Posted by: gaothman | February 11, 2010

Stand up for yourself and your friends

Last week I received a comment on my blog regarding verbal abuse from a girl who was trying to stand up for herself but was scolded for doing so. This is what she wrote:

–> Well, I really wish you can represent me. I’ve told the principal I’ve been verbally abused. I have evidence of it. But she doesn’t wish to do anything. The teacher called me pathetic, hopeless, unsuccessful and said I deserved to be yelled at. I got suspended for sticking up for myself. Procedures don’t really count. The only rule that counts is the one that doesn’t exist; the student is always wrong. It’s very depressing. I’ve lost all faith in society now. My father agrees with them. He doesn’t know about the verbal abuse. I don’t think he’ll care. What’s funny, is that a student would get hammered for saying those things to a teacher; because the teachers don’t come here to be abused. Likwise for me, but…no. Oh well, at least a parent here cares enough to write about it. Makes me feel a bit better, because you confirmed to me it is wrong, thank you.

————————-

I wrote back to her and I hope my response was useful to her in some way. You can read my reply here.

I am of the opinion that verbal abuse should be dealt with seriously, because it can be very hurtful to the abused and cause a lot of harm, even if it was meant as a joke. In fact, lots of children and probably also adults, use the excuse “it was just a joke” to cover up what they said, which is even worse, because on top of the hurtful remark, the abuser hurts the person one more time by saying she/he is too sensitive and can’t take a joke. A simple rule is, if no one or the abused doesn’t laugh, it’s not a joke. A much better way would be to apologise.

I urge parents and teachers to teach children to think before they speak and to ask themselves before they speak “if I say this, how would the other person react” or “if someone said this to me, how would I feel” and if a voice inside them tells them that it’s probably not a good idea to say it, then they shouldn’t say it.

I also urge parents and teachers to teach children to apologise immediately, if they say something that has hurt someone, because empathy, which would automatically stop them from saying hurtful things to others, takes time to learn, especially if children have not been taught from home to be considerate of other people’s feelings and to be careful not to hurt others, and it will take time to learn how to control outbursts and start thinking before speaking and to manage anger effectively, but it is worth the efforts.

I recently bought a book that teachers children to stand up for themselves and their friends in an assertive way that don’t keep the fighting going but teaches how to speak up in a respectful way, while still feeling empowered by being able to say something back to the bully/abuser, so it can stop.

From my own experience as the verbally abused/bullied child in school, I learned that the passive or submissive approach by ignoring and waiting it out don’t work, and can actually make it worse. Unfortunately I never learned to stand up for myself during my school days, but tried to ignore it and the bullying continued. It was heartbreaking, and I cried many times and dreaded going to school every day, because I didn’t know how to handle it. I told my parents, but they just told me to ignore it, which didn’t work. Had they known what parents know today, they would have addressed the issue with the school directly to stop it or even better they would have taught me how to stand up for myself, but of course at that time, even parents found it hard to address such issues with the school and didn’t have the knowledge and techniques that we have today to deal with verbal abuse and bullying effectively.

It is because of my own experience as a victim of bullying that I take this issue very seriously as it happens every single day in all schools around the world and inflicts a lot of pain to the involved children. In teaching my own children to stand up for themselves and learn to speak up assertively, they can stop and prevent the fighting/bullying from continuing and gain the respect they deserve as individuals, which is the objective. My hope is that all parents would teach their children assertive communication, because it’s useful in all areas of life, as verbal abuse doesn’t only happen in schools, but in workplaces between colleagues, bosses and subordinates and in homes between husbands and wives and families. I believe that if more people learned to speak assertively and accepted other people’s feelings, boundaries and point of view, even opinions that are different from their own and learned to agree to disagree, there would be more peace and harmony in our relationships with other people, improve our well-being and mental state, and it may even prevent divorce and fighting among people.

Such great possibilities exist in learning how to communicate assertively. So what does it mean to communicate assertively?

There are several definitions such as:

1. Assertive communication is the straightforward and open expression of your needs, desires, thoughts and feelings. Assertive communication involves advocating for your own needs while still considering and respecting the needs of others.

