High 5: 22th May 2015 by Mdm Abirami

Good morning Mdm Tan, Mr Lee, Mr Tan, colleagues and all Gessians.

I will be presenting to you this week’s High Five.

Let me start this week’s High Five by asking you to pause and ask yourself, “What is Integrity in our daily lives?” Could it be keeping promises even if it takes effort? OR Going back to a store and paying for something you forgot to pay for? OR Returning money that you noticed someone dropped without expecting a reward. OR Informing the cashier he gave you too much change back. Do these examples ring a bell in you? I am sure they do for many here.

I would like to draw your attention to a quotation in your school diary. It goes like this “Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what’s right.” By Isaac Asimov. This quotation has really impressed me much as it has the essence of life in it. Now let me share a story about integrity that made someone’s day.

One of my ex-students lost $300 which was given by his parents as part of his payment for his school trip to Vietnam. I was at the forefront of collecting the cash from him when he broke down and told me that he had lost the money in the bus when travelling to school in the morning. His facial expression was just beyond any description. For a moment I was stunned, not knowing how to console but I braved myself and told him “Perhaps a good soul will return it to you.” That afternoon, I received a call from the General Office that a lady wants to meet my student and me. I met the lady who was holding onto an envelope which read “$ for Vietnam Trip” and it had my student’s name and class as well. When my student saw the envelope, tears just rolled down his eyes. I felt that he was eternally grateful to her. She then explained that she found the envelope in the SBS bus that late morning and luckily it caught her eyes and also the name of the student & the school & my name were written. Feeling the thickness of the envelope, she had guessed that it contained money and decided to bring to the school. I was just speechless when I heard that.

This week, we also saw the release of the Mid-Year Examinations and Prelim 1 results for all of you. I do get to see and hear of pupils going up to teachers that more marks have been awarded accidentally. Kudos to these pupils as they are putting into practice one of our school values “INTEGRITY”. My taking is that the child has been brought up well both by the parents and teachers alike.

Before I end my High Five, I hope that all of you will continue to know the good, desire the good and do the good. Always remember that a simple act of honesty can make someone’s day. As mentioned by American President Dwight Eisenhower “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”

Thank you

Onward GESSIANs