This is a speech at the high school closing ceremony of the 1st semester of 2022-2023 school year
Dear students and teachers,
I think every one of us must share the same sentiment today. This semester is eventually over and I want a real break after so many ups and downs in it! All the hustle and bustle took place in the semester were finally gone with the time passed and it is expected that everything will return to the normal after the upcoming winter holidays. We hope the excitement and happiness of the Chinese New Year will wash away all the negative memories in the semester and hence reset our mood and perspectives for the future.
Indeed, during the just passed semester, our work and lives were again torn apart by the hopeless disease prevention measures and sporadic lockdowns and home quarantines. Each school day did not begin with inspiring conversations with your homeroom teachers and classmates; instead, we started most of our work days with waiting in queues for nuclear acid tests. The school administration and teachers spent so much time and energy on monitoring students’ health data and on coordinating quarantines at home or in the school. We always had some students missing from the class, we often had one or two students joining classes online and consequently the teacher must anxiously attend two modes of teaching and learning. Towards the end of the semester, the situation became even worse because we had to dismiss the whole school and teaching and learning was again turned to be completely online.
In the past three years, we had been fed up with all these uncertainties and inconveniences that hugely impacted our learning. So, what we should celebrate today will not only be the achievements of our students’ learning in the semester but also the end of one peculiar era shadowed by the invisible enemy called COVID.
Three years is not too long compared to the life span of one person, yet three years is significantly long if you only consider the three-year high school life. It is 100% of your high school life if you unfortunately entered it in the summer of 2020. One semester is even shorter period of time, yet the learning and growth you gained in it could been life changing.
It is believed that Buddha used his wisdom to teach people, “No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.” Therefore, at the end of this semester, I would like to advise each of you to slightly twist the angle of your outlook focusing on what will happen to you in the future. We must not succumb to and be trapped by the influences and consequences of the past; instead, our mindset should take a more future-oriented approach to our inner mental state and possible real actions that we will be able to take. If that happens, you begin again.
Every person has a goal of life. The founder of Individual Psychology Alfred Adler teaches us that regardless of your past and background every individual naturally has one central personality dynamic that drive you to strive towards a goal of significance, superiority, and success. Adler also ascertains that the behaviors at present can be shaped by your future goal. You can probably tell Adler’s view on this is the complete opposite of what the more famous Psychologist Sigmund Freud believes. The past may not be the only cause of the present and future.
My realization out of this reading is that we need Adler’s goal-oriented approach to our individual psychology after the tremendous negative influence of the past three years and the just finished nerve wracking semester. Your mentality determines how you see the world and yourself, in turn determines what actions you will take for yourself and for the people around you. Let us take back the power of shaping our present and future by considering our life goals and the true meaning of our lives.
Every human being naturally looks for the meaning of the life. “We are not determined by our experiences, but are self-determined by the meaning we give them; and when we take particular experiences as the basis of our future life, we are almost certain to be misguided to some degree. Meanings are not determined by situations. We determine ourselves by the meanings we give situations.” This quote from Mr. Alfred Adler is helpful when we try to adjust our perspective towards what happened to us and what we will create for the future.
In retrospect of the semester, there were certainly promising achievements of the high school. For example, the high school successfully passed the first 5-year review for its IBDP programme. Students and teachers must remember the three days when we opened many classes and attended many interviews. The outcome of the program evaluation is rewarding and the comments from the evaluators are inspiring.
Let me directly quote the words that the IB provides.
“The school’s implementation of the programme shows close alignment with the IB Programme standards and practices.”
“The school has truly put the student at the centre of the stage…The evaluation visit shows a school which is committed to student learning and well-being. The governance, leadership and teachers at the school are committed to providing quality education for the students…The school is truly a learning community for the parents, students and school work together to live up to the school's vision--Originate from China, Impact the world.”
Although there are areas to be further developed by the school, we are already very proud of what we have achieved so far, owing to all the efforts made by our teachers, students, and parents in the past five years. The areas to be further developed include actions to create teachers’ collaborative planning protocol, to design more students’ inquiry-based learning in classroom, to develop students conceptual understanding while teaching the curriculum, to improve students’ perceptions on the links between IB learner profile and learning, and to evaluate the programs related to student wellbeing.
Besides this major achievement as to the IB program, we also managed to organize a range of successful events, including World Mental Health Week, the third Fun Run, Halloween Costume Play, House Singing Competition, as well as the impressive first Duke of Edinburgh International Awards field trip. Many students still developed skills through many school activities such as high school assemblies, house assemblies, as well as many other student club activities. So, we should remember that we did not spend all our time in void and that we did create a meaningful semester together although it was not a perfect one.
Out of this special semester, we even developed some new insights as to how to further improve our school. For example, a few students helped rearrange the library so that the space use could be more efficient and user friendly. We also gained invaluable experience as to the operation of Shanghai curriculum. We identified some areas to be improved as to the high school student association. We also began to consider the improvement of the high school House System. Some discussions and experiments have even started in this semester. These are all very promising signs to a brighter future of the high school.
Students and teachers, this will be the end of this memorable semester. After today, the tiredness, sickness, anxiety, and even depression that you possibly felt will be gone if you take the courage to turn your life to the next page. The beauty of being a human is that we not only influenced by what we are given, such as the environment and our inborn abilities, we but also are proactively engaged in improving what we are given and the world around us. This special capacity of us is called human agency, which sets us apart from all our animal cousins on the planet. We recognize this special capacity; we capitalize on it to create better lives for ourselves and for others.
Wish you a happy and refreshing winter vacation! I will see you again in the middle of February when the school will reopen. I look forward to meeting a newer and happier you when we see each other again. All the best wishes!
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