"(S)he is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaves do not wither. Whatever s(he) does prospers." (Psalm 1:3)
This morning I looked, really looked, at the bottles and jars of lotions and creams on the shelf in my cupboard. And smiled to see how all of them had one thing in common - they were all labelled "firming" or "anti-wrinkle" or "anti-aging" and my favourite, "age defying"!
Unfortunately, my body does not seem to have heard the message. Since church camp I have been more aware of the truth that I am growing older. Perhaps it was sharing a room with young C; perhaps it was the ache in my knee that doesn't go away and limited me from some activities; perhaps it was Rod's reminder that we are "jars of clay".
But since church camp, I have been thinking (among all the other thoughts) that I need to shift gears, change the lens I view the world through.
A few months agoIwrote about my anxiety over my ministry with the young adults in church. Wondering what on earth I was doing, turning up on Wednesday nights, but not really achieving anything.
But after listening to Rod at the Leadership Seminar on Sat and during the church camp, I learnt two important lessons - church and ministry are not about meeting my needs and service isn't about counting.
I realise I have been hung up on the idea of leaving a legacy and living a life that counts. I think I had, have, a sense of my own mortality. Especially as it becomes more difficult for me to walk quickly or to carry a baby for as long as I used to be able to, I feel older. And every time I feel that, I have an urgent desire to squeeze more into my days, to learn, to try something new, to make my life count. When I was teaching, I had a sense of satisfaction almost every day. I knew I had made sense of something difficult for my students, I had comforted, I had challenged. But since I left school, work doesn't give me the same sense of satisfaction. Leaving teaching coincided with the season when my daughters left to go abroad and suddenly, there was no one left to nurture - no students and no children.
That's why I decided to serve with the young adults in my church in 2006. It's been 6 years now and I have been thinking over and over again - what have I achieved? Who have I touched? And I kept drawing a blank. To be honest, I did start looking for new areas to serve in. Together with 2 colleagues from work I have set the ball rolling to volunteer with the Singapore Children's Society. I figured I would go where there was a need.
But God has shown me through Rod and C, my room-mate, that ministry is not about 'doing' but 'being'. That service isn't about meeting my needs, but about me meeting the needs of the church. That service isn't about numbers - not how many young adults I have mentored - but about faithfully turning up and letting God make His Divine Appointments.
So, my daughters, I have a new lens for the years ahead. When I am discouraged again, I will remember Ps 71:18
"So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
Today I was remined of the many Valentine's Days I had put up with as a teacher and I must say the memories make me smile :)
When I was teaching in ACJC, V Days were a frenzy of activity. The Students' Council had its major fund raising drive then and used to collect orders for roses which the Councillors would buy from wholesale suppliers and then re-sell to the students at a hiked up price. January and the weeks preceding the 14th of Feb were marked by a frenzy to meet someone - preferably during Orientation - so that come V Day, there would be a Someone to court and be courted by!
School was a bedlam on 14 Feb and only the most morose and fiercest of teachers could claim to have conducted a lesson successfully. I coped by having the same lesson I conducted every 14 Feb if I had a Lit class - a critique of what were the best love poems of English. Some years it worked; some years the kids groaned and begged me to let them off.
Then there would be the shy knocks on the door with the plea "Madam, may I see..." and the class would erupt with wolf whistles and oohs and ahhhs. Stalks and bouquets (depending on the finances of the suitor) would lie casually on desks and balloons with hearts would float lazily. My best times were when suitors came bearing chocolate boxes because I would then let them in only if the object of desire agreed to share the chocolates with me :)
Jurong Institute was a complete contrast. I was taken by surprise my first year there because I had readied myself for the insanity of puppy love only to discover that I seemed to have landed on a planet where the 14th of Feb was just the day that came between the 13th and the 15th. Well, this V-Day ennui didn't last very long and by the time I left JI, the madness had descended there too, but in 1992, it was a different story. Yes, there were couples, but unlike ACJC where most kids who came in the first 3 months stayed long enough to start dating, most of those who came to JI in Jan couldn't wait to leave after they received their 'O' level results, so Orientation held no promise for them and V Day was meant to be spent outside school as fast as their legs could sprint. I must say I missed the madness of Valentine's in JI.