2. As a communication style and strategy, assertiveness is distinguished from aggression and passivity. How people deal with personal boundaries, their own and those of other people, helps to distinguish between these three concepts. Passive communicators do not defend their own personal boundaries and thus allow aggressive people to abuse or manipulate them. Passive communicators are also typically not likely to risk trying to influence anyone else. Aggressive people do not respect the personal boundaries of others and thus are liable to harm others while trying to influence them. A person communicates assertively by overcoming fear to speak his or her mind or trying to influence others, but doing so in a way that respects the personal boundaries of others. Assertive people are also willing to defend themselves against aggressive incursions.

3. Assertive communication is the ability to express positive and negative ideas and feelings in an open, honest and direct way. It recognises our rights whilst still respecting the rights of others. It allows us to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions without judging or blaming other people. And it allows us to constructively confront and find a mutually satisfying solution where conflict exists.

4. Assertiveness is a form of communication in which needs or wishes are stated clearly with respect for oneself and the other person in the interaction. Assertive communication is distinguished from passive communication (in which needs or wishes go unstated) and aggressive communication (in which needs or wishes are stated in a hostile or demanding manner).

There are many advantages of assertive communication, most notably these:

  • It helps us feel good about ourselves and others
  • It leads to the development of mutual respect with others
  • It increases our self-esteem
  • It helps us achieve our goals
  • It minimises hurting and alienating other people
  • It reduces anxiety
  • It protects us from being taken advantage of by others
  • It enables us to make decisions and free choices in life
  • It enables us to express, both verbally and non-verbally, a wide range of feelings and thoughts, both positive and negative

From the help of the book I bought and talking with my daughter about responses and ways of communicating assertively, I am teaching her slowly how to stand up for herself and her friends. And she is slowly beginning to use it and the other day she managed to stop a friend from saying something that would have hurt another friend. What she did was, upon realising what her friend was about to say, she walked over to her and firmly said ”Don’t say it (name), she is going to be hurt if you do”. And that’s it, she not only helped her friend understand that what she was about to say was wrong and could hurt someone else, but she also prevented the other friend from being hurt and she quickly thought of something harmless to divert the attention from the situation. My daughter felt good about herself for being brave enough to speak up and prevent a hurtful situation, as she knows how much it would have hurt, as she has empathy enough to be able to put herself in her friend’s shoes and feel what she would have felt if she had heard it.

While it’s good to teach children the techniques of assertive communication, parents also have a responsibility to teach their children to treat other people nicely and what’s right and what’s wrong to say and do. Parents can’t just leave that up to children to figure out, as values and manners need to be talked about and passed down the generations to ensure that children behave properly and treat others with kindness, respect and consideration.

I will continue to write about assertive communication another day and will also give tips about what to say in different situations.

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Posted by: gaothman | February 10, 2010

What’s been happening at Tenby International School lately?

I can’t believe time goes by so quickly and we are already in February 2010. And I have so many things I want to write about, but so little time, as my work is taking up all my time these days. Therefore I decided to get up at 5.45am today and start writing as soon as my children went to school this morning. And then I have called the posting “What’s been happening at Tenby International School lately”, so I can write about several things in the same posting rather than separating them out.

Parents Teacher Conferences

Term 2 started on 4th January 2010 and not long into the term, all parents were invited to see their children’s teachers for 5 and 10 minutes consultations depending on the child’s age group. Prior to the parents teachers conferences the students were given a paper with time schedules and parents had to write down the names of the teachers they wanted to see and then the students had to submit to the teachers to confirm the chosen time slot and the secondary students even had to see every teacher on the list to get their confirmation individually, which I thought was a great way to teach them responsibility and to be pro-active in obtaining the confirmation from their teachers. It may seem like a small thing, but in its essence it makes a difference, because the students learn that they can’t expect to be fed and that the adults can’t do everything for them, but they have to think ahead and take initiate and responsibility for their own things.

