Praise for Toppers of 2014

Toppers, in any sense, would have exerted little more effort, sacrificed little more comfort and thought little more than other students. They would have thought about making themselves reach comfortable positions, thought about caring their aged parents and dreamt of serving our nation even by becoming a martyr. All these extraordinary qualities make our toppers highly deserving of handshakes, praises, recognitions, and celebrations.

Without the khaddar or garland of laurels over the neck of my toppers, in the most humble ways, we celebrated the accomplishments of our toppers on 26th July 2014. Parents were invited; position holders were praised and urged them to continuously strive for excellence. Parents of the toppers, if present were offered the honour to award their child a prize arranged by school for the first time this year. Award ceremony was followed by "High Tea" session. 

Many toppers this time have scored 90s and 80s. Surprising as well as encouraging thing for me, as principal, is to hear from some toppers that they would come back next year to claim the cash prize of Nu 20,000/- announced by school, if anybody among us wins whole Bhutan topper. I still throw them a gauntlet as a challenge, 'let me see'.  

I make these posts not to simply tell others what ordinary things I am doing in my school but to incite or provoke a sense of competitions in other schools. I feel, as autonomous schools, we have got a challenge to rise above others. I am skeptic whether my school can prove better than others or in any way better than our own performance of the past, but it would fill me with regret if I do not try out different means to gain different results.      

Writers' Workshop

2nd June 2014 saw culmination of two important programs in our school. As usual the morning program was decorated with the moment of dedication to the coronation of His Fourth Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuk. It was then followed by presentation on the Social Forestry Day focusing on importance of trees, natural hazards that our world is increasingly facing and plantation of saplings as our little contribution to the bigger cause of saving the world. The presentation was made by Ms. Ugyen lhamo, Nature Club coordinator of our school.

Afternoon Program

 Every time exams is conducted, we, especially English teachers get the displeasure of finding students scoring low marks in English hence resulting in low overall results. English marks had been major hurdle for our students. Many potential candidates, who even had capacity to challenge the whole Bhutan toppers both of BHSEC and BCSE, had to go with just school toppers because of low marks in English.

We get unbearable pain, we find ourselves secluded and left with less reasons to jubilate in worldly pleasure, thousands different thoughts appear when awake that cannot be described and often haunted by nightmares. We are thus, compelled to gear up to prepare our students towards academic excellence.

To prepare our students for academic excellence means preparing our students to write good English. What happened in the past was little regrettable. Now, we do not want our students to suffer in the same fate. We, English teachers of BHSS, took it as our challenge to look for new ways to motivate students, of all grades to learn and perform better. I may be exaggerating if I say that we would make all our students fluent speakers and excellent writers, but at least we are bent upon making the top students or everyone who aspires to become great, do not shatter their dreams because of less English marks.  We want to make our students perform better in English like any other subjects.

One common idea that came to the members of English department is to organize 'Writers' Workshop' for our students. Accordingly 'Writers' Workshop' was organized for the students of class XII and X. We had a discussion on types of writing, traits of writing, process of writing and conferences. We had fruitful interactions. Many students expressed that the ideas they had received from workshop would help them in many ways. It was a first of its kind in our school.      

Do Not Go the Way It Is

I have heard many people say, 'time has changed'. But Lord Urgen Guru Rimpochhe said that it is not time but the mind of the people that has changed. Looking at incongruous human nature and judging by the growing insatiability of human mind; the strange and alien thoughts creeping human minds, I can without any remorse say that minds of the people have changed. What people say about time is ordinary, plainly put, like one talking in a state of intoxication. What Lord Urgen Rimpochhe said is a result of deep contemplation and introspection. It is remarked after gaining mastery over the events of the past, present and what would happen in future. It is universal. His thought is ahead of others.

At this juncture, if we delve deep into our thought to find out what is not there, virtually it will become impossible. We will see everything before us. Just like farmers reaping fruits after their hard work, the present generations have to just reap, use, consume and satisfy their hunger, or their desire for power. By using creativity, exerting energy, forgoing pleasure, and spending sleepless night, our predecessors have invented and created many amazing things. They have garlanded our world, made our world the feast of our eyes. But, I believe, our predecessors have also invented something defying the law of nature or God's command. Some inventions threaten the very existence of humankind. 

