tears, and with a voice trembling with fear and anxiety, he said, “How can I trust anyone when I don’t know anyone?” I knew I had in my office a really hurt student who needed understanding.

Later on I discovered that he was a student who had been transferred from 2 previous schools, because his father was posted always being overseas.

He wasn’t rooted. Every time he wanted to acquaint himself with his surroundings, every time he wanted to build into a relationship, he was taken away. Like a sapling, he couldn’t grow into a tree because he was continually uprooted and transplanted. He was a teen, and in your teenage years, building trusting relationships was so important. His father just dismissed his frustration as teenage frivolity. I felt sad for this boy. He needed a friend. He needed to be rooted and allow the roots to dig in so that he could grow strong and bear fruit.

There are many students in SFMS who can identify with this boy. They have been uprooted from their comfort zones, their friends and their families and transplanted in Singapore soil. They don’t know the conditions that they are placed in. Some will be frightened, some disillusioned. Some may stay here for a year or two or even more. Some may be tempted to be uprooted again and go where their friends are, where pleasure is, where danger lurks. We as educators and staff have a vested responsibility in ensuring that their stay in Singapore allows them to draw healthy nutrients that will allow them to blossom and bloom where they are planted. How do we do that?

· Ensure that the plant is watered & fertilized. Ensure that we input into the lives of our students motivational, upright messages that will help them grow.

· Ensure that support is given to the weaker plants. We might need to prop these weaker students with strong support where necessary. A mentor, a reliable friend, positive resources are available to allow the student to ultimately stand strong once the support is removed.

· It may be necessary to prune the plant for more growth. Pruning may not sound as inviting as we see it, but it is necessary if a plant is to have more foliage or better blooms. Correction is something we need to administer in love for better development.

· Above all, talk to your plants! Communicate! Communicate! Communicate!

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: one is roots. The other is wings. Hodding Carter

Happy gardening!

Applying the 7Rs in St. Francis Methodist School

Respect

Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not. Nathaniel Hawthorne

Ask any teen what he desires these days and he or she would probably say to you, “unconditional love”. The standards of acceptance have been raised in today’s teen stakes. The need to be physically perfect, to be beautiful and thus desirable is what has captivated our teens today. Hollywood, the media have all jumped on the bandwagon to cash in on getting our teens looking more gorgeous than their peers. What teens need today is to understand that they should learn to respect themselves first.

Respect.

How do we put this into practice in SFMS? We have heard of the common adage that respect is earned, not given-we need to first model respect for each other first. We need to learn to accept our own differences, our own diversities before we can even get students to follow suit. SFMS is a unique school that has the opportunity to be a living lab that teaches respect. We need to emphasize:

Respect for opinions
Respect for customs
Respect for authority
And above all, respect for self

We need to teach it, to remind our students daily, to model it to them daily. It has to be a consistent ring in their ears for it to be remembered. Not a nag, but an understanding of the value of respect and the need for respect in today’s morally decadent world. It’s a great lesson to learn and teach.

6 simple rules...

I have 6 simple rules to guide me through this week...

.

To my enemy, forgiveness.

To my opponent, tolerance.

To my friend, my heart.

To every child, a good example.

To all, charity.

To myself, respect.

Applying the 7Rs in St. Francis Methodist School – Part 1

Rules

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. "Think Different " Advertisement, Apple Computers

The world loves Apple! I’m not a computer marvel, but I admire Steve Jobs and his team for their tenacity and daringness to take the path least traveled and prove themselves successful. Am I advocating anarchy, rebellion leading to chaos? I’m not. What I am advocating is a new perception of rules.

We often see rules as dampening our experience. Now let’s see rules as enhancing an experience. Rules shouldn’t be seen as encroaching on our freedom, but allowing us to experience that freedom, safely. Rules can bring about positive and lasting change, a change that enables a community to keep its focus in check, to keep its vision in sight.

How are we at St. Francis Methodist School approaching the rules? What should be our answer to students who want to contest the rules?

