Stress

Shortly after the year 2 examination, I attended a talk on child psychology, arranged by Euterpe’s school.

The lecture was amazingly good. Most of the points are well known but, to say the least, brilliantly presented.  You may not agree with the speaker’s theory (in that case you will be a supporter of teaching by a stick), but I’m sure we parents, without exception, would agree with the idea of spending more time with our children when they are young – before they have their own idea and live in their own world.

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Talking about children education, the main theory nowadays is, of course, to emphasize on reward and praising and avoid punishment. In short, children should not face too much stress; homework should not occupy too much of their time so that they have a chance to play and explore and cultivate their creativity.

I must say I agree with the idea entirely. Nonetheless, I also feel uneasy and confused. If primary school children are too young to handle stress and heavy work, when are they mature enough to do so? In recent years, I hear many educationalists saying that our medical students should not face too much stress and so forth. Are we doing good to our students, or are we treating them as primary school kids?

Transparent

"You see no difference?" The cloud appears surprised, "Let's ask ourselves, how is the visible spectrum of wavelength defined?"

The sun and the rainbow look at each other in a vacant expression.

"The visible spectrum is defined by people's eyes," the cloud goes on with his lecture, "And eyes are the product of evolution - they are meant for detecting signals of electromagnetic waves that could pass through the atmosphere. In other words, the sequence is not people could see certain things, the air is transparent, and therefore people could see everything. What actually happened is the atmosphere filters off a whole lot of signals and moulds the eyes over the years, so that people could only see what they are allowed to see - and they have no idea what they have left out."

The sun remains silent for a long while, and then he says slowly, "That sounds a brilliant strategy of management - or leadership."

"Yes. Of course it depends on who uses it."

Air

The sun and the rainbow are startled.

"You see? Is it the physical property that air is transparent, or is it the biological character of all living creature the perceive that air is transparent?" The cloud explains.

The face of the other two remain blank.

"By physical property, I mean an object is considered transparent if it allows electromagnetic wave of all wavelengths to pass through," the cloud goes on, "As far as I know, the only thing that has this property is vacuum - if vacuum, or nothing, could be considered as something. But, air does not fall into this category. It filters off those with very short wavelengths, such as cosmic X-ray and ultraviolet light."

"Yes...?" The sun murmurs.

"In other words, air is not completely transparent - it only allows the passage of electromagnetic waves whose wavelengths are within the visible spectrum."

"You are just describing the phenomenon by a variety of words. I see no difference there." The rainbow says.

Cloud

While the sun expresses his sentiment to the rainbow, a cloud passes by and joins the conversation.

"My dear, you do not need to be disappointed," he tells the sun, "My brother, air, is always around and has been doing as much as you do. Not only does he get no credit, most of the time his existence is even not recognized!"

"Of course! He is so transparent!" The sun and the rainbow laugh and say together.

"Is he?" The cloud makes a curious smile, "Why do you think the air is transparent?"

"What a question!" The rainbow looks puzzled, "I think it is the intrinsic property that air is completely transparent. Isn't it the case?"

"My friend, don't go that far that quickly, "Let me state the question again: Why is air transparent? Is it a question of physics - or a question of biology?"

Rainbow

The sun meets a rainbow.

The origin of all lives says, “My friend, I’m really jealous. Everyone seems to love you.”

The colourful arc blushes a little, “Alas, that may be true. Who would not welcome a glittering bridge to his dream after a heavy storm and rain?”

“But, may I ask: What have you done? Besides making a mystical appearance every now and then and cheering up people by your lovely face, do you have any solid contribution to their life? None! And, how could there be any? You are not there most of the time. Alas, you are not even a physical existence – just an illusion of colour.”

“Yes, but I give people hope. As Alexandre Dumas said in The Count of Monte Cristo, all wisdom of man is contained in two words - wait and hope. After all, my friend, you do not have to be jealous. There are also many people who worship you.”

“That’s true enough, but it doesn’t make me feel any easier. I work all day and provide the energy for the whole world, and my reputation is nothing different from a delusion of colour that shows his face once or twice a year!”

釋詞

Some new phrases that are going to appear in the new edition of the Hong Kong Political Dictionary:

高鐵： 無底深潭
問責： 你當然可以問，不過佢都冇話答

強積金： 一個到你臨死時先肯還錢俾你嘅債仔

包容： 理虧一方仲可以聲大夾惡嘅原因
文化差異： 個差異好多時就係有同冇

佔中： 書生論政
諮詢： 尋找啱聽的說話
民主： 我嘅意見 (其他人嘅唔算)
基本法： 一些需要時必須遵守的規則

政改： 又話五十年不變？

Subtle

(Here is the story I told BK.)

I asked the students, “How many students do you think have examined this patient before you come?”

As a rule, each and every one of them was startled. After a while, they said four, five, or whatever.

I asked again, “In that case, why do you think there is no used cotton wool balls or toothpicks on the table?”

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BK smiled, but I was serious, “You know, they all look vacant. I thought it over during the coffee break and believed I might not be expressing myself clearly. As a result, I decided to try another way of reminding them.”

“What did you say this time?”

“I asked the students: Who do you think is responsible for disposing the used cotton wool balls and toothpicks?”

“Well, does that help?”

“Sort of. Half of them did understand. For the others, I was forced to the conclusion that either I still had not expressed myself clearly, or they had never cleaned up their own desk in their life!”