5 minutes is not a long time for a meet with each teacher, but the idea wasn’t to discuss problems or progress in details but just to touch base and meet the teachers and if necessary parents can always make another appointment at another time if they need to discuss in more details. I quite like the open atmosphere where several teachers were in the same room and parents came and went quickly, only I thought that parents should have waited outside until it was their turn, as it was quite noisy in the rooms, and although I have nothing to hide and didn’t have a problem with it, it did occur to me that some parents might have liked at bit more privacy from other parents listening in on their conversation with the teachers.

Apart from this, I thought the teachers did an excellent job. Emphasized on the positive qualities in my children, while still highlighting the things that they should work at and offered to help where necessary. And they were all very friendly and forthcoming and I felt so grateful that I can send my children to school every day knowing that they are in good hands with people who genuinely care about them. I hope the teachers will continue to be as committed and enthusiastic in future, but with the support of a good management, I am confident that they will.

Sports

Let it be no secret that our family loves sports and I can’t emphasize enough how much we appreciate Tenby’s focus on sports and the PE Department’s efforts in giving our children a wide selection of different sports they can do both in PE lessons during school hours and the many CCAs after school. The many teachers that are involved in the sports activities and especially the Head do an excellent job and my children are enjoying themselves tremendously, while making good progress.

The only downside is there is not enough time for sports, it being so enjoyable and my children would love to do more, but of course there should also be time for other subjects, which are also important. I am saying this because my children’s involvement in sports since they started in Tenby International School has had the single most positive impact on them, as they have participated in more sports activities, tournaments and competitions in Tenby in only two terms than they have done in all the previous years combined. And this is thanks to the great efforts and commitment of the Head of PE and the school’s support for sports. And we are truly and profoundly grateful for that, as it has made a huge difference in our children’s lives, as they are now fitter, slimmer and happier than ever before in their lives and now make greater efforts in improving themselves and their skills and stamina, so they can be better, stronger and faster in the sports they like.

And this will not only effect their abilities in sports but also improve other areas of their work and activities in and outside school, as with improved sports abilities, comes more confidence, self discipline, determination and harder efforts to improve themselves in all other areas as well, so that Tenby focuses so much on sports is truly a blessing in so many ways.

Primary Sports Day

During the first couple of weeks of term 2, Tenby had its Sports Day, which went really well. The thing I like most about it was that all students participated, and the parents were welcome to come and cheer and show their support. There were 4 different events and all the students rotated from one event to the next and it was really well organised. The children behaved well and had fun, while they did their best in each event. Congratulations to all winners and participants.

At last year’s Sport’s Day I actually wrote that I thought the school should include more disciplines at Sport’s Day, but I have changed my mind, as I see now that because Tenby is so active sports wise at all other times of the year, it’s not necessary to include more sports activities in the Sports Day, as the way it was planned and executed already involved the necessary elements like individual competitions, team efforts and support and rewards. And one day is enough to spend on a Sports day for primary, when they also do sports events outside of school when representing Tenby.

Secondary Sports Day

Also the secondary students had their Sport’s Day, which was on a different day than the primary students. This day also went really well and the students did their best, competed gracefully, supported each other and really enjoyed themselves throughout the day. It was really nice to see the students laughing and having fun while being physically active on the field. Congratulations to all winners and participants and thanks for being such good sports and making the day a memorable one.

What else has been happening?

The activities at Tenby are so many that it’s impossible for me to write about every one of them, but just this past week, Tenby went with several teams to a Futsal tournament organised by the German School and these couple of days are the Selangor State swimming competitions where Tenby’s students are also participating. I think Tenby has had other sport meets as well, but as my children are only involved in swimming and football for the time being, this is where I have my interest. For more news about Tenby’s sports activities, go to their website and download their newsletters.

And one more thing….

The Arts teacher had organised a fun day last Saturday for students and parents to join in some fun games and activities, and had we been able to attend, we would have, as we want to support the teachers’ efforts in developing a community around different activities and it really sounded like a lot of fun, when the Art teacher explained it to me. However because of the Futsal tournament, we couldn’t attend, but I hope he will organise something like that again, so we can join next time. Thank you so much to the Art teacher for his time and efforts in organising it and for spending his Saturday at the school together with the students and parents. I look forward to hearing how the day went.

