Welcome to my blog! This is the 1st time I blog on a social media so excuse me if I fumble along the way :-)
Let's start off with a social video made in 2006 when I was still running a children & youth charity in Singapore as the CEO and resident counsellor. The video clip in house scenes were shot entirely in my apartment in Yishun and the outdoor scenes were shot in and near Yishun Primary School. A local movie production company shot it. I was the producer in charge and provided the story board and the idea.
Yes, anyone can use this video for free for any community outreach or humanitarian projects and if you require a soft copy, please contact me at raymond@learningcounselling.com for more information.
Character begins at home
If you have watch the Steven Spielberg hit movie "Catch me if you can" (2002) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, you would remember Frank Abagnale (portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie). He was a renowned con man, cheque forgery and impersonator.
Quote from Wikipedia "He became notorious in the 1960s for passing $2.5 million worth of meticulously forged checks across 26 countries over the course of five years, beginning when he was 16 years old.
In the process, he claimed to have assumed no fewer than eight separate identities, impersonating an airline pilot, a doctor, a Bureau of Prisons agent, and a lawyer. He escaped from police custody twice (once from a taxiing airliner and once from a U.S. federal penitentiary), before he was 21 years old.
He served less than five years in prison before starting to work for the federal government. He is a consultant and lecturer at the academy and field offices for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He also runs Abagnale & Associates, a financial fraud consultancy company."
Mr Abagnale was here recently in Singapore on 1st July 2011 to give a keynote address at a conference on financial crime at Raffles City Convention Centre. Before the speech, it was mentioned in the paper that he spoke to reporters that tackling white-collar crime begins at home and boils down to a matter of character. "This is beginning to be a very unethical world where ethics is not taught at home nor at school", he said.
As printed in the Straits Times - "He argues that young people are raised without the concept of right and wrong, and go into the business world thinking little of cheating and stealing"
"He noted that financial scandals like Enron stemmed from people with bad character: "Before we can even dent white-collar crime...ethics and character must be brought back into homes, schools and workplaces"
Well said indeed and how true this is…the irony is, what he mentioned are not rocket science…we know about this…we can comprehend…but are we doing it? The issue about character building is like global warming…we are concern but just are not doing it…
Let us pause now and start thinking of people who have had a positive impact on our life...chances are, they have all expressed some if not much good character attributes in their life. It is that "hidden success factors" of that person. It is the person's good character that has left that impression in you. Do you want your child to have that kind of influence to others and to the society? If you do, it is time to inculcate good character into their life.
The world we live in...
We live in a world that is fueled by mostly economic challenges, so much so that the education system in both developed and developing countries has inevitably evolved from teaching children to training more children to become contributing individuals to suit a country’s economics’ advancement. This is certainly essential to the progress of a nation. However, while we continue to see our children being educated to bring prosperity to a nation, we often forget about the basis of education; to educate children not only in their minds but in their hearts. Many educators and parents have overlooked the importance of character development and education. This is the roots of education.
This is especially evident as we see more and more countries’ struggling to deal with drugs and weapons issues not only in the society but now in schools. Even in some developed countries, schools are continuously faced with many negative challenges in dealing with students’ glue sniffing, pornography and other negative behaviours mostly stemmed from negative multimedia influences. Amongst these, students’ disobedience to teachers is also experiencing a new high in this modern time. Unless one go into a denial mode, in Singapore, although guns and firearms are both not an issue, the rest are also very common these days.
As a result, in this rapidly changing world, many are caught off-guard when the effect of lack of character education and development emerges as more and more negative issues and problems start to surface in the society. All around the world, from religious leaders to celebrities, to leaders of big corporations and even countries politicians amongst the social and the private sectors are churning out more and more problems in corruptions, cheating and deceptions. Therefore, it is time we go back to our drawing board to seriously look at what is seriously lacking today - Character Development and Education. There will not be a perfect world but let’s make it a better living place…let’s start with our children today…
Character is caught and not taught…
Finally, schools and parents, strange as it might sound to you but stop teaching character to our children…it cannot be taught…first start with showing good examples to them…once they aware that good character is important…the learning begins. Be proactive!
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