20131001愛心鋪設菩提道 Education: The Hope of Our Children
Education is indeed the hope of humanity. Man needs education because without it, people won’t be able to find their purpose in life. Over 20 years ago, our first book on Jing Si Aphorisms was published. When Mr. You, a teacher in Pingdong, first came across the aphorisms, he found them very inspiring. At the time, one of his classes was full of problematic students.
So, he began to teach Jing Si Aphorisms in his classes. Every day, he’d share an aphorism with his students. Back then, video game arcades were very popular, especially around schools. So, after school, many children would rush there to play video games. One time, when a boy in Mr. You’s class stepped inside the arcade, a Jing Si aphorism flashed in his mind: “There are always one too few good kids” “and one too many bad kids”
So, he promptly turned around and went straight home. When he got home, he saw his younger brother. The two of them started cleaning their room. Seeing that, their mother was very surprised and asked them what happened. The two brothers looked at each other. The younger one said, “We want to be good kids” and the older one said, “Mom has much work to do” “We should help as well”
See, when the boy thought of the Jing Si Aphorism he’d learned, he couldn’t do bad and was even so considerate to his mother that he and his younger brother worked together to clean their room. The boy has now grown up, completed his military service, and started working. So, in educating our children, apart from textbooks, extracurricular books that are good for children can also benefit them greatly.
in the U.S., our volunteers also use Jing Si aphorisms to teach children Mandarin. Children in the U.S. seem to enjoy more freedom and respect than those in other countries. Indeed, the U.S. is a very free country and offers a lot of opportunities. So, many people choose to start a new life there.
But, there are still impoverished places. Take for example. Bayview-Hunters Point in San Francisco. As the area has high rates of crime, poverty, etc., Tzu Chi volunteers started going to an elementary school there to interact with its students. They provide tutoring, and teach them Jing Si Aphorisms and Mandarin. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, they go to the school to care for the children and chat with them.
Our volunteers were shocked. It seemed that the boy found nothing wrong with becoming a robber. Worried, our volunteers started working hard to guide the children in order to help them gradually get rid of their bad thoughts and give rise to wholesome ones. And now they are different.
Our volunteers also taught the children to perform “From Vow to Action” To help them better understand Buddhism, our volunteers told them the story of Ven. Jian Zhen and how he spread Buddhist precepts to Japan. They also took the children to see a Buddhist temple in Chinatown. This is how our volunteers taught the children step by step, like nurturing seeds.
No matter how tiny a seed may be, as long as we take good care of it, it will not be difficult for the seed to sprout and grow. See how they care for the children with patience and love. As the U.S. Dept. of Education is trying to improve education in poor communities, it hopes to involve faith-based charity groups to provide help for low-performing schools.
There’s a Dr. Kenneth Bedell who used to manage United Methodist work related to higher education. Now he works for the U.S. Dept. of Education. He has been visiting faith-based organizations around the U.S. When he came to Northern California, he learned about Tzu Chi’s Happy Campus Program where our volunteers personally go into schools to help children. He saw that our program is very successful.
Dr. Kenneth Bedell was deeply moved by our program. So, he invited Tzu Chi volunteers to the white House to attend a seminar on education. All in all, I’m very grateful to Tzu Chi volunteers in Northern California for doing such a great job at this school. Education is about guiding people to have correct values in life. That’s most important. Indeed, character and moral ethics are much more important than knowledge.
It will be very dangerous when people deviate from moral ethics. So, our education mustn’t go astray in the slightest bit.
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