This is all for this time. I will hopefully find the time to write again soon.

Take care and best regards

Ghita

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Posted by: gaothman | January 5, 2010

Goodbye and thank you 2009 and Happy New Year 2010

2009 has been a busy year for my family and I with many new and exciting events and activities, all good things happening, so really a very positive year.

The number one best thing that happened for us in 2009 was our childrens’ start in Tenby International School, as this event has had the single most positive influence on our lives, as the effects of this move have brought about so many new and exciting activities, opportunities and wonderful moments.

Of the most memorable events that happened include my daughter’s selection to the finals in her school’s talent show Tenby’s got Talent, followed by her participation in a girls’ indoor futsal tournament, where her team won. Had it not been for a new found friend at Tenby, we wouldn’t even have known about the futsal tournament.

Following this saw the under 13s and under 15s football tournaments at ISKL, Japanase School of Kuala Lumpur and Alice Smith International School. My daughter participated in the ISKL football tournament for the under 13s Girls and my son participated in all three football tournaments.

Both of them also joined the ever so exciting ISAKL Swimming Gala, which took place at the Shah Alam Aquatic Centre in December. They didn’t win any medals, but that didn’t matter so much, as they did okay, considering the tough competition from the other schools, who have very strong swimmers, who have been swimming in clubs for years, and Tenby has only just started, but we can look forward to the years to come.

In the last week of school the parents were invited to participate in a friendly charity football match at the school and my husband joined other fathers and teachers on a very hot and sunny day playing against the students on the school’s football field. It was a lot of fun, but tough for the players in the baking sun, and the young players had to accept a defeat of 2-1 to their older components, but they all played very well.

On the second last day of school, a Christmas Bazaar had been organised at school, which was a great event, well organised and lots of happy students. My daughter and her friends had a stall where they sold homemade cookies, muffins and brownies for charity, and my son was involved in the hunted house, which was a huge success among all students. My daughter and I had baked traditional Danish Christmas cookies and packed for hours the day before, and we had a wonderful time together and all this baking really put us into the right Christmas spirit. It was really a fantastic way to end the first term and a great start to the Christmas holidays.

Another football match was played at Tenby during the holidays, where my children played against 2 teams from Singapore who had travelled to Malaysia for friendly football matches. The guest players gave all participants and parents a little souvenir as thanks, which I thought was really nice. The Singaporian coach even invited Tenby’s players down for re-matches, which was a kind gesture. Perhaps it’s a possibility that Tenby could consider.

My children continued the holidays with the enrolment of a week’s workshop at the Fusion Academy of performing arts. At the end of the week together with other children they performed the musical Mamma Mia, singing and dancing 3 songs each, which went really well and they had a great time.

Then came the Christmas shopping, cooking and dinners and the year ended with a wonderful new year eve party at our friends house with delicious foods and great company. A perfect ending to a wonderful year.

I therefore give special thanks to the year 2009 for giving us such incredible and wonderful experiences and I am truly grateful for the blessings life has given my family and I throughout the year.

I now welcome 2010 with open arms and an open mind to what the new year has in store for us and hope it will be an even better year for everyone.

Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year 2010. May you and your family and friends be blessed with lots of happiness, love, peace, success, good luck, health and wealth and everything else nice :-)

Warmest regards

Ghita

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Posted by: gaothman | December 2, 2009

Tenby’s focus and involvement in sports are growing

My children are keen participants in both sports and the performing arts, in fact all co-curricular activities where they get to use their creativity and other non-academic skills, therefore I am so grateful that Tenby organises all these kind of activities, because it truly shows how important it is to the school to provide an all-round education for my children.

And it works well, because my children always seem to have something to look forward to in school and that is really important for them in order to stay interested and motivated on a continuous basis.

Especially the PE Department in Tenby has been very active this term, and I think they are doing very well, as the students have so many choices to get involved in the sports they like.

