My blog from Houston, Texas. Updated most weeks, usually on Sundays.
I almost always illustrate my books exclusively with photos I have taken myself, and as the geography books I presented to them have over 1200 of my photos within their pages, my hope is that the students will have many happy hours browsing the photos, working out where they were taken, and then maybe even moving beyond the pictures and reading the text of the books as well.
On the following morning, Wednesday, 91 students delighted their parents and families by donning little caps and gowns and participating in the Kindergarten graduation ceremony, surely an important rite of passage for any five year old. The graduation ceremony was followed by a heart-warming series of musical performances on the theme of international understanding, organised by our brilliant Lower School Music Teacher, Ms Natasha Ramírez.
One day, after the cage with the cheese had been lying untouched for a week, one of the school’s maintenance staff came around to do some repairs, and he happened the see the mouse trap. He looked at me and said very seriously with a waggle of the finger “Chinese mice do not eat cheese”.
There had to be a reason that the mouse had not been enticed into the cage, so I asked the man from the maintenance department what a Chinese mouse might prefer to eat. “Fish” he said confidently, “with soy sauce”. I had never thought of a mouse eating fish or that a mouse might prefer it with a little dash of soy sauce. In fact, that would have been the last thing I would have thought of using. As the maintenance man went out the door he added “Mice like a little ginger on their fish”.
We can learn a lot from that mouse in Hong Kong, who sadly, is no longer with us. The mouse did not like cheese because he (or maybe she, I didn’t ask) had never tried it. He (let’s assume it was a ‘he’) had decided he didn’t like it but had never experienced it. If he had been told by his mother or father or teacher that cheese was dangerous and therefore avoided it, that would make sense. But without any knowledge or understanding of cheese, the mouse had decided not to try it. Like me, you can probably see the parallel with students who criticise subjects or sports they have never tried or knock people that they don’t know…
Never make the mistake of thinking that by doing well you are therefore doing your best. When I was in Hong Kong, I had a very good mouse trap, but while ever I thought that, I was prevented from making an excellent mouse trap. I had to depend on others for advice, and through that I achieved excellence, as I am sure the mouse would testify to you today if it had survived.
In the same way, I hope that you will always want to strive for the heights of excellence.”
Chinese mice do not eat cheese
Sunday, 2 June 2013