On teaching and education

Recording down what i was saying to a mother cum teacher on the frustration about the education system and the working environment in a FB group:

Dear xxxxx,
I have been teaching till end of last year. Prior to teaching, I was in the electronic industry.
Never think of leaving a profession just because we think we don't like it. I can understand your frustration. Meeting up with positive and energetic friends are important. Stay away from friends who keep on complaining. Sometimes pouring out our grouses among colleagues can be quite damaging to ourselves.
I am available to talk over the phone too....am just another kepo being.

 I think there are basically 2 objectives of education,
 1.to impart knowledge 教书,
 2. to educate a being教人. 

At any time, when obj #1 is unachieveable, then we have to focus on obj #2.

Very often when the school work starts to trigger a teacher, it is also got to do with our internal family issues. How have you been coping with your family life lately? I hope i am not offending your privacy.

Once a great master who taught Heart Sutra told me, dont get fantasied by the idea that there has been 'the good old days'. It has never been.
Looking at the students who opt for expensive private schools, are we really sure that they are getting the best education system? Are we not seeing a lot of spoilt brats spending lavishly on parents money?
The best moment is the present moment. The best education comes from within our own minds. Just my personal opinion.

There are also some 'so-so' teachers whom by the standard of many parents may not to be up to their expectations. These are the lots that really really need your encouragement. Not everyone landed in teaching profession due to their passion in educating.

But putting the same belief system that everyone needs more love and care, we as parents can always do this: 信己无私 信人有爱(To trust that we have selflessness in ourselves , to believe that everyone has love in his or her heart.). I have seen many school teachers whom after attending Tzu Chi teacher training class, turned into more compassionate teachers.

Many years ago, i wrote this letter to my girl class teacher. She may not appear to be a 'loving' teacher, but i really appreciate her great effort in keeping the class in a harmony mode. She may not be that 'hardworking', but in her own ways, she lets students have their own pace of learning. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1874751261081&set=pb.1010163626.-2207520000.1382054125.&type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Ffbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net%2Fhphotos-ak-ash4%2F208568_1874751261081_1593175_n.jpg&size=600%2C405

I stopped teaching in school, but i have continued my education journey in one way or another, in a more social mode.

Dear XXX, always remember that once a teacher, always a teacher.

You will get the joy of seeing students growing. Over the years, i cried many times seeing students achieving their dreams.

One of my ex students wrote this, "is not about how much u did to help me.. but to me is a teacher who didn't give up on me such a problematic student. in fact this changed my life. still telling many of my friends without the 2 teachers u n peter tan, i will not be who i am today. would definitely happy to meet u up soon!". All the hard work do pay.

When I was teaching this boy, I was pregnant with my 1st girl, I had a hard time with the fussy HM, I was teaching the first batch of Form 6 class, etc. But today i think i am blessed that i have someone else who are equally loving to cultivate and love my daughters. It was this thought "「以媽媽的心來愛別人的孩子，以菩薩的智慧愛自己的孩子。」"( Love other ppl children with a mother's heart, love your own children with a Bodhissatva's wisdom) that helped me to go through the process.

May all teachers and parents be cherished with peace and love.

YYY responded by saying "I wish you all; good; caring teachers will be in my boys school."
I replied, "no, i think this works. You will have to send out the loving thoughts and loving actions, then only you get loving teachers. i.e. you have got to cultivate it."

ZZZZ rebutted, "But my concern is not so much on students, but the entire "ecology" education system, the whole teaching quality, the system, and when the old retires..Do u really want me to write here? It's almost all parent's frustration."
My replied is, "I think every generation has it's own set of challenge. During our time, financial stability was an issue. Going for music classes has never been such an in thing, but we seldom heard of old folks not having the thinking ability due to lack of MQ, and some more old mothers who didnt go to school can sing lullaby well enough.
We may view that we have overcome this financial stability issue since everyone own a house(no need to rent like those days), but are we really off the issues of finance? Nope. Coz these days we have kids who often felt dissastifaction over what they had in life, from better/branded mechanical pencils to whether able to go for overseas trip in school holidays or not. And I always have a tester: any kids who dont complain and find joy in my old kancil which has poor air cond ventilation will definitely be a more complete human. So the fundamental issue is still back to : OURSELVES, OUR MINDS."

High respected Mdm Teoh Poh Yew too responded, "we are facing crisis in our education system now. Now tell ourselves that we are going to take this opportunity to demonstrate to our children how we overcome this crisis wisely."

