School last (spam folder)

"Grandpa, what is a Honor Student?" My first grade grand daughter asks when she saw the new about an honor student who comitted suicide.

"They are like you. They don't listen, they are not social, all they worry about is their school work and exams." I answered her sarcaticly in attempt to teach her that there is more to life than school.

See, My friend has 2 sons. In elementary school, the older one is an hornor student, received all kinds of awards. studied all the time, took all exams seriously, has a touchy personality and is somoe what anti-social. The younger brother is just a regular student, a trouble maker at times, grades are mediocore, didn't really cared about exams.

The older brother went on to an university, became a doctor, had trouble with his relationships, career was not as smooth as he anticipated, developed depression and took his own life. The younger brother finshed high school, join the Army, started in a entry level job after discharge, great marriage and family, his career took sky rocketed and is now a CEO of a multi billion dollar company.

I was the younger brother's teacher in high-school, and he followed and lived by my philosophy: "Marriage first, Work second, School third. However, you must marry the right person, work hard on your career, and exams are the least important thing in school." In fact, every thing else about school is more important than exam: social interaction, friends, sleep, eat, health etc.

Once, a fellow student call the younger brother a "dummy". " Thank you, it's a pleasure." He resspond to that student. 30 years later, that fellow student became his vice president.

we met not too long ago and I asked him how did he manage to improve his Japanese and learned to speak English so well, he said "After I got married, I needed to establish my career to support my new family. I need to learn more in order to advance, so I did it on my own. No scores, no Exams, no pressure". I then asked about his sky rocketing career, "Well, I owe it all to my good friends who help along the way" he answered, " You know, your philosophy was right."

So, do you still belive in School's Honor System?

Story by retired teacher in Taiwan.

There you go Jason, I'm pretty sure the translatoin is 95% accurate. because I am fluent in Chinese. :)

Chunsum
(2005)