1 January 2015

Happy New Year!  The cold but sunny weather put flavor for this winter. Any New Year resolution?  How about your resolution last year, how much have you achieved? Should you upgrade your resolution, so that this year your achievement will be stronger and more people will benefit from your effort?

The school achieved quite a lot, through concerted effort of teachers, students, and parents, in the past two decades. Like what I mentioned in the last message, that we must not wallow in our precious glory but move on to dare ourselves into doing something more challenging. We do not want to be complacent, doing the same thing year after year without mindful evaluation. The evaluation is only useful if we allow ourselves to see the niche, a small area which we have not perfected. When we did, with good plans, implementation, and evaluation, we would advance to the next level.

But I must not be long-winded, for I am sure you heard me say this many times already, with your school work, with your teenage life, and on how you should work hard and play hard.  On the one hand, I hope all students can grow up prepared, by taking all opportunities to learn and shine, so that each individual is properly equipped before s/he becomes a powerful workforce in society. On the other hand, I also want students to have a colorful childhood: have fun in all areas, make plenty of mistakes and learn from them. Spend an hour or two to idle every week, doing nothing. Seoul had its first Idling Competition in late October 2014, the champion is a 9-year-old girl.

From The Thinker (The Poet, 1904) to the Mindfulness Movement (1979), and the short “mindfulness” time before meetings at Google, Apple, Nike, etc, all promised proficiency and efficiency after a brief quiet “me” time. Now, it is your turn to idle briefly before contemplating on the wonders of the universe: your life.

Anson Yang