The Head of the PE Department even encourages the students to come for the try outs, so a couple of Saturdays ago, both my children went for the swimming tryouts and are now participating in the ISAKL Swim Gala this coming Saturday 5th December. It is going to be great fun and I just love watching swimming competitions, as they are so fast paced and exciting, and at such events you get to see some excellent swimmers that swim so fast that it takes your breath away, and it makes you wonder how it’s possible to swim that fast, but it’s all part of the excitement.

I remember when my husband and I went along with our children to the Fobissea games in Penang with their previous International School, as both of them were participating, and especially the swimming events were exhilarating to watch, and seeing your children win races and get medals are undescribable and so exciting and a happy event.

However my children haven’t practiced swimming for a while and only so a couple of weeks now since the tryouts 2 weeks ago, so when I raised this concern to the Head of PE at last Saturday’s training in the school, he responded “don’t worry, we don’t really expect winning medals because it’s our first competition and the competition from the other schools is very tough, but if we do win medals, it’s a bonus, and it’s about participation”.

I think this attitude is great and is the right way to go about it, because he makes it something that is fun to participate in and something to look forward to without the high expectations of having to win, as Tenby is still a young school and it can’t be compared to the other international schools like ISKL, GIS and Alice Smith, as they have had swimming clubs for years and their students are very competitive with daily swimming training, which is a commitment and level that my children won’t be able to attain, as they have other interests as well, and that’s alright, because just getting the opportunity to participate and try their best, is good enough, as it still teaches them valuable lessons, even more so when they lose, because they have to accept losing with the right attitude and learn from their experiences.

Not that I expect them to lose, but let me just say that the competition is going to be very tough, but it’s going to be exciting to watch all the swimmers, and I wish them all the best of luck!

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Posted by: gaothman | November 11, 2009

Tenby introduces inter house music

I was so happy the other day to hear from my excited son in Secondary that Tenby International School is introducing inter house music, like they have inter house sports to compete for house points. I don’t know exactly how it works, but each house, red, green, blue and yellow, is requested to form a band of musicians and singers and perform a song together and compete against the other houses. I am very pleased about the inter house music, as I have noticed that my children need these sort of activities to stay motivated, as they take practicing more seriously, when they are determined to improve their skills and need to work towards a goal like performing with their friends and competing against other students.

As mentioned in my earlier posts, my children are keen participants in sports and the performing arts, in fact all co-curricular activities where they get to use their creativity and other non-academic skills, therefore I am so grateful that Tenby organises all these kind of activities, because by doing so, it shows how important it is to Tenby to provide an all-round education for our children. And it works well, because my children always seem to have something to look forward to in school and that is really important for them in order to stay interested and motivated on a continuous basis.

Just another example of Tenby’s commitment to providing the best all-round education for our children and how they get it right with a good mixture of academics and co-curricular activities to maintain a healthy balance.

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Posted by: gaothman | November 10, 2009

Is post honeymoon period result of our own negative thought patterns?

It’s been a while since I last wrote, not because I ran out of topics to write about nor because I don’t have any more things to write about Tenby International School, because I do, but because I have been busy with other things in the meantime and I am definitely not planning to abandon my purpose with my blog.

Some people say that the first 3-6 months of anything new, especially when moving to a new country or to a new school feels like a honeymoon, as you are experiencing all new things and noticing all the beautiful and positive things around you and everything is so exciting. Then comes a period, where things may not seem as great anymore and our emotions take over and start running its old programmes in our head and we start focusing on the negative things instead of the positive. I don’t think anything changed on the outside, but our own thoughts did, so even though I am aware that our journey in Tenby International School seems like a honeymoon, and that it may be replaced by a different reality at some point, I wonder whether it’s our own thought patterns that is playing a role in how we perceive and react to the things and issues we face.