Liquor free tiramisu cake

For the Syrup: 
1 large coffee mug hot water (not boiling!)
1 tb sp milk 1 tb sp Nescafe
1 pack of Kopi O
1 tb sp sugar ( I omited this since the instant coffee has already contained sugar).

 For the Creme Filling: 
3 tb sp plain flour
1/2 lt milk
2 egg yolks (get rid of the whites!)
1/2 cup sugar
1 pk mascarpone cheese (250 gr)

 For the Base: 1 pk shortbread sponge finger type biscuits (i choose to use the traditional type of biscuits for eating with coffee coz it's cheaper and can be eaten alone if i have any leftover). It looks something like this.

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Get ready the deep dish tray to prepare your tiramisu. Get one extra plate to prepare 2nd layer biscuit. Lay the biscuits flat. Place the base layer in the tray, and the top/second layer on the extra plate. Mix the syrup ingredients in the mug.
1. With a spoon, pour the mixed syrup over the biscuits. Make sure they are moistened well, but you need to be careful not to over do it. :) Remember that you need to pick up each piece and lay it over the base later, so moist enough that the syrup has seeped through the entire biscuit, but not so moist that it melts away. :)) You will know what I mean when you are doing it. It's a very easy recipe! So all biscuits on both plates need to be moistened


2. Now, get a pot and chuck in all the ingredients for the creme filling EXCEPT for the Mascarpone cheese I prefer to mix it with a whisk all throughout the process so there are no clumps in the end. I find that if I use the blender, it becomes too... hmmm, what's the word for it?.. bahhhh I can't remember the exact word, but it doesn't get as thick as it should. So try and avoid the blender if you can. I also put my stove to medium-medium high rather than high.

3. Once it's almost done, this is what it should look like. Nice, thick, and creamy with bubbles plop plop plopping. :) Now, at this stage, I advise you remove the pot from the stove to prevent the creme from sticking to the bottom of the pot, and start emptying the Mascarpone cheese into the pot.

4. Once you have added the Mascarpone cheese, place the pot back onto the stove and probably have your stove down to low at this point, and continue to mix with the whisk for a couple minutes until you see that the cheese has completely blended in to form an even thicker creme. When that is done, remove the pot from the stove and probably leave it to cool a little bit for approximately 5 minutes. It doesn't need to be cold.

5. Start pouring the creme onto your base. Make sure all the biscuits are covered in the filling.

6. Once you have covered the base with creme, start transferring the biscuits that were moistened on the other plate onto your base. I would recommend that you transfer them with your hands rather than using other utensils, because at this stage they are very prone to breaking. It's ok if they break into two or something, just lay them accordingly. As you can see in the above photo, my middle bikkie broke in half. :)

7. Once you have completed laying the second layer of biscuits, repeat the same process. Cover the entire layer with the remaining creme.

8. so it should look similar to this... depending on the type of plate/tray you use. I prefer to use a deep dish which prevents all the creme from spilling out. You cover your dish with a cover, or wrap with cling wrap. Place in refrigerator for it to set for approximately 2-3 hours. The more it waits, the better it sets and tastes. So I usually make my Tiramisu late at night, and it is ready to serve any time during the day. If you are going to make it for evening guests, make it in the morning, and it will be ready in the afternoon/evening.

9. When it is ready to serve, sprinkle with cocoa powder and some chocolate flakes with your own preference.





modified recipes of : http://hijabtradefashion.blogspot.com/2012/02/step-by-step-alcohol-free-tiramisu.html

Lunch inspiration

As I was having a simple lunch with a well known neurosurgeon, i heard him saying his challenge with the department which involved dealing with the Bumi issues. But as we were about to finish, i realized that he has left his food unfinished, with some rice, egg yolk and some veges. 原来答案就在这里，但我们的生活环境越好时，我们越忘了要惜福，所以自然的一个人就会面对类似这样的事情来考验他。 能够惜福，自然就有很多贵人围绕在我们身边，助我们一臂之力

人的離去

"人不是因為親人的離去而哭泣，而是因為少了一個人來愛。" "孩子不是你的天使，是孩子讓你變成天使！ " 很多人哀嘆做人苦！做人不苦。大部分人都在醉生夢死、粗心大意、精神恍惚，如同活死人，甚至越老越煩，煩習慣了，沒有心「做人」（Being），沒有投入當下（覺醒）的狀態，所以，人是Reborn，不是Newborn。沒有「做人」（在覺醒狀態做該做的事）才苦。 很多人只求快樂，抗拒痛苦。其實，快樂=痛苦。（快樂和痛苦是一體兩面的） 去天堂之前，不好（不快樂），因為這裡不是天堂；去了天堂也不好（不快樂）， 因為捨不得離開。" " 很多人以為戀愛=快樂，離婚=痛苦。只要認清當下的狀態（現象），就是好、就是快樂。痛苦是因為你沒有認清狀態。" ～滿亞法師