And now, the day matters even less. Restaurants have expensive menus, movie tickets are sold out, florists claim to make 60% of their annual takings on this day alone and the mass media are doing their part to make everyone wish they were in love :) I am amused. I remember I used to scold my students for hanging around my classroom waiting for their special person, for the extravagance of their gifts and (when I'm feeling really mean) the grammatical errors in their love notes :) Yes I was a meanie :) Looking back, I think, maybe I should have been nicer, more indulgent, for after all, it was just for one day ... Happy Valentine's Day and may you feel loved today and every day of your life :)
My sister and I were talking on the phone today - I don't go visit her as often as I should - and she was reminiscing about her career as a teacher. We both agreed that the best part of teaching really was when old students remember you fondly. It is that which makes you feel your work has been worthwhile, that it is more than a paycheck.
Some of my students have stuck. They talk to me about their dates, their marriage plans, their children... And it is a privilege to continue to be part of their lives. Last week, a bunch of students I taught in 1996/7 met for dinner, got to reminiscing and my name came up. And they called me to give me two hours' notice before they turned up at my doorstep at 10pm with chocolate ice cream, a wife and a toddler and hearts full of memories. An evening like that makes me feel I am blessed.
Increasingly, however, I have been feeling a sense of dis-ease at the number of young teachers who leave the profession. It is a tricky situation for me as many of these teachers leave for what should be considered a noble purpose - to serve as missionaries in far flung countries. Yet, every time one more young person says he / she is resigning, I am disappointed. The question that screams in my head is - "Who will stay?"
What is it that appeals about teaching English / Maths / IT skills in a remote Asian village with the chance to share the gospel ? That those children might not hear the gospel? Neither will many children in our schools. That the government in these countries forbids proselytising and therefore the endeavour seems exciting and dangerous? That's not very different from the local situation. What would working in these rural areas for 5 months achieve that teaching day after day, connecting and getting to know one's students cannot?
I wonder how much of the desires of these young people is for escape from the mundane rather than a call to the wild. The poor are here in Singapore too. The ones who struggle to read and count are here too. The ones from broken homes are here too. Wouldn't the chances of the gospel being understood higher where the children speak the language, are able to read the bible and ask questions? Yet, young teacher after teacher wants to go to China or Tibet or Timore Leste or Laos or Africa to teach children who are struggling with the alphabet while children who can read are left safe in their comfortable Singapore homes with other teachers who have no interest in their souls.
The young teachers tell me they hear a call to go. I pray and wonder - doesn't anyone hear the call to stay?
I was reading a post by a young friend on Facebook, and I recognised a familiar angst, frustration. Unlike the legendary 7-year itch, many young teachers feel a 5-year itch. It is a point at which you have learnt enough of the craft and content to be comfortable in the classroom; but it is also the point at which you would have had time to assess your successes and be in a position to evaluate the impact of your work. Many young teachers feel a lack at this point: what have I really achieved? Does my work matter? What have my students really learnt? Surely there is more to life than this?
Having walked this path, it is a crossroad I recognise. In a way, the Ministry of Education also recognises this and there are processes in place to ensure that those who are more able are offered job rotations or promotions round about their 4th year of teaching, to keep them learning and not stagnate.
But there are sometimes many who don't get such an opportunity to grow, or choose not to take the path, and instead contemplate leaving the profession altogether. I am very aware that each person is called to walk a different path, but it saddens me when effective, caring Christian teachers leave. Because I ask, who then do you leave the children to? Who will take your place?
It is sad that the more effective and caring a teacher is, the more quickly he / she gets burnt out. And if the caring teachers who are willing to go the extra mile, and the next mile, and the next mile, leave, then the ones left in our schools might well be the ones for whom teaching is just a Mon to Fri job that ensures a paycheck.
So, my young friend, yes, there are injustices in the world. But as Jesus said, you will always have the poor with you. Will you always have that opportunity to have these students in your class for you to model Jesus to? The injustices of the world were there before you became a teacher and they will be there after you retire. But how long will you have that 14 year old in your classroom, maybe thinking about the latest gadget and wishing your lesson will end, yes, but still, in your classroom. Looking at your face, feeling your hand on his shoulder, listening to your words and experiencing the presence of Christ in you in a far deeper way than you will now realise.
So I say to you, don't give up. Remember Abraham. Remember God says "he was but one, when I called him, that I might call him and bless him" (Isa 51:2).
