Background
Hong Kong Red Cross Hospital Schools celebrated the 60th anniversary in 2014, and in the same year the School Executive Committee (SEC) set into action the school’s innovation in that its development should be based on the school motto, so as to manifest our individual characteristics and missions. Our Supervisor, Alan Chow, is hence setting sail and leading us on our new, long and resplendent journey.
In October, 2014, Principal Chan Siu-ling asked the teaching staff for suggestions of school motto, and 20 were received. In the SEC’s meeting of January, 2015, a motto including 3 crucial elements was synthesized and integrated from the 20 suggestions and submitted to the Incorporated Management Committee (IMC) for discussion and adoption.
On 15th October, 2015, the IMC adopted our school motto: Benevolence & Love, Perseverance, Self-improvement. Allen K.K. Yam, the Director of Special Education & Rehabilitation Service, was then invited to inscribe the words and give a lecture to the teaching staff for encouragement. Since then, we have always borne in mind the motto in teaching our students. We endeavor to carry forward the humanitarian spirit of Hong Kong Red Cross through our benevolence and love to our students, to nurture our students’ perseverance to overcome their illnesses or disabilities, as well as to encourage them to live enriching and fulfilling lives through continuous self-improvement.
Interpretation & Implementation
Love
Mensius said, "The feeling of commiseration is the principle of benevolence." (Part One, Gong Sun Chou, Mencius)
The founder of the Red Cross, Henry Dunant witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in 1859. Shocked, Dunant himself took the initiative to organize the civilian population to provide assistance to the injured and sick soldiers even included the enemies. Benevolence & love is indeed the humanitarian spirit of The Red Cross.
Benevolence is also the core value of Confucianism. "Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others." (The Analects of Confucius Yong) Benevolence means “Love your neighbour as yourself, consider others in your own place.” An educationalist should make no distinctions in teaching, provide education for all people regardless of their abilities, wealth and health. The whole teaching staff of the Red Cross Hospital Schools should always embrace the belief of "No Child Left Behind", understand our students’ plight of suffering from illness, and devoted to nurture them, helping them to enrich their knowledge. In return, they may learn to treat others with benevolence and love in the future.
Doctors heal children while teachers comfort children’s hearts with benevolence and love. It is our vision to go hand in hand with the medical staff in helping our children to go out of the shadow of illness. That is why our core value of school motto is Benevolence & Love.
Perseverance
'Firmness…unyielding and secure thing.', 'Determination… with strong and unshakable willpower.'(Ci Hai)
'Perseverance' means 'be firm and persistent'(Chinese dictionary)
When one faces obstacles and difficulties, he could still hold fast to his goals, have the courage to accept challenges, never give up with consistent efforts. That is how 'perseverance' is showed.
Falling sick is the most helpless and unexpected frustration in one’s life. Facing unknown treatment and life arrangements, the feeling of confusion and depression could all make students, parents and teachers lose the courage to move forward. 'Perseverance' is the key to successful treatment, and is also the most precious virtue one can learn from getting sick.
Facing students with different conditions of sickness, and despite their undesirable learning conditions, the teaching staff in Hospital Schools all uphold humanity, provide the most suitable teaching with all our might. Our students may face pain and restrictions from sickness, but we are always beside them so that they could have faith when facing treatment and life. We encourage our students to strive to pursue knowledge and be strong in facing lives transformed by sickness.
With 'perseverance', we always walk side by side with our students throughout the course of the treatment.
Self-improvement
'The Heavens are in motion ceaselessly, so the virtuous must strive to improve himself.' (Hexagram Qian, The Book of Change)
The virtuous one learns from the robust motion of the celestial bodies, and improves himself relentlessly by absorbing knowledge extensively. 'Strive to improve oneself' is the faith in motivating a man, an organization or a race to look for room for improvement and even longevity.
As a navigator in the journey of pursuing knowledge, we teachers must urge ourselves to improve our knowledge and pedagogy, in order to cope with the diversified special education needs of our students, and participate in multi-disciplinary interaction, so as to accumulate and summarize teaching experience. By doing this, we can strengthen our unique, comprehensive mode of hospital teaching which caters for diverse special learning needs, and create the most beneficial learning environment for students’ learning and growth.
'Self-improvement' is crucial for students to learn from their sickness. Through continuous learning, we hope they could enrich their hospital lives, be more aware of their souls, and be energetic and faithful in life, and so their spirits would not be shattered. ‘Self-improvement’ would also take root in their personality, and empower them to start a new chapter in life.