There has been a lot of writing and studies done about this and many people believe that indeed our thoughts, whether negative or positive, are directly linked to the experiences we have in life. Simply put if you have a negative thought pattern within yourself, you will look at life through this negativity and that is what life gives you, because you only pay attention to the negative things, whereas if you have a positive and supportive outlook on life, you will mainly experience life in a positive and helpful light. An example is if a child has some emotional issues and starts paying attention to the negative thoughts in their head, they may be experiencing incidences at school where they feel they are being unfairly treated by their teachers, more punished than others or picked on etc. even if it’s not entirely true from other people’s perspective. If you have a child that see things in this way, what do you do as a parent? Scold the teacher for treating your child unfairly and demand the teacher to leave your child alone or do you try to find the reasons why your child is seeing and experiencing things the way he/she does, as it may well be that it’s the child’s own negative thoughts and feelings that are causing them to feel that others are treating them badly or they themselves who, with their body language, is attracting negativity back?

I would try to find the reasons and then do my best to help my child overcome this problem and if possible together with the teacher, as I feel it’s important that a person who is around the child many hours a day understands the child’s issues and support them in working through the issues with them, as a child may not be able to do it alone at school, but needs the encouragement, reassurance, support and caring from an adult that is prepared to help the child along this journey of overcoming negative emotional issues.

It’s not an easy thing to do, but I feel it’s important to look into this to ensure that children have the best chances of succeeding in life regardless of where they come from, the baggage they carry and the emotional issues they have to overcome.

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Posted by: gaothman | October 22, 2009

Will the class size in national schools ever be reduced to 25?

As a parent born and raised in Malaysia, I agree with you that extra tuition is not truly needed, on condition that the child’s home environment, as well as the school, allows the child to gain whatever knowledge he needs.  Sadly, this is not necessarily the case.  Being a teacher in a national school, I keep on hoping that someday soon, the classroom enrollment of every class is reduced to the ideal number of 25. If this is not possible, then I do wish we teachers get teacher assistants to help us teach better in class.
From Ghita: Thank you very much for your comment. You are absolutely right, the class size should be max. 25, which was the case back in my school days and still is and is currently the case with Tenby International School and most other private schools. Or as you mention, there should be an assistant teacher for every class to help out, as it’s impossible and unfair for one teacher to cope with 40+ students and I understand the difficultly both teachers, students and parents are facing with the current situation in national schools.
I am sure there are parents and teachers who have been lobbying for this, but if not, perhaps it’s time to unite on this issue and request the Ministry of Education to look into it with the aim of making the necessary changes required. Coincidentally I just saw a quotation from Albert Einstein, which says “Nothing happens until something moves.”, which holds true in most things. If we need and want something to be done, we have to take the initiative and get the ball rolling to make progress. I know and have heard of many wonderful and caring teachers, and I think that if these teachers and parents get together and believe in your power to make a change for the better, you can make that change come true, if you stand together and never give up before you have reached your goal. We always wish someone else could do it, as it’s time-consuming and challenging, but unfortunately this is the reason why there is a lack of progress, because as Einstein said; nothing happens until something moves, and may I add, or until someone moves, and the more people who unite and convince the Government with strong arguments and valid reasons, the stronger your case.
And I believe you do have the right to speak up and request changes, because there is a Convention on the rights of the child, signed by the international community. Among many other rights, the Convention has four core principles, which are non-discrimination; devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and respect for the views of the child. Every right spelled out in the Convention is inherent to the human dignity and harmonious development of every child. The Convention protects children’s rights by setting standards in health care; education; and legal, civil and social services.
I think there should be a limit to how many hours children are expected to spent on their schooling per day, so they have adequate time to relax and indulge in other positive activities for all-round and healthy development both physically and mentally.I

Yesterday I received a comment from a reader, a teacher and parent, who raise a very important issue with the national schools, which is the number of students in each class. My reply was quite long, so I decided to post her comment here and my reply below.

By Nur Aida:

As a parent born and raised in Malaysia, I agree with you that extra tuition is not truly needed, on condition that the child’s home environment, as well as the school, allows the child to gain whatever knowledge he needs.  Sadly, this is not necessarily the case.  Being a teacher in a national school, I keep on hoping that someday soon, the classroom enrollment of every class is reduced to the ideal number of 25. If this is not possible, then I do wish we teachers get teacher assistants to help us teach better in class.

