Photo taken in ECNUAS High School in January 2022
We never knew this semester would be ended in such an unexpected way. The last day was abruptly cancelled, leaving quite a few important things unfinished, including a few final exams, the closing ceremony, and especially the long-waited announcements of all types of student awards.
Please don’t worry, we will sort out all these things. Some will take place in this week, some others will be arranged at the beginning of next semester.
All the student awards represent the standards and expectations of ECNUAS HS education, all the awarded students are the best examples for others who should learn from them. Other students should know you can become one of them if you work harder and participate more.
In addition to those school-based awards, our students also competed at national and international academic and non-academic contests in this semester. In the just past semester, our students won 24 national or international awards or medals, including a few distinguished ones, such as,
iGEM global silver medal, International
HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) bronze prize, National
NEC (National Economics Challenge) individual prize, National
Math League International Summer Challenge, Proficiency Award, National
I believe, all the achievements are built on the knowledge and skills the students gained in regular classes and through extra-curricular learning opportunities. For instance, I saw students take extra training classes during evenings and do biochemical experiments in holidays.
Teachers’ guidance, teaching, and support must be acknowledged too. I would like to ask these award-winning students to find your respective teachers and say Thank-You to your beloved teachers. Please remember in the school it is your teachers who were with you day and night during the semester. Your teachers will love to hear you express your gratitude.
On the top of teaching, our teachers also created a lot of academic and non-academic events and activities for you. I will now just show a few activity names on the screen to bring back your memories of these events. For example,
Science competitions organized by E House
Poem competition organized by S House
High School sports day
Visual Arts exhibitions
High School radio station broadcasting
Basketball team competitions
Football tournament
Drama festival
World mental health day activities
Fun Run in Auto Expo Park
ECNUAS New Year Concert
Gold Key Chamber Music Concert
Beside subject teachers and Heads of House, I also learned many stories about our students from Homeroom teachers. These stories are about our students’ good habits or admirable achievements or leadership actions in these homerooms. For example, ...
I really want to highlight one word as part of this closing speech as I feel this word is more and more important as to your school and overall life experience.
The word is gratitude, the quality of being thankful, readiness to show appreciation for what has been given and to return kindness. I realize this quality is to some degree missing in the attitudes of some students. These students take things given them as granted. Things like the good living conditions that their parents offer to them, the kindness and helps that their friends give to them, the teaching and support that their teachers provide them, and all the efforts that the school creates for them.
According to positive psychology research, gratitude is obviously associated with greater happiness of people. Gratitude can help you enjoy good experiences, feel positive emotions, improve your health, build strong relationships with others, and deal with unanticipated adversities[1].
You might wonder how the students who don’t have the quality of being thankful look like. They always look at the negative side of things, they complain a lot because they don’t see the bright side of things, they attribute own unhappiness to others’ mistakes, they are not happy and they won’t be happy in any place. In short, they tend to complain without a good purpose rather than try to solve problems.
Mere complaints with no good intentions aren’t helpful at all. They also show that you don’t know how to be grateful. This type of complaints creates uncomfortableness, unhappiness, and stress for others around you. They are harmful for the community too.
The worse thing is that you spread these one-sided stories on the social media because the people read or see them would only see the negative side that you say out there. For example, if you said one poor lesson in the school on one particular today on the social media, the people who read it would only see this poor lesson of the school but not be able to know there are actually hundreds of good lessons happening in the school every week. You can see that this type of action cannot be appreciated.
What is a better way to show you gratitude while you see and want to solve some issues? Before you make a judgement, you should ask yourself a few questions: Do I see the whole picture of the story? Do I feel gratitude to the people involved in the incident? Is it helpful to any one if I just conveniently complain on the social media? Am I helping myself and others solve the problem? Talk to the people involved, ask for clarifications, and give your opinions and constructive suggestions. These are the right things you can do to solve problems and at the same time show your quality of gratitude.
Perhaps after you asked these questions and took these right actions, you would feel more thankful, more understanding, and happier. Perhaps you would know the better way to solve the issues instead of just adding some more uncomfortableness, unhappiness, and stress to the community and society.
Many students in the school know how to express their gratitude. I know teachers often receive thanks letters from students and parents. For example, at the end of one Monday high school assembly, one Grade 10 student approached me and presented me a nice set of 春联 that she wrote. I know she appreciates what I do as the Principal of the school, she feels gratitude towards the school. I appreciate her gift greatly too.
Many people including teachers and other staff members are supporting your learning and living in the school. You must feel thankful for what these people have offered. You should open your eyes and minds wider so you can see more bright aspects of the school. You will start to appreciate it and enjoy it. If you do feel gratitude, say it to your teachers in person or through other communication tools such as an email, and share this positive feeling with the wider society if you like. Remember you are part of this family, you have the responsibility to let more people know the wonderfulness and happiness that we create together.
Thank you very much! Have happy winter holiday!
I will see you again on February 17, 2022.
Wish you all the best!
[1] Havard Health Publishing, Giving thanks can make you happier
(August 14, 2021)
https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier
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