爱情降和英雄

给自己老来的记录，话说‘爱情降’。英雄说不懂当年我放了多少爱情降，快快从实招来。噢！我只能说，咸菜有人青睐，感恩不尽，哪敢乱来呵，更何况我没有解降的，哪敢乱施啊？不过后来，英雄也默认，米已成舟，就算有放降，也不要解降了，英雄甘愿‘中降’。 英雄把小女子当年拍的结婚照放做电脑墙纸，说这是一生人只有得看一次的阿娜多姿摆首扭腰，现在只剩下望梅止渴的情景。唉，其实他还真不明白，观音菩萨显灵也是一百年才那么一次的呀。

Gentle Birth(1)

11 yrs ago, I had water bag burst at 8pm, i showered n took some food. By the time reached hospital it was 9pm. Nurse who attended to me said 1st delivery is it....then need to wait to next day. Doc said only 5cm dilation, still need to wait. I hv nvr taken any thing said to me, internally i was telling myself, "is it? this body belongs to me, i know better than anyone else, the timing doesnt have to follow anyone." So i plugged in my Metta Chanting cassette in my walkman and continued to immerse myself in meditation mode.... u can imagine it was such a long long time ago. At 1230am i had more frequent contraction n i delivered at 1am. Close labour pain was about 1 hour. oh....btw, doc took away the strap ie the Electronic Fetal Heart Monitoring and so it took away the high volume beating which is inaccurate.

Does Flinstone Qualify for Macbook?

Many many ages ago Mac caught my eyes with it's light weight, less(or not at all) prone to virus attack, fast boot up and many other features. Having certain level of fear, i ended up with Acer, going for the lightweight version as well. But alas, i have to accommodate with smaller screen which was fine for me. I was ever so intimidated that i dared not upgrade to Windows 8 and still maintained with XP, fearing that some of my programs may ended incompatible. That's how pathetic i have to be. So keeping myself as dinosaur as i can be seemed to be the safest option. An old friend started asking me where is my Flinstone family ---- referring to my dinosaur technology with no wireless home environment. It was a good topic to start off with about keeping radiation as low as possible. It was even a better topic for old friends to tease me because only old friends will tease without second thoughts. That reminded of this: “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Mom and i both have Blur vision

Strangely i am having blur vision or floaters today. Oh no, it cant be premature cataract! Well, it is the inherited family disease that comes from my mom which may ingeniously discriminate between 'us and 'other' women. Both of us dont mind getting the 'blur vision' simply because both of us seldom (or dont) wash our glasses and most often than not, we have thumb prints on our glasses. This is just a reflection on the way of living we both have been engaged in. Mom and I are always up to something, and cleaning glasses seems too trivial for us. Yes, instead of holding, we grab glasses as we exit the bathroom. We can ignore the blur images (on our glasses) but not the laundry, and not the list of things-to-do in our mind, and certainly not the added businesses like baking homemade pizza base for lunch, preparing baked beans from the kidney beans I happily got at special offer......and the list goes on. And we are always multi tasking. But of course, up till today, i still cant beat her for being able to sew, watch TV series, chit chat and cook... all concurrently! The best achievement i have recorder so far is to iron, talk over the phone and write down shopping list ---- yet still 1 item less from mom's list. If ever we were to choose another name for ourselves, it would should be MT for Multi Tasking. Yet, i still lack one important bullet in the list -- being Jane of all trades, i am still mistress of none.

