I think I am getting punished for taking 2 days off during Chinese New Year. Just a lot of work. It was expected that January through March would be a hellish time at work. But other than the work scheduled, from time to time, there are also these "extra" work. Working on 2 textbooks at once is already a lot of work to do, the "extra" stuff are like pebbles people thrown at you while you are just trying to stay above water. 

I just don't get this. Can the management just plan things around holidays? Why are we always so busy during the holiday season? We need more respect for holidays! 

But I must give props to some of my colleagues who are like freaking rocks. 

近代 中史 教育 困難

[2001-03-12] 中史應切合需要增新元素

放大圖片

　（左起）趙雨樂、劉義章、周佳榮、梁操雅及何冠環正討論中史科的發展前景。

　 【本報訊】為消除中史教師對課程改革的疑慮，香港教育圖書公司特地舉辦「探討中國歷史科的前景及路向」論壇，分析未來中史科的發展路向。席上五位學者一致 呼籲教育同工，不要再自怨自艾，反之應努力為中史學科加添新元素，令它兼備公民教育、培養民族意識的同時，亦能切合社會需要。

　浸大歷史學系系主任周佳榮指出，香港之所以能成為國際大都會，全仗具備多元化元素，切合社會不同 人士需求。究竟中史科合併與否，其實根本無關痛癢，最重要的是學校能發展出一套符合實際需要的中史課程。他更強調：「有人就有歷史，有歷史就需要有教師及 學者，故此根本不用擔心飯碗不保的問題。」香港教育學院社會學系高級講師梁操雅認為，究竟未來中史課程如何發展、評估以及教師以何種形式教授，實有賴教育 同工所提供的意見，他盼望教育署在本月底就中史課程改革諮詢公眾意見時，業界能踴躍發表意見。

　對於目前中史課程的編排，理大通識教育中心高級講師何冠環指出：「初中要由先秦歷史學到近代，中 四、五又要學多次，到預科更要學到第三次，試問如何能提起學生興趣？」此外，他又認為未來本港大學四年制、中學三三制的措施，乃大勢所趨事在必行，屆時中 史課程必須重新再作檢討。

　曾於中學任教多年的中大歷史學系副教授劉義章指出，目前大部分學校都是在「臨時拉夫」的情況下， 強迫其他老師兼教中史科，他們在缺乏本科知識的情況下，只能依書直說導致學生失去對中史的興趣。公大人文社會科學院助理教授趙雨樂則呼籲，教育同工要平心 靜氣地與政府有關部門，就中史課程的未來發展進行商討，以解決目前中史科所遇到的問題。

何榮宗﹕難為了近代史教師

(明報)7月21日 星期一 05:10

【明報專訊】我屬於殖民地後期接受教育的一代，中學時期憧憬着回歸祖國，經常思疑為何歷史教科書內，中國近代史就止於1911年的辛亥革命。記得老 師當時稱這是殖民地歷史觀使然，說到激動處，老師有一次還在我們面前憤而擲書。然而回歸超過10年，我發現目前在香港教授中國近代史其實跟以往一樣困難。

半年前我接受香港教育圖書公司委託，因應教局要求，更新高中世界史科當中的中國近代史部分，編審工作已經完成，惟過程中的一些發現，教我至今一直忐忑。

現在歷史教科書中涵蓋的時段明顯延長了，越過了辛亥革命，越過了1949年建國，甚至越過了1978年的開放改革，更提及了1992年鄧小平 南巡和1997年香港回歸。

不過我認為中國近代史其實最好止於78年的開放改革就算，之後事故比較適宜撥入通識課。這種「時間分工」當然是可以辯論的，但既然歷史教科書要把十多年前的事都納入去大書一筆，觸及了92南巡和97回歸，也就罷了，卻對1989年天安門 事件隻字不提，這明顯有違於鋪陳歷史大事件的基本原則，試問這是什麼歷史觀？叫教師如何授課？

再說一個實例。教科書中提到中國共產黨 「有效地領導抗日游擊戰」，此話字面上沒錯，但當中「領導」二字很容易令人聯想到共產黨「領導抗日」，而事實上，根據很多非官方媒體記載，早就說明了共產黨從未主導抗日，真正的抗日主力是國民黨 的軍隊。有關這方面實况，教科書未有弄清楚，香港教師亦較難接觸到第一手資料，討論這課題時就難有說服力。假如教師主動找些官方資料作教材又如何呢？結果是同樣有難處。

