If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And–which is more–you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling



saw this on a GP teacher's blog. haha. as i read and researched on "education", i realised how much i've been missing out on. i think mr kan has done a perfect job in killing everyone's interest in GP. what happened to engaging a class in discussion? or helping us realise how useful/important GP can be in our lives? i daresay even more use than maybe Math or Chemistry. note; by engaging, i don't mean the mere effort of pronouncing someone's name correctly and then expecting an answer from him. i would love to be able to give him some credit by saying, "look, he's tried to engage us by using technology.. a movie or a podcast", or "he tried to make a GP topic look not-too-dry by linking it to our daily life and interests"... unfortunately i can't seem to dredge up any memories of saving grace for Mr Kan. any contributions, dearest classmates? it seems like he teaches GP purely like an examination subject. what happened to the joys of reading and discovering different opinions (eg. in news comments)? or the satisfaction of analysing a text and exposing its "implicit messages" successfully? how about stressing the importance of evaluating an argument, or the rationale of looking at two sides of a coin when dealing with any issue (not only when writing your development paragraphs, hell no)? sigh. granted, no teacher is perfect, and many tutors don't seem to be able to do all the above-mentioned anyway. but i wish i had someone more competent engaging than him. it seems like the World Wide Web has become a better educator for me today.

i'm truly sorry for slamming my GP tutor. its just general dissatisfaction building up over the past 18months and boiling over. OH HOW I'VE WASTED MY 18MONTHS DURING GP LESSONS LEARNING NOTHING!!