You and I are "but one". But the same God who saved the nations through the obedience of one, will multiply your efforts. The same God who sent his One and Only to save generations, can and will bless your students therough you. You will never know till you see His face, how he has used the faithfulness of "one".
I shared at CYAN for the first time last Wednesday. Preparing for it took a long time and I learnt what it meant to wait on the Lord. For dear Emmaline, who asked for it, here is my 'mini sermon' :) To those of my readers who don't understand 'Singlish', ie the Singapore-brand of English, I apologize...
Choose
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I used to teach in a school called Jurong Institute that was located in Toh Tuck Road. It was an old building but it occupied quite a big area.
There were two gates by which you could enter the school (not counting the hole in the fence that was used by those who came to school late and left early). One was the main gate – it was wide to allow cars to drive in. The other was narrow and meant for pedestrians. It was a school policy, which only the Principal and Heads of Department seemed to know about, that the narrow gate would be for the students to walk through so that they would be out of harm’s way and not dash across the path of cars turning in to the school.
But every morning, guess which gate the students insisted on walking through? Of course, the wide one.
They would saunter in, in twos and threes, chatting, or listening to their mp3 players totally oblivious to the teachers and parents who were trying to drive in through the same gate. Things would get really exciting 5 minutes before the school bell rang because both the students who were late and the teachers who were late would be rushing in through the wide gate. There were many near misses. Mercifully, there was only one accident.
Every time I saw this drama at the school gate I wished I could yell at the students "Come in through the narrow gate!” Maybe that is what God is yelling at us too. Maybe He too is shaking his head seeing us sauntering through the wide gate that leads to death. For in Matthew 7: 13-14, Jesus says,
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.”
Let us consider the verse. There are three points to consider: (1) the size of the gate, (2) the number of people who enter, and (3) the end of the path.
John MacArthur points out that “Jesus presents two choices and only two - two gates, the Narrow and the Wide; two ways, the Narrow and the Broad; two groups, the Few and the Many; and two destinations, Life and Destruction”. Ultimately there are only two choices – to follow Jesus or not.
Many people today find such a stark choice unacceptable. The idea of “and” is more attractive than the idea of “or”. So we hear statements such as “the world is not black & white” or “that may be right for you, but not necessarily right for me”; we hear terms such as “situational ethics” and “relative truths”.
But if we come back to the Scriptures, that is all God presents us with – the narrow way or the broad way; the way to life or the way to destruction.
The narrow gate sounds difficult; it sounds as if it would be a struggle to enter through it and indeed in Luke 13, Jesus says “Strive (make every effort) to enter through the narrow door”. The narrow way seems lonely, there are few people who enter by it. In contrast, the wide gate is open, welcoming. It is where the crowds are and it sounds so much easier to get in. People walk in the broad way easily, without much thought, carried along with the company. The narrow way is not popular, it is often solitary. And maybe those who saunter casually and easily through the wide gate laugh at those foolish ones who are filing in through the narrow door on to the narrow way....
But Jesus says wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction. He says just because you see many people walking that road you must not be seduced by it. No matter how attractive other ways look, they will lead us to death. Perhaps not physical death (as my dear students were in danger of) but as LT said, spiritual death, intellectual death, emotional death. And Jesus tells us to choose.
Let us come back to my story of my students.Why did the students use the wide gate? Why didn’t they walk a little more and come through the narrow gate? Their reasons were simple.
“Cher, so lecheh-lah cher…”
The students I caught were incredulous that I could not see how much more convenient the wide gate was. The answer was so obvious to them. It was the first entrance as they walked up the hill and it was wide open. Sure, the cars had to dodge them, but that wasn’t a big deal, surely?
The size of the gate makes walking through it easy and sometimes we do just that, because doing something the right way sometimes requires making an extra effort. And I think of Daniel. How much easier it would have been to eat the food provided for him. He could have reasoned to himself, I am an exile in a foreign land, how am I going to find the food I need. I am under the rule of the king, how am I going to go against his authority. Many times I too have reasoned my way into sin. Sometimes the wrong way just seems more convenient and obvious.
But Daniel chose the narrow way. He negotiated, he found creative solutions because He was focused on pleasing God. I am sure it was so lecheh for him, to eat nothing but vegetables. Maybe the person who prepared the separate meals for Daniel and his friends grumbled at how lecheh they were.