My reply:

Thank you very much for your comment. You are absolutely right, the class size should be max. 25, which was the case back in my school days and still is and is currently the case with Tenby International School and most other private schools. Or as you mention, there should be an assistant teacher for every class to help out, as it’s impossible and unfair for one teacher to cope with 40+ students and I understand the difficultly both teachers, students and parents are facing with the current situation in national schools.

I am sure there are parents and teachers who have been lobbying for this, but if not, perhaps it’s time to unite on this issue and request the Ministry of Education to look into it with the aim of making the necessary changes required. Coincidentally I just saw a quotation from Albert Einstein, which says “Nothing happens until something moves.”, which holds true in most things. If we need and want something to be done, we have to take the initiative and get the ball rolling to make progress. I know and have heard of many wonderful and caring teachers, and I think that if these teachers and parents get together and believe in your power to make a change for the better, you can make that change come true, if you stand together and never give up before you have reached your goal. We always wish someone else could do it, as it’s time-consuming and challenging, but unfortunately this is the reason why there is a lack of progress, because as Einstein said; nothing happens until something moves, and may I add, or until someone moves, and the more people who unite and convince the Government with strong arguments and valid reasons, the stronger your case.

And I believe you do have the right to speak up and request changes, because there is a Convention on the rights of the child, signed by the international community. Among many other rights, the Convention has four core principles, which are non-discrimination; devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and respect for the views of the child. Every right spelled out in the Convention is inherent to the human dignity and harmonious development of every child. The Convention protects children’s rights by setting standards in health care; education; and legal, civil and social services.

I think there should be a limit to how many hours children are expected to spent on their schooling per day, so they have adequate time to relax and indulge in other positive activities for all-round and healthy development both physically and mentally.

For more information about the Convention, go to www.unicef.org/crc/.

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Posted by: gaothman | October 14, 2009

Improving cognitive skills with the Rubik’s cube

It’s interesting to notice how a teacher is able to grab the attention of secondary students by making something that may be considered a toy, attractive and a little trendy. I am talking about the Rubik’s cube and how the Head of Art & Design in Tenby International School, a dedicated art teacher, managed to make my son interested enough to go and buy one of these Rubik’s cubes and set the goal of solving it as fast as possible. Apparently there are specific moves that need to be learnt to be able to get all sides of the cube in the same colour and every day he is studying the moves and trying them out to improve.

The Rubik’s cube has been around for some time and I remember when I was small, 30 odd years ago, I never figured out how to get all the sides to be the same colour, but I remember my older brother did, and I don’t think back then that we could get a piece of paper with the moves, so it was quite a defeat, which took my brother weeks, but I admired him for having the patience and persistency to figure it out by himself.

I suppose it’s a bit easier today as the right moves are easily available either directly in the package when buying the Rubik’s cube or available on the internet, but what we must not fail to recognise, even with the moves easily available, are the benefits to the brains of those people who have the patience, focus, commitment and persistency to learn the moves to solve the Rubic’s cube as fast as they can.

In today’s society of non-stop tv and entertainment and other passive interactive media, which don’t require much brain activity, a toy like the Rubic’s cube can actually be a beneficial tool that helps strengthen our cognitive skills required for problem solving, creative and critical thinking, improve memory and the ability to focus and concentrate on a task over a longer period of time.

I have never been keen on my son playing Play Station games too much and especially not the games involving shooting people and the like, because it gave the wrong message regardless of the game otherwise being harmless, so we limited his game time on purpose to force him to take up other interests such as playing guitar and sports. I am therefore thrilled that he is now interested in games that challenge his brain. I told him that there are lots of games on the Internet he could try, and to my surprise he told me that he already knew of a website that offered free brain games that he had tried. He just continues to surprise me, and I can’t help but wonder whether this is one of the impacts that Tenby’s positive approach has on my son, as he really has changed for the better since he started in TIS in early September 2009.

