those were the days......integrity, influence, impact..

There are so many things happening all at once that i myself am at a loss for words on what to blog. Hmmm.... while getting my thoughts together, let me share some concerns here.

This year (2006), i am rather involved with i-youth...my involvement however does not cover teaching, praise and worship, that kind of stuff.... i feel that i am rather attached to them. what i am trying to say is take for example, there are people who loves football thus the saying makan bola, tidur bola, markah pun bola... well, with the youth, i am kinda like that. i live basically for saturday. Weird? Dunno.....

There are a few youth that i literally "grow" with them . Been with them through their emotional turmoil, been with them at their struggles with life at home and in school. Looking back my time as a youth, i cannot recall there being so much turmoil, hardship, PRESSURES, etc among the young people back then. Our days are basically basic. All the bare neccesities of live; food, clothing and shelter. Piano, tuition are items of luxury, affordable only by the rich.

IMHO with regards to :

EDUCATION
phew talk about pressure! Sometime i wonder, where does all this pressure come from? From the world? World standard = excellence in academic performance?

From the school? Schools are churning out batches after batches of "brilliant" students to meet the standards of the world and are indirectly are competing among other schools. Why? Indirectly telling the society that they are a better school, so SEND YOUR CHILDREN HERE...we will help them get excellent results.???

From parents? I got so fed up with question like " which class is your child in?"...and the worst thing is when the answer is anywhere between 3rd class to last class, the probability of us seeing the parents again is zero...sheesh! In my time, education is viewed as a basic requirement at least until Form 5. As long as we can pass and get Grade A is a blessing already. But the youth nowadays are so pitiful (imho), so pressured to perform to excellence...to achieve straight As is not good enough, must strive to achieve straight A1s.

Another thing, with so many "brilliant students" available in the market, how could one stand a chance unless one is also at par in term of academic excellence and acheivement? Now wonder parents are pressured (face value, hehe) and to maintain that value, expectation is therefore placed upon their children to perform.

From the children, themselves?? i tried to Imagine being in the pressure chamber with all sides compressing on me....the world, the school, the family and friends and self....what to do but COMPELLED TO PERFORMED. No wonder we see lots and lots of individual with high IQ but no EQ

WE all place so much emphasis on education., 24/7 but how much time do we give to our spiritual education? Do we seek tuition on Bible knowledge or studies when we cannot understand? Do we seek to strive for excellence for the Lord in studying His Word? GMC theme for the year: Transformed by the Word of God. Have we as parents encourage our children to read the Bible? It is so sad to have parents coming to me and say that my child cannot come cos UPSR/exam is near and my child is at home/tuition bla bla bla.... how sad. Amazing isn't it when your child can memorised all the 36 amanah/nilai for moral but nil with rdgs to the scriptures from the Word of God.

Parents beware! Children look up to us as model in theirlives, live by examples, please, because values in life are caught not taught..beware of the seeds you plant in your children's heart. Good seeds : good fruits; bad seeds: bad fruits!

so dont blame it on the government, the society, the school... cos Education starts in your home.

( Part 1)

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.