Dearests, a little inspiration--Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the US, was born into a poor family, and his mother died when he was still a young child. He didn't attend school till his father remarried a woman who saw the importance of education:


"The multiplication-table was still a mystery to him, and he could read or write only the words he spelled. His first two years in Indiana seem to have passed without schooling of any sort, and the school he attended shortly after coming under the care of his stepmother was of the simplest kind, for the Pigeon Creek settlement numbered only eight or ten poor families, and they lived deep in the forest, where, even if they had had the money for such luxuries, it would have been impossible to buy books, slates, pens, ink, or paper. It is worthy of note, however, that in our western country, even under such difficulties, a school-house was one of the first buildings to rise in every frontier settlement.

Abraham's second school in Indiana was held when he was fourteen years old, and the third in his seventeenth year. By that time he had more books and better teachers, but he had to walk four or five miles to reach them. We know that he learned to write, and was provided with pen, ink, and a copy-book, and a very small supply of writing-paper, for copies have been printed of several scraps on which he carefully wrote down tables of long measure, land measure, and dry measure, as well as examples in multiplication and compound division, from his arithmetic.

He was never able to go to school again after this time, and though the instruction he received from his five teachers - two in Kentucky and three in Indiana - extended over a period of nine years, it must be remembered that it made up in all less than one twelve-month; "that the aggregate of all his schooling did not amount to one year." The fact that he received this instruction, as he himself said, "by littles," was doubtless an advantage. A lazy or indifferent boy would of course have forgotten what was taught him at one time before he had opportunity at another; but Abraham was neither indifferent nor lazy, and these widely separated fragments of instruction were precious steps to self-help.

He pursued his studies with very unusual purpose and determination not only to understand them at the moment, but to fix them firmly in his mind. His early companions all agree that he employed every spare moment in keeping on with some one of his studies. His stepmother tells us that "When he came across a passage that struck him, he would write it down on boards if he had no paper, and keep it there until he did get paper. Then he would rewrite it, look at it, repeat it. He had a copy-book, a kind of scrap-book, in which he put down all things, and thus preserved them." He spent long evenings doing sums on the fire-shovel."

From:
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/presidents-day/abraham-lincoln/biography/lincolns-childhood.html

All the best for the exams, kids!
:)


Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
James Joyce

WGS Carnival 140309

for those kiddos whom i didnt get to meet when i popped by--HELLO!!!!!

Dear all,

Have an exciting brand-new school term ahead!

When you get all stressed out, remember:

3 Rules of Work
1. Out of clutter, find simplicity.
2. From discord find harmony.
3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein

Keep in touch (:

[email me at misslimisslim [at] gmail.com ]

Dear all,

Your Lit text Sing to the Dawn by Minfong Ho has been made into a movie and is now showing in the cinemas!

http://www.singtothedawn.com/

Dr William Tan Kian Meng

10 MARATHONS 7 CONTINENTS 70 DAYS

NEUROSCIENTIST and wheelchair athlete William Tan has set a new world record - completing 10 marathons on seven continents in 70 days.

In the process, the 48-year-old covered a total distance of more
than 400km.

The races were held in Antarctica,
Fin del Mundo (Argentina),
Phoenix and Boston (United
States), Bangkok (Thailand),
Cape Town (South Africa),
Amsterdam (Netherlands),
Queenstown (New Zealand),
Canberra (Australia) and Vancouver (Canada).

The current Guinness World Record is held by Mr Tim Rogers from
Britain, an able-bodied man who finished seven marathons on
seven continents in 99 days in 1999.

Dr Tan embarked on his quest in February to raise $1.5 million to
set up a professorship in paediatric oncology at the National
University of Singapore. The funds will be used to bring overseas
childhood cancer experts to Singapore to share their skills with
health-care workers.

He said the toughest part of his feat was the race in Antarctica, where he had to wheel himself over steep hills blanketed with ice that had melted into muddy slush. Then, he used skis on his chair's wheels, which made movement harder.

'At one point, my wheelchair went into two foot-deep mud, and I had to be pulled out by five
runners,' said Dr Tan, who became paralysed from the waist down after contracting polio at the age of two.

***
Dr William Tan regularly gets on his racing wheelchair for marathon pushes, climbs multi-storey buildings and performs tandem parachute jumps, all for the sake of generating awareness of the less fortunate and raising funds for worthy causes.

In 1987, Dr Tan, then 30, embarked on his first fund-raising drive by pushing his wheelchair non-stop for 16 hours on the running track of his alma mater, Raffles Institution. Since then, he has progressed to many more innovative and daunting activities. He is also a motivational speaker, inspiring individuals such as students and business leaders, as well as organisations, in community involvement.

A paraplegic himself, Dr Tan has helped to reshape and rebuild the lives of many patients affected by paralysis. Fourteen years ago, he started a support group to help newly disabled patients, now known as the Spinal Support Group, run by the younger disabled.

More recently, Dr Tan established the Women’s and Children’s Healthcare Foundation to improve the welfare and health of children, youth and families.

Dr Tan greets life’s unfortunate setbacks and challenges with grace and vibrancy. He chooses to focus on his abilities and not disabilities.

Dr Tan’s perseverance is legendary. For example, during his home visits to the many disabled residing in HDB flats that were not on lift-landings, he would sit on his bottom and drag his wheelchair up the flight of stairs to reach their flats. During his fund-raising push across the length of New Zealand, he struggled on his wheelchair up Arthur’s Alps (the most hilly slope in the south island of New Zealand), refusing the offer to be driven across.

And despite the loss of his cancer-stricken father last year, he completed his pushes from Segamat in Malaysia to Singapore, which helped raise funds for kidney patients.

Over the past 15 years, despite his busy career as a medical researcher, Dr Tan has devoted time, effort and money to help the less fortunate. He continues to do so. Come next June, he will push his wheelchair from Melbourne to Newcastle, to raise funds for cancer patients in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

This President’s Social Service Award is a testimony to the valiant heart and indomitable spirit of Dr Tan.

http://www.ncss.org.sg/presidents%20award/pastwinners2001_williamtan.htm