Rules are necessary. We need order to allow process to begin and subsequently results to show. Yet the order isn’t a control mechanism, but a guiding mechanism that allows the community in St. Francis Methodist School to succeed.

Rules develop a person and in turn develop a school. We need to remember that discipline is essential for growth. Remember that administrating discipline is actually telling a person ‘I care’. A lazy mind or a lethargic body isn’t going to provide an energetic result. We need to remind our students that discipline helps sharpen their minds and conditions them to be more productive in the end.

In the end, we need to provide to the students in our community a place that is safe and secure. Only then will the students be able to thrive.

Yet in administering the rules that we set, we need a collaborative approach. We need to make the students understand why the rules are placed where they are and allow them an opportunity to dialogue with us their concerns regarding the rules. Rules mustn’t belittle or undermine the rationality of our youth. We need to remember that having grown up in a counter-culture cul-de-sac, questioning authority isn’t necessarily defiance, but normality to them. Hence we need to be also sensitive to their culture and societal dynamics.

Remember this: Three rules of work:
(1) Out of clutter, find simplicity;
(2) From discord, find harmony;
(3) In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein

May there be a Rainbow in your Storm

Whenever I look through the newspapers, I am always struck by the heightened incidences of reporting crimes of passion, acts of desperation, acts of treason and other reports of gloom and grief.

It’s interesting that newspapers choose either to sensationalize or play down them as symptoms of a disconnected society. In fact, I reach for the newspapers each morning, expecting nothing really positive and good. When I see a compliment, I reread it, hoping that I didn’t misread it.

It’s frightening when we open the newspapers and expect gloom rather than bloom. We can’t eradicate sufferings, hardships and crimes; but the media has a choice to either continue to dampen the mood of its readers or begin to provide a more balanced perspective of world events.

The same applies to us as well.

When we open the pages of our lives, do we scrutinize for the really negative events or do we anticipate some good things happening in our lives? We cannot expect perfection; but we can look forward to the rainbow after the rains have come

As Christmas approaches, we remember that God opened up the pages of the World and saw that it needed a rainbow urgently. That’s what Christmas is all about-peace amidst the storms, light in the darkness, stillness in the cacophony of panic.

May that be yours to experience this Christmas.

Time of the year...

It’s the end of another year and it’s also that time of the year to plan ahead for the coming year.

It’s also a good time to do some soul care, as we spend some time reflecting on the year gone by, recharging our batteries and refocusing on how we can be sharper for the year ahead.

Soul care is important, if we want to be effective. In today’s face paced society, we must remember that speed isn’t everything- direction counts.

So as we do some soul care, here are some thoughts to meditate upon. I call it the 4D approach:

What were some of the issues that you faced in 2005 that drove you forward?

What were some of the issues in 2005 that distracted you?

How would you like to see your gifts and talents/teaching/job/personal life develop for 2006?

In what areas do you need to be more disciplined in for 2006?

Maybe you would like to jot them down somewhere and let them become markers for you to refer to as you do your soul care.

God Bless as you embark on this introspective journey!

No Holidays

It is not the first time when I have someone asking if I have to work during school holidays.

“You mean you have to work during school holidays?”
“Yah, of course… The school still operates during school holidays.”

Duhhh…

We are, as I have been emphasizing again and again, not a government school. We do not have the privilege of being provided with an impeccable system. We have to build the system ourselves – especially so during the school holidays.

The engine doesn’t stop during the school holidays. In fact, we have to work doubly hard during the school holidays. The whole school buzzes with life as teachers are cleaning up the classrooms, preparing the new curriculum, reviewing the files of their new students who have enrolled. The Corporate and General Office are busy planning upcoming events, strategizing the new direction of the school and preparing for the new school term to commence.

So the next time if someone asks me this question, I will have to reply,

“Oh yeah, sure. I work even doubly more during school holidays.”

St. Francis never rests. For when we do, we will stop delivering.