There was once a class of three students, Ariel, Bin Hao & Cid. Each student was very bright, and their teacher Mr Sam knew that each one had a lot of potential.

Once, Mr Sam had to attend an overseas conference, and decided to let the students try their hand at managing short projects. To Ariel he gave 5 tasks, to Bin Hao he gave 2, but to Cid he gave only 1 task. Before he left, the Mr Sam said, "I'm so proud of you three! I have been waiting to give you small projects to manage on your own, and I think it's time I let you three take the wheels! I can’t wait to see your presentations!" With that, he left for the break.

Immediately, Ariel hit the library, setting about her tasks. She began to check all sorts of journals, newspapers, and just about every article she could get her hands on. "If my teacher had carried this out this, how would he have done it?" she wondered. It did not take long before Ariel found all the articles she needed to start on all five tasks.

Bin Hao, however, wasn't as successful as he had hoped to be. It seemed that all the tasks he were given were all that were out of his specialty. "Oh no! I'm best at biology, but why did I end up with Philosophy?" Bin Hao thought very hard, and suddenly remembered that he had a few friends who loved to talk philosophy all day long. He started calling them up to help him with his tasks. "Hello Hongjun? Bin Hao here. I need some help with philosophy..."

Cid, on the other hand, was very disgruntled by the task he had. " 'Why Teaching is Good Learning'. How dumb! Which fellow wants to teach? We came here to learn and prepare for our jobs, not to..." He was about to continue his tirade against his project when he realised that his favourite soccer team was about to start their match against their nemesis team. "This ridiculous task can wait, he thought."

Eventually, days stretched into weeks, and before long Mr Sam returned from his trip. He couldn't wait to see the progress report of his three students. he first found Ariel, and asked her for a presentation.

Ariel, being the brilliant girl she was, displayed her meticulous work so well that Mr Sam was full of her praises when she finished. In fact, she even had 5 other project ideas that were waiting to start. He said, "Wow Ariel! You really impress me! Here, I bought you a special present!" Ariel was so delighted, because Mr Sam gave her a unique hat from the country he visited.

Just then, Bin Hao burst through the door, panting as he tried to explain his difficulties in managing the projects. "I'm so sorry Mr Sam," he panted, "but philosophy is really a weakness of mine, so I had a lot of help from my friends. However, I have some proposals for biology projects you might want to read if you aren't too tired."

"Oh, it was alright Bin Hao," Mr Sam laughed heartily as he explained, "I knew it was your weakness, so I wanted to see how you'd gather the resources to meet the task requirements. I'm delightfully surprised to see that you exceeded my expectations of this project, so I also have something for you!"

He presented Bin Hao something he had always wanted: a book of folk pieces for the piano that he somehow couldn't find. Bin Hao was so happy, he ran to the music room to give it a shot, and almost forgot to thank Mr Sam on his way out!

Wait. Where's Cid? Mr Sam wondered. Mr Sam began searching, but found Sam in a very unlikely place, and at a very unlikely activity: In the classroom using the computer to watch a satellite match of his favourite soccer team. An astonished Mr Sam asked, "Cid! What are you doing? Haven’t you finished your project?"

Cid reluctantly turned to Mr Sam and whined "Mr Sam, your topic is not worth doing! You know there's no way we'd be able to actually experiment with teaching in school, so why did you even bother giving me this project? I had not done it, because I just find this sheer ridiculous!

Mr Sam sighed. He looked at Cid in the eye and answered coldly "Cid, you were the one I had the greatest hope on. Between the three, I knew you were very good at creating scenarios and making plans that work even if you did not test them, hence I gave you the hardest task as I was very confident if your ability..." He looked away, trying not to sound disappointed.

"Unfortunately, you disappointed me. The very least you could do was to at least come up with a proposal of a better project, so that I can let you proceed soon. I guess that my trust in you was misplaced. I was planning to give you a jersey of your favourite striker in the soccer team, but it seems that you have not done anything to deserve it. On top of that, I am withdrawing your privileges."

Calling Bin Hao back in, he said "tell Ariel that I have a new project waiting for her."

Bin Hao looked blankly. "But Mr Sam, she already has 10 projects!"

Mr Sam turned to him and patted his shoulder, saying, "To the one who has, more shall be given. To the one who does not have, even what little he has will be taken away. I hope you learn this principle. Those who choose to do nothing about what little they have will lose it. Those who have many but fully utilize every one opportunity they get will always get more."

End of Story.

*Pants*Pants* I took hours to write this, and I'm sure a handful of you know where this story came from, but that's not the main point.

Essentially, we all start out with a small number of 'projects'. Some of us are like Ariel, who is able to finish the task quickly and go beyond expectations. Some of us are like Bin Hao, who struggles finishing tasks but still makes the effort to do it the best he could.

I just pray hard we do not end up like Cid in this story, who not only lost his opportunity, but also a few other things, just because he felt something was stupid. Which is worse, doing a 'stupid' project, or losing other things because you won't do it?

As you guys know, we've failed the bench check again. It's on 30th March & 31st march, which means one day after Mr Yeow's announcement. It's true it's quite unfair for us to be checked again just one day after the impromptu announcement, but we should not forget that the cleanliness of our class bench is our responsibility, just like keeping the neatness of our own rooms or homes.

I'm very sure we're all sensible enough to know what to do about our responsibilities, so I doubt we actually need rules for class bench!

Back in high school, my 'fac' lived by a couple of value statements, one of which I hope we all learn to take on: "Ensures a conducive learning environment for others." I'm quite sure mess at our bench always BUGS us to death X(

Anyways, I've sorted the things out a bit back there before I went home, and I managed to clear some stuff away. You can come back on monday to have a look.

Let's KEEP our class bench!

=D

~Gid