BEST WISHES TO STUDENTS STARTING SCHOOL

ONE MONTH OUT, SCHOOL STARTS FOR MANY … 

Do you realize that our first month – January - is ending today?

That leaves 11 more months on the calendar for us to accomplish what we set out to do this year.

Some things may take a little longer (my plans are also like that) – but we must strive on towards realizing some of our dreams/wishes/visions/aspirations.

For all those who are returning to school (in PNG and elsewhere), let me take the opportunity to wish you the best for 2013.

I believe all the college and university students have already registered while the secondary school students will be arriving in school on Monday.

To the teachers, I wish you all the best for this year also.

I wish all you students the best meaning – work to score “B grades” or better.

Make changes, if you must, to get the best grades.

That reminds me of an incident when I was teaching students away from PNG and a nice, but stubborn 14-year told me, when she was struggling with her Maths work: “Sir, it does not matter what others may become. I will become a hotel cleaner. Let them be doctors, teachers and scientists.”

She caught me off guard, kind of.

I told her classmates, some people are cleaners because they do not have better choices to make in life.

One of the parents who came by during the teachers-parents meeting that year was a mother of a bright boy in class.

“Sir, I am a cleaner, but I do not want my son to be a cleaner. I know he has the brains and can fare better than me and his father,” the mother said.

I should have told the girl that story too. One day she would wish she was something more than a cleaner – and her son also.

Now, before you get some negative thoughts about cleaners/janitors, let me say here that I am not looking down on them.

What I am saying is this: “Do the best in your studies so that better opportunities open up easily for you. People who score better grades have better opportunities opening up for them year after year. Those who score poor grades only wait for what is left over, if there is any at all.”

You know, I am urging you, the student to excel, and will continue to do that throughout the year.

But if, and I am saying if, after getting all the top grades in the world when you complete  your studies and you decide not to be a doctor, pilot, lecturer, teacher, etc and want to be a janitor – then go for it, it’s your life.

As I have advised other people: Go up as far as you can, but if you do not want to serve at the top, come to the roots and help down here. It is – after all – your life, and you decide after getting the best results in what you study.