i wrote this on my notebook in school on 19 august 2010, thurs.
wanted to blog it on the day itself, but had no time...
oh well!

this is what i wrote:

today, 19 august 2010, i had PE and today, 19 august 2010, i had the best PE lesson.

Just in 1h 10 min, 3 diligence learnt and exhibit the values of YOG, friendship, respect and excellence. Yes, these 3 values wer shown in a simple game of modified half court basketball. We played in 1/4 of a half court, in groups of 2 and had 2 oponents. yup, it is really that small of a game. so you must be wondering how can the values be shown?

this is how we did it:
1. we included everyone, despite their differences
(eg: i cant run as i was recovering from appendicitis operation, some are better in dribbling etc...)
2. we played to our best
(everyone ended PE lesson in a drenched shirt)
3. we had handshakes after every match
(i even evented a personalised handshake!!! )

Well, of course this is part of the reason why PE was meaningful, but there is more that happened. I admire hazel, my partner. as you all know, i had appendicitis operation a few weeks back. though i can move now, i cant run. so throughout all 7 matches, hazel was the one running to catch the ball and intercept the ball, while i could only walk. you can compare the amount of energy she put in by comparing our shirts after PE. i was sweat a little and the t shirt was partially wet, but hazel's shirt made her seemed as though she ran in the rain! yes, although i keep on telling her to rest, she will say she is alright and continue running to get the ball. i really am impressed! she put so much effort to include me in the team, to adapt to my disability of running!

another fantastic experienced happened around the 7th match. hazel injured her thumb on her right hand and you know what the oponents and i did? we decided to put our right hand behind our backs and only use our left hand to play. it was difficult and all of us were tired from the past 6 matches, but we did that to include her. ms lim did not teach us anything about fair play, but we still do it. and imagine, the oponents happily agreed to the idea. no complains at all! only love and acceptance. isnt that wonderful?!

during the debrief, ms lim talked about what we have learn from the games and even the part of working together to include everybody. be is short, tall, poor played, good player etc. she then shared about a sec 4 girl, Clara. Clara is born with only one arm, but yet she chose to play softball for the 10 week PE programme. ms lim said that she treated her like any other students. no special treatment and ms lim then questioned us how clara is able to play with only one arm? apparently, during fielding, she uses one hand to catch, take out the glove and throw. while batting, she uses one hand to bat the ball and the teammates run for her. yes, working together. i admire that she aims for excellence and always try and never say "no thanks" she takes up every opportunity, work on it and overcome it.

true excellence, true respect, true friendship.

anyway, this PE lesson had really open my eyes and got me thinking. it is indeed amazing that such strong values can be applied in daily activities. it isnt hard being a good person, it just takes courage and a little sacrifice!