Settling for a way that does not honour God because it is inconvenient is a slippery slope, my friends. Yes, it might mean taking a longer route, yes, there will be some inconvenience, and yes you might feel foolish. But only the narrow gate and the narrow way lead to Jesus and we will do well to remember the warning - “There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death.” (Prov 14:12)
The second reason my students would give me is this...
“Cher, other people also...”
With teenagers (and those who haven’t matured beyond their adolescence), ‘because everyone else was doing it’ was reason enough. Many of them would wait at the bus-stop for each other or would travel to school together and so would walk in through the wide gate, busy talking and laughing, sharing ear-phones... The thought of stopping each other and reminding each other to go through the narrow gate never ever occurred to them.
Sometimes, we too get carried away by the choices and decisions of others. It is easy to follow the crowd. Two years ago, I did just that. At my workplace, we had a team leaders’ meeting at the end of the year when work allocations for the following year were usually announced. Half way through the meeting I left to go to the toilet. When I opened the door to enter the room again, every single team leader in the room turned to look at me. I was taken aback. Clearly something had been said but I didn’t know what. Within minutes 4 notes were passed to me, asking me to look at the work allocation more closely. Then it dawned on me. An unpopular colleague had been placed in my team the following year! There was a great deal of animosity against him in the office and the general talk was that he did not do the work assigned to him, drew attention to what he did do, and made himself look good in front of the bosses. This colleague was also very assertive and usually got his way.
Egged on by my friends, I did a very foolish and unprofessional thing. I spoke up at the meeting and refused to take the colleague into my team. I went so far as to give my boss an ultimatum. I said either take him out of my team or make him the team leader because I refused to work with him. I put my boss on a spot, I misused my seniority, I played a power game. It was easy to walk through the wide gate. Because I had the support of all my friends.
But God gave me no peace. During my QT the same night, He confronted me. And I accepted that I had shamed my God by the way I had behaved. God convicted me of not only behaving badly, but also of being a bad example to the other Christians in my office. The next morning I had to eat humble pie. I spoke to my boss, I apologized. I also apologized to my Christian friends. My other friends were too busy shaking their heads at me to care! But I knew I had walked through the wide gate because of the support of the many.
The persuasion of friends is a dangerous thing. Once when I hesitated, my friend asked me impatiently “Do you always do only what is right?” and I thought to myself “No I don’t” and sinned. Thinking back, I ask myself how I could have been so foolish, but at that moment it seemed as if I had committed so many sins already that one more didn’t matter. I sinned because I wanted to please my friend and I wanted his approval.
The wide gate is very accommodating of company, my friends. Many walk through it. But a popular choice is not necessarily a right choice. And in the laughter of company we will miss the still, small voice of God.
“Cher, never think so much lah…”
This was the third reason my students offered me. They walked through the wide gate because they didn’t think about consequences and alternatives. Walking through the wide gate was just thoughtlessness. They were focused on getting to the assembly area before the bell rang. They did not think there would be drivers rushing in as well, they didn’t think there was another safer way. Some of these students did not deliberately set out to do wrong. They just did not think about their actions and the choice they were making.
Sometimes, we slide into sin in the same way – through carelessness, negligence, because we were not watchful. Sometimes this complacency sets in when we are too comfortable with God’s grace and love. Sometimes, we let our guard down because we are riding high – all is well with our world, we are busy doing God’s work and we think to ourselves “Lord, I could never leave You, I could never do what so-and-so did.”
Friends beware if that thought ever comes to your mind. If you hear or see someone fall and say to yourself “I don’t understand how such a committed Christian like him could do that” or “I would never do that”, you are in danger. Because everyone of us is capable of every sin given the wrong circumstance, place or time. Satan is an expert fisherman and he knows exactly which bait will catch which fish.
We must not live unexamined lives. The Psalmist cries out “Search me o God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Ps 139:23-24). A thoughtless life leads us in the way of destruction. It is a life of moral short-cuts and ultimately a path away from God.
In the end, my friends, it is a matter choice – narrow or wide, in the company of a trusted few or the merriment of many, towards destruction or towards life. But it is an important choice and one that we make every day with our thoughts, words and actions.