"德国宪法禁止学前教育" --- my view

"德国宪法禁止学前教育。 徳裔获得的诺贝尔奖人数占总数的一半。通过国家介入，禁止对孩子过早开发智力，避免将孩子大脑变成硬盘，留给孩子大脑更多的想象空间。孩子在小学前“唯一任务”就是快乐成长。 1.不该过度开发孩子智力 原以为在德国只有幼儿园的孩子不允许学习专业知识，后来才发现上小学的孩子也不能学习额外的课程，即使这个孩子的智商超过同龄人。来自科隆的桑德拉写到：“今年我儿子7岁，我向学校老师提出，能否额外教他一些东西，因为他5-6岁的时候就自己在家学会了基本的阅读、书写和简单的数学计算。老师表示反对并说：您应该让您的孩子与其他孩子保持同步。一个星期后我再次去见老师，并出示了孩子高智商的证书，希望得到她的理解和支持，但老师用一种奇怪的眼光看着我，似乎我像来自外星的人一样。 老师进而解释，孩子智力被过度开发并不是一件好事情，因为必须给孩子的大脑留下想象空间。过多的知识会使孩子的大脑变成了计算机的硬盘，常此下去，孩子的大脑就慢慢地变成了储存器，不会主动思考了。 尽管如此，我对德国禁止学前教育的做法还是不太理解。为了搞清楚这个问题，我专门请教了德国的教育人士，他们让我找《基本法》来看看。翻开联邦德国《基本法》（即宪法），我大吃一惊。其中第七条第六款明确规定，禁止设立先修学校(Vorschule)。我还是不明白德国宪法为何这样规定，只好再请教有关的教育专家。他们告诉我，孩子在小学前的“唯一的任务”就是快乐成长。因为孩子的天性是玩耍，所以要做符合孩子天性的事情，而不应该违背孩子的成长规律。 如果说在上学前对孩子非要进行“教育”的话，那“教育”的重点只有三个方面： 一、基本的社会常识，比如不允许暴力、不大声说话等。 二、孩子的动手能力。在幼儿园期间孩子会根据自己的兴趣参与手工制作，让他们从小就主动做具体的事情。 三、保护孩子情感胚胎，培养情商，培养领导力。 原以为只有德国才有如此奇怪的规定。后来查了一下欧洲有关国家的情况才发现，他们对待小孩子的做法基本上大同小异。" I was using exactly this philosophy especially for my no2, and she didnt hv any prob in catching up her primary school work. she learnt Ejaan and proper way of writing S, G n what not after 7 yrs old. She still get confused over how to write big and small letters at 8 yrs old, but she always has the initiative to learn. Though the local primary school system may not be ready for this ideal system yet, but having a non-rushing home environment for the first 7 yrs is certainly crucial. As such, i dont rush my kids to start too much of reading at young age. Some parents engaged in too much toy buying, but if we feed in with too much of reading, it is also falling to another part of 'consumerism'. That's why nowadays i seldom buy books, but try to encourage them to borrow and excahnge books. Looking back i think that was how i grew up too, at the age 7, after 1st term exam when i first entered the class 1E from 1J, i didnt even know how to write 爸爸妈妈 and i heard someone laughing at me. haha. but who cares? eventually all of us will learn in our own pace. No rushing is always the key. As i get in touched with many of my ex-classmates, i realized that there were many friends who attended at least 2 yrs of kindergarten during my time. Not trying to compare who is better than who. But i found that, people like me and some other friends who hardly have chance to attend a 'good' and competitive kindy during my time ---- eventually did rather well in our studies. We have good initiative to learn and progress. We have high level of curiosity....even till today, i have very high spirit of learning in whatever i am exposed too... and LEARNING itself has never stopped. But unfortunately many friends who have attended kindies for 2 and more years has stopped learning by Std 3-4.....which is at the age of 8-9 yrs old, i.e. at the time when 9 yrs change was about to happen. These friends eventually get punished for their not-doing homework and it was a pity thing that they get caned most of the time. What was the fundamental cause of this happening? Definitely not because of laziness. But it has a lot to do with too much or too early intervention of learning which involves brain. Children before 7, should be exposed to nature, outdoor and lots of play. I remembered myself attending a kindy at 6 yrs old. A village kindy which did not even have a proper 'graduation' party! I can even remembered myself not knowing how to recite number 1-10 by the age of 6 and mom was teasing me i was lagging behind my sister who was 2 yrs younger than me. At 6 yrs old, i fantasied a lot with the backyard at the village Temerloh. I scooped up tadpoles after big rain. I played with rain water during year end flood season. I walked along the rubber tree at the back of my home and picked up the sound of rustling leaves for my memory box. I dont remember knowing how to speak English well, coz the language i knew best was Hokkien! Before 12 yrs old, i hardly watch TV series coz we cant afford video player but that was really a blessing in disguise. I eventually grew up knowing that i didnt have to become anyone's fans except for the lord Buddha, the sage of past and present, the great people with great minds! For goodness ake, for the good lesson and good testimonial that we have from my ex classmates, please, stop abusing a child's brain before 7 yrs old!

生病

姐姐生病。叫妹妹给姐姐量体温。 量好了出来报告说是38点2. 妹妹问妈妈：“怎样？你的孩子生病，你会心痛吗？” 我瞪着这个调皮的小老人，不知该怎么回应她。