So far the lectures have been very "edutaining". Since this is a leadership course, a large chunk of the lectures has been centred on Systems Thinking and the concepts of the Learning Organization.
I am not going to present theories of what I have learnt on this blog. They will surely drive all of you to boredom. Never my intent anyway. Instead , I will try to infuse some of these principles in the TTT structure in such a way that you won't even realise that you are applying these principles ! You will hear from Hasanah on this very soon.
For now, I like to talk about Ethos. Now what exactly is Ethos ?
Ethos is a Greek word meaning "character" which is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology.
We have the Ethos of the education service but I am not going to dwell on that . I would like to focus on the "Ethos of our school".
At the start of MLS, we were encouraged to build the "MLS ethos" by the lecturer. Lest you think that we are being spoon fed with lecture notes and information. The answer is no. This course operates in such a way that the course participants are always on the look out for one another. We form our own support communities and we are encouraged to share resources and our insights freely with one another.
We were even told by the lecturer that the spirit of "gotong royong"* was so strong in previous MLS batches that people would willingly sponsor refreshments for the cohort ( by the way, NIE only provided free refreshment on the 1st day). Not only that ,participants brought extension cords for fellow course mates so that they could power their laptops in the lecture hall.
*Originated from Indonesia, the phrase is translated into English as “cooperation in a community” or “communal helping of one another”
This is only the 5th day of the course and I am already seeing online communities appearing all over the place without the coaxing of the lecturers. People offering free car rides for fellow course mates to NIE on a daily basis, people volunteering to take up posts to serve others. Since I am in the course , I must do something right ? So I volunteer to organise a Google Office visit for the cohort (Hope it works out) and it has generated quite a fair bit of responses so far from the course participants.
Putting all these together, it sets me reflecting on the following issue- The MLS has 170 participants and in such a short time, an MLS ethos is slowly emerging.
What about us as a school community ?
The MLS has a shelf-life. It will expire in May. Our school community, on the other hand, is here to stay.
Do we have a "Palm View Ethos ?"
- A place where we build people up rather than tear people down
- A place where we give freely rather than take
- A place where the "gotong-royong" spirit is so strong that we help and support one another not because we have to but because we want to
- A place where the word "calculative" has no place in our corporate dictionary. Whenever a need arises, we stand up to the occasion to meet that need...
Ponder on this topic for a while. You may like to write to me and give me your comments or offer a different viewpoint or better still suggest what can we do to build a Palm View "Ethos". Let's start some form of intellectual discourse online,
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