Today I speak to you, as someone who has not always stayed on the narrow path, someone who has walked through those wide gates, who has enjoyed the thoughtless company of people headed for destruction. I have turned back only by the grace of God. I want to encourage you, don’t live the convenient, easy, popular, thoughtless life. CHOOSE to enter by the narrow gate, choose the path of isolation if need be and you will choose life. For, my friends, the promise of God is this – “If the Lord delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” (Ps 37:23-24)
Just got back today from church retreat in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. It was a 3D2N retreat for the young adults in my church and I went along as this is where I serve in church. I love worshipping and praying with young adults. They have a zest, passion and freshness for God that energises me :)
We had a fantastic speaker for this retreat - Mr L.T. Jeyachandran - whom everyone calls "LT". LT's speciality is Apologetics and we all came away challenged by his deep knowledge of the Word as well his insightful explanation of how we need to latch our own narratives onto God's meta-narrative. I was especially stirred by the picture he painted of the uniqueness of man as the only one created in the image of God and how the sin I commit mars the dignity of my unique human condition.
It was a good weekend away. Amazingly, there were no traffic jams on the causeway at all, both on Thurs and on Sat. The hotel was also a pleasant one and I had far too much to eat :) But I enjoyed the time away, and the opportunity to catch up with the young adults in other cells whom I normally don't have time to talk to during CYAN cell nights.
Wow I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since my last tantalising post :) But I have been busy indeed!LArgely, my time these past 2 weeks has been taken up preparing for a workshop that I ran in Medan, Indonesia.
It was a GREAT experience! Although it took up a lot of preparatory time, it was worth it because I really feel I shared my love for teaching with an enthusiastic bunch of teachers. I must say the teachers at the Singapore International School (SIS) are committed and really love their students. Would you believe they don't have discipline problems? I was especially touched by the school's decision to allow the students to paint murals on the new school walls! I can't imagine any Singaporean Principal trusting their students with that. If we did, we would make sure that it was our best students who did this project! But that was not the case with SIS. The quality of the murals varied a great deal and some murals were 'not quite there'. But all these students were given a chance to decorate the school and I think it sent a really affirming message to these kids. I can only imagine what a great sense of ownership these students would have for their school!
I left work early today with Dot & Chitra to join a 3.5 km walk organised in conjunction with the official opening of the Civil Service Club in Bukit Batok. It was a nice gesture by the PMO to release those who wanted to walk - part of the overall thrust towards getting the civil servants to be healthy & maintain a healthy work-life balance I suppose.
Anyway, we got to talking during the walk about the most recent incident of a lawyer who seemed to have become so enamoured with alternative religious interpretations that he was prepared to throw away his career to join freedom fighters. What was interesting (and worrying) about it is that he does not fit the usual profile (or what we have come to think is the usual profile) of disenchanted, marginalised or poor young people who get enticed by the call of movements that promise liberation or a better life. Instead, this is a young man who has enjoyed the best that modern socity could offer - educated in premier schools, a skilled debator & orator, a lawyer in one of the top law firms here. Every thing we know about him screams that he must be an extremely intelligent young man well-versed in reasoning. Not some impressionable, passionate adolescent shaking his fist at an unjust world. What could have caused him to choose the path he did?
That got me thinking, of what religion had to offer the young minds of today? More specifically, what does Christianity have to offer the young people today? The young today are more widely read, have access to information, fads, lifestyles that were unimaginable during their parents' times. And the more intelligent they become, the more they question. The more they demand. And this is not necessarily bad. In fact as an educator, I am proud that many of our young minds today think far more deeply and engage in far more rigorous debates than I did when I was their age. And that is as it should be. We have encouraged precisely these habits of mind, this desire to inquire and we should not seek to quench it now.
What we do need to watch for is when young Christians seek and do not find answers in our churches. The Bible is clear on this - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' (Mark 12:28-30) God created us as reasoning beings and He challenges us to use it to understand Him and love Him. And this was the first attraction of Christianity for me - that there was intellectual satisfaction in engaging with the Bible. I first read the Book as a literary work and tutored a class in NUS on Comparative Literature, dealing with the themes and imagery of books in the Bible. I just loved the way the analysis hung together. And even now I get a lot of satisfaction in studying the Word, asking questions, attending workshops, listening to sermons - there is just such a wealth of wisdom in the Book and it has taken many men a lifetime of work just to analyse it.
So the young people who question and thirst to know more must be encouraged, challenged to go deeper, encouraged to question & answered - within our churches. That is vital. Because if the young cannot find answers to their intellectual curiousity within the Church, there are many other alternative ideas waiting within their reach to fill this intellectual void. That, to me, is a big challenge today. We need to have thinkers, philosophers, scientists, social historians who have tasted and tested the Lord and know He is good and faithful and immeasureably able to stand any scrutiny, stand on any witness stand - the unshakeable Rock.