One technique to navigate through and survive in the strangeness of 21st Century is to climb beyond the reach of others in thought. It is now time, matured enough for everyone, to think, perform and prove the possession of extraordinary qualities in oneself. Once, there was a time when teachers used to appreciate and praise students for being highly knowledgeable, well-mannered and value-laden, if they are spotted with their head bowed down, walk decently, and eat less. It wasn't necessary whether s/he responded to the questions asked or participated in activities. When I was 10 years and staying with my cousin sister, a guest praised me by saying that I would succeed in life after observing how I cooked meals, and how I served him without responding a word. But, at present, experience and exposure taught man a different lesson. Now, people do not appreciate silence. They want to hear more through mouth than see through actions. Simply expressing one's knowledge through courtesy is hardly appreciated or rather it is blatantly misunderstood. Personally, I feel that people would appreciate describing face part of a cat but body and tail of dogs that wag when we are asked to describe a cat.

Let us come back to a serious business. How can we possibly reach beyond others in thought? Atom, nuclear, chemical bombs, rocket launching missiles and many mass destructive weapons threaten the existence of our world. Recent shooting down of Malaysian Aircraft MH17 over Pro-Russian Separatists held Ukrainian boarder with Russia and Israel's attack over Gaza are a minute incidence, yet it could cause goose bumps to rise in everybody and could trigger terror of fear over the entire globe. If nuclear warfare occurs, the possibility everybody expects is that our earth would turn into ashes within a fraction of second. Knowing these facts, I feel like scratching every possibility to invent a durable net of a size of our world which would possibly hold all bombs or missiles from falling onto the ground or a rain like droplets which would possibly neutralize any bomb and render ineffective. What a triumph good would be over evils then? Wind blows, we say. By using wind vane, we ascertain the direction of wind. Won't it be possible to invent colour that can be added to wind so that everybody can see and feel wind? It sounds hilarious. But, I feel these are some possibilities to think beyond normal thinking level.

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" - Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Many present people waste time repeating the works of our predecessors. Many modifications are made out of the old model. Almost new inventions are made using an earlier invention as a reference point. Still, the present inventors do not get the names of inventors like Henry Mill who invented type writer, Hippocrates-father of modern medicines, Wright Brothers who built first airplane, Alexander Graham Bell who invented telephone and Geoffrey Chaucer- the father of modern literature. It is because the present inventors, as I have mentioned, are simply pursuing the footsteps of the earlier inventors. This proves to us that we really need to walk the way other people have not walked and leave the clear trail behind us.

We envy greatness, we fear wars, and we excessively crave for peace. In this world where everything seems illusory, nothing of what we want is fulfilled. Sometimes, I am feeling that I am standing in the world that does not belong to me any longer. I am sure, many of my like-minded friends would agree with me. Well then, shall we draw our inspiration to move forward through road not taken by following Albert Einstein: "Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don't belong." Shall we give wings to our thoughts to fly and roots to come back and reasons to stay?               

"All experience is an arc wherethrough gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades forever and forever when I move"- Lord Alfred Tennyson. Knowledge abounds. There is no end to learning. End of one thing is beginning of another. While learning, complacency must not have its role. Passionate learners must never succumb to complacency or procrastination. We must steady our journey through the rungs of ladder of knowledge. Reflecting upon the endless nature of knowledge, I find Socrates right when he says 'the one who knows one knows nothing is a wise man'. Like bees leaving the flower after it has sucked the nectar, we must suck the sweet part of knowledge and leave the bitter part behind. Knowledge is power. We must use power of argument, logic and reason to get as much as we can to fortify our existence.    

It is obvious, I talked about change. But, I want to diffuse confusion, if I have created any. I am obviously not talking of the change that would worsen the condition of our present world. Like Wayne W Dyer who has simple expectation, I too expect simple change.  Wayne says "My goal is not to be better than anyone else, but to be better than I used to be". I expect everybody to look for change, a simple one but would enable to incite envy in others which would ultimately change the outlook of the people and the world.  Everybody must have good thoughts. Lord Buddha says, "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts". We must have peace and happiness. Every individual must try to be an agent of peace and happiness.  We must find reason as to how we can possibly restore peace and happiness in the world. Peace is the foundation of all good things. Peace enables us to rationalize why we exist.