Soothing Words
It's OK, wyvern children. You may be suffering, but the nest is still secure. You are academically promising, and you are good at many other things. The only question is whether we are making you into better wyverns, as the Founder himself wanted, preparing you for all your life after school.
Are we spending too much money in pointless displays of glitz? Are we spending too much time in remedials when we should just have spent more time teaching you better? Or are we doing all this to assuage our own guilty consciences and insecurities? (Or worse, the guilty consciences and insecurities of your hapless parents?)
It's not that you haven't done good things for people, that you haven't accomplished great things in some areas. Rather, we should be focussing on your promise for the future, that you will continue to do great things, and that the things you do will be a consequence of, or will have been enabled by, the things you learnt in school.
In about nine months, your gestation will be complete. If this were a mission school, we would remind ourselves and you that the wise man (or scholar) should not boast of his wisdom, nor the mighty man (or officer) of his strength, nor the rich man (or gentleman) of his wealth — but that if any boasting has to be done, it should be about how well you know your God. We would send you out into the world with the exhortation to be shelters from the wind and refuges from the storm, like streams of water in the desert, like the shadow of a mighty rock within a burning land.
We would also show you the way you should go in this world, arming you with metaphorical swords, cloaks and purses for your travails. Based on what we have learnt of you as individuals, each with a unique confluence of gifts, experiences, interests and cultivated skills, we would help you seek the best places for furthering your ambitions and your learning. The goal here would be to place you well for your future service to God and man.
We wish you all the best that is yet to be. Our times are in His hand. Youth shows but half; trust God, see all nor be afraid.
Are we spending too much money in pointless displays of glitz? Are we spending too much time in remedials when we should just have spent more time teaching you better? Or are we doing all this to assuage our own guilty consciences and insecurities? (Or worse, the guilty consciences and insecurities of your hapless parents?)
It's not that you haven't done good things for people, that you haven't accomplished great things in some areas. Rather, we should be focussing on your promise for the future, that you will continue to do great things, and that the things you do will be a consequence of, or will have been enabled by, the things you learnt in school.
In about nine months, your gestation will be complete. If this were a mission school, we would remind ourselves and you that the wise man (or scholar) should not boast of his wisdom, nor the mighty man (or officer) of his strength, nor the rich man (or gentleman) of his wealth — but that if any boasting has to be done, it should be about how well you know your God. We would send you out into the world with the exhortation to be shelters from the wind and refuges from the storm, like streams of water in the desert, like the shadow of a mighty rock within a burning land.
We would also show you the way you should go in this world, arming you with metaphorical swords, cloaks and purses for your travails. Based on what we have learnt of you as individuals, each with a unique confluence of gifts, experiences, interests and cultivated skills, we would help you seek the best places for furthering your ambitions and your learning. The goal here would be to place you well for your future service to God and man.
We wish you all the best that is yet to be. Our times are in His hand. Youth shows but half; trust God, see all nor be afraid.
Labels: Education, Isaiah, Life, Odd Thoughts, School
etched with acid at 12:08:00 pm
6 Comments:
An odd time of the year to be posting this?
BL: True, but if you post it later, it will be too late. By that time, they'll all be swamped by the useless propaganda of the authoritarian regime.
A discomfortingly appropriate time to post this. Have you heard?
P0litik: heard what?
well let's just say a wyvern child will not get to see the other half
There've been a recent spate of vehicular casualties and suchlike. You must be referring to at least one of them. :(
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