Attending a talk by LT Jeyachandran of the Ravi Zacharias Ministry last week, I felt awed to be in the presence of such a brilliant mind. I felt challenged to re-examine what I believe, why I believe and who I believe. I think that is a crucial journey any Christian must make - especially the young. I was touched by LT's humility and I know such humility can only be seen in such an intelligent man when he has walked with God and seen His hand in his life.And after my discussion today, I feel really thankful that God has raised such thinkers for kingdom work. And I pray that we will be ready to respond with compassion, humility and a razor sharp mind to the young inquirers in our churches. Lest we lose them.
Amos has been on my mind since I talked about him on Monday. Got a ride back from Changi from Joshua and happened to ask him whether he had ever visited the Changi Chapel. And that led to how I had gone there and of course it was because of Amos.
It's been so many years.But still whenever Amos comes to mind, I feel a sadness that lingers. A sense of deep loss. He wasn't outstanding as a student, but he taught me how to make peace with death.
What made me write to him when I saw in the papers that he was sentenced to death for drug possession? I don't really know. I think it was the memory of his smiling face, the way he shushed the class so I could teach. He was such a big help to me in my rookie year in JI when I was struggling to make the transition from teaching in a junior college to teaching in a centralised institute.Would I have ever succeeded in conducting a proper lesson if not for him? I don't know. It was also because of the memory of him standing with all the basketball boys, getting scolded for something he did not do, but getting scolded anyway because he had to stand by his friends.And then smiling at me to show he had no hard feelings.
That was the Amos I remembered and that was the Amos he was to me until the end. I used to wait for his letter so anxiously because I never knew when he would stop writing. And the most precious letter of all was the one where he wrote to say he had accepted Christ. He subsequently decided to be baptised a Catholic but it is enough to know that he found God. My final visit to Changi to see him, the funeral, his sister's visit to give me back my letters and the book he left me - all sepia memories now.
But yes, he taught me how to die. He taught me that when you have made peace with God, you can let go with dignity. He taught me that family and friends matter. And he taught me that no matter what choices a human being makes, you shouldn't give up on him.
Young people have been on my heart this week. And I’ve been praying that the decisions we make that affect them will really be for their betterment and not for ours. What set me off has been the articles I have been reading on Interactive & Digital Media. The buzz here at work has to do with how IDM is the next big thing – or as my more savvy colleagues would say, the big thing that is happening while other dinosaurs like me are sleeping…
So why does it worry me? Because if it is true that more than half our children are plugged into the world of gaming and that the way they learn is very different from the way the adults do, then I worry about its implications; not on economics, which is where all the attention seems to be, but on human relationships. I wonder what would be the effect on the youngster who is no longer watching violence on TV or the movies but actually participating in wreaking destruction as a player? I remember how Owen’s War Poems didn’t touch some of my students - because they had seen worse on TV or the movies. Words on a page did not move them for they had seen worse graphic images. But now, the young are no longer passive viewers, but perpetrators, the ones doing the virtual killing and maiming and being rewarded for it. What kind of emotional distancing would result from this?
And the thrill of young people being able to multi-task at what is called ‘twitch speed’ (personally speaking that sounds rather epileptic J). What of it? What impact would that have, if we cater to it in the classroom? Would the young then come to expect that the classroom must offer them multi-sensory experiences? That any experience that does not give them an answer or response immediately would be abandoned while they go in search of another? Then what of the value of ‘delayed gratification’ that Goleman was talking of? And what about the ones who are slow to talk? Would anyone have patience to listen? What about the value of reflection? The pleasure that comes out of teasing meaning out of the written word?
I feel I am on the cusp of the passing away of a way of life and the beginning of another. I wonder if all soon-to-be-50s feel this. Perhaps I am an alarmist. But I worry for the young who would be swept away by the speed, for the young who would not feel the pleasure of being immersed in a book, the solitude of being with one’s own thoughts, the ease of relationships built out of long hours of conversations. Yes, they will be having virtual conversations with young people all over the world but what will they learn that would make this person a friend? Yes, they will be quick-minded and analytical but will they know themselves better? Buying land on Second Life is fine; but we need to teach our young people to live this life well first.