There has been a lot of research done on the impact of brain games, and studies show that brain games exercise many different mental abilities, including processing speed, reaction time, problem solving, attention span, verbal fluency, logical reasoning, task switching, spatial orientation, information processing, quantitative reasoning, and face-name recall. These skills are valuable at school, at work, and in everyday life, and if playing with the Rubik’s cube can be the start of gaining some if not all of these skills, it’s definitely worth the time he spends on it.

I suppose it also has something to do with the fine motor skills that movements of the hands involves when solving the Rubik’s cube, similar to juggling, which involves gross motor skills, the coordination and concentration required are proven to increase brain power, as an article in BBC recently shows. If you are interested in reading the article, it is available here Juggling increases brain power.

I must thank Tenby International School’s Head of Art & Design for bringing the Rubik’s cube into my son’s world.

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Posted by: gaothman | October 13, 2009

Tenby is a secure school for our children

Children’s safety is one of parents’ top priorities and it is therefore also very important to me. To see for myself whether my children is safe at school, I went to my children’s school Tenby International School to check it out.

I was pleased to note several guards at the entrance nodding when recognising me and the sticker on my car’s windshield. It wasn’t too long ago, about a month, I remember one day when arriving at the school without the sticker. I was stopped by the guard on duty at the entrance, and I quickly explained and showed him my identity tag, which granted me permission to proceed, although he requested me to obtain a new sticker before going off again. I did go straight to the office to get a new sticker for my car, which earned me the thumbs up when leaving the school campus that day.

When walking around the campus, I noticed the guards all the way around the campus, one standing in each corner and in strategic places like outside the canteen area, a pick up point for parents as well as in front of the sports complex. All the guards have walkie talkies to be able to communicate with each other and upon checking with the school, I was informed that the guard house also has a phone line, so they can call the office if necessary.

Observing all the guards around the school campus, I felt assured that the school provides sufficient security to keep my children safe at school.

I was also informed by the school that if there are workers on the premises, they will be registered with the school and given an identity tag, so they can be clearly identified and recognised by the school population, and is moreover monitored by the school, while working on the campus.

However while the school is doing their best to safe guard our children by employing enough guards and placing them all around the campus, I noticed that most parents don’t wear the identity tags provided by the school. I think this may be a cause for concern as it must be rather difficult for the guards to recognise all parents and identify people who are not supposed to be there, when the parents don’t wear the tags. At least if the parents wore the tags, it would be easier for the guards to pinpoint those without tags and address them about their business at the school. This would increase the level of security even more and keep our children safer.

I therefore urge parents to take a co-responsibility for our children’s safety and keep your identity tags handy when going to school and wear the tags upon leaving your cars to fetch your children in the school and thereby contributing towards keeping the school as secure as possible, while at the same time being a good role model for our children by adhering to the gudelines of the school.

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Posted by: gaothman | October 12, 2009

Mobition launches website on Malaysian Hornbills

You may have heard about hornbills before, but did you know that there are 10 different species of hornbills living in the forests of Malaysia? All 10 species lives in Belum Temengor Forest Reserve, where Malaysian Nature Society is observing, studying, documenting and recording them.

All the Hornbills have unique individual features and vary in sizes and some of the larger birds can grow as big as 127 cm. The largest of them all is the Helmeted Hornbill, a beautiful bird with elongated central tail feathers and bare dark red skin on the sides of its head, throat and neck. The male Helmeted Hornbill is quite unique as it stands out with its bare red head, throat and neck, while its body is covered in brown and black feathers and white and light brownish long tail feathers, almost dividing it’s body up in three equal parts, red, brown/black and white, which looks amazing.

Recently Mobition developed and launched MNS Hornbills’ website, which includes information about all 10 species of Hornbills and rare video footage of the birds in their natural environment in Malaysia. Visitors will even get the opportunity to listen to the Hornbills singing, which is truly special, as it takes the scientists weeks of sitting in the forest bed and waiting for the perfect moments where the shy birds are completely undisturbed.

Mobition invites you to visit the website at www.hornbills.org. Enjoy!

 

By Ghita Andersen Othman, Mobition Sdn. Bhd.

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