刪減《毛澤東 集》

據1976年中國共產主義研究小組刊印的《毛澤東集》，毛澤東曾在1938年10月的一次講話中提到共產黨人抗日應全力以赴，他說：「失敗主義是罪 惡，全力援助蔣委員長與國民政府是天職，是責無旁貸」，當中「援助」一詞明顯說明國民黨在抗日中的主導地位。這是官方媒體，又是毛主席說的話，教師可以用 作教材了罷？不然！再查一下2002年人民出版社出版的《毛澤東選集》，同一篇講稿，「援助」一詞不復再，同一句話縮短為：「失敗主義是罪惡，爭取抗日勝 利是責無旁貸的。」國民黨的部分被刪掉了。試問這又是什麼歷史觀？毛主席的同一番話，兩個版本，教師選哪個來教才好？

一個社會，連認清歷史、以史為鑑的基礎都沒有，教人民何以知興替？如何面對未來？那些仍影響着當權者因此而仍不斷在「變化」的史料，不教也罷。

作者是香港城市大學

應用社會科學系助理教授

Art of Communicating

When does a person stop learning? Never.

Communicating is hard. Being an effective and precise communicator is hard. I have much to learn about being silent, when to speak and when to be quiet. I am a pretty quiet person already. Before I begin to speak, I usually think about it several times over, but still I have loose lips. Sometimes when I am in a mood or on a roll, on a certain topic-I just find it hard to restrain from speaking too much.

I like to be in control of my speech. Not to hurt anybody, yet at the same time have the courage to say what is needed to be said. Speaking is a fine art.

I don't think one ever stop learning how to communicate better.

Not too long ago, I actually don't care too much on how people might reinterpret what I say, but recently I realized that I need to be more assertive, more precise. And if I am not precise, I have to make sure, explain myself, what I mean so that would be no chance of misunderstanding. I just don't want any misunderstanding. There's enough of that already in the world, I don't have to create more.

But it's hard. I like to be care-free and speak freely. That's why you need close friends and family, people who you can speak more casual with. People who trust you and think well of you.

I don't like people with schemes and hidden objectives. People that I have to be on my guard when speaking to. It is just tiring. I wish everybody can be honest with one another. But that require trust and love (and probably more).

I don't like to be judged and stereotyped. That's belittling.

First Entry of 2009 and ...

I think I am going to die tomorrow (not literally, no way!) . I seems to learn by hitting myself against the wall. I just put myself in difficult situations that can be prevented. But I don't, well, at least more than I would like to. Am I just stupid. The thing is that I don't know protocol. I am not raised in a family or environment that teach me a lot about the order of things. Like how to behave in an office or whatever. Maybe it is my care-free personality. Maybe it is something in gene that make me a bit rebellious with a maverick outlook in things: I am just different, I run by different rules.

Modelling Geographical Systems

Berry Boots, Atsuyuki Okabe and Richard Thomas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Dun

Take picture of Nokias, fruits and rice and credit cards.

Reason for clergy shortage

Reason for clergy shortage? Just ask why pastors leave churches

A growing challenge in many denominations is finding enough pastors to serve the churches that are vacant. More people are leaving the ministry ranks (through resignation or retirement) than are joining them. In my own denomination, the Christian Reformed Church, plans to start new churches are repeatedly scaled back because we can’t find enough qualified pastors to start these new churches. Our denomination is having a hard enough time finding enough pastors to fill vacant churches, let alone finding pastors to start new ones. Why the shortage of ministers?

Several years ago, consultants Alan and Cheryl Klaas were hired by the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) to investigate this issue. They were tasked to find the root causes of the clergy shortage that many denominations are facing. The problem they uncovered was unexpected (to them) and troubling. The reason for the drop-off of new ministry recruits matched the reason for an increase in people leaving ministry: the conflict, criticism, and ill-treatment that has become an all-too-common aspect of ministry life. What follows is an excerpt of an article in the Baptist standard:

“[This research study] was intended to be a traditional recruitment and retention study,” Klaas said. For example, he thought he’d be recommending changes on issues like seminary communication with potential students.

“We wondered if students got good services, if seminaries were recruiting the right people,” he explained. But in the end, the Klaases concluded the problems are 20 percent institutional and 80 percent behavioral.

“The fundamental finding is that people beating on each other is the main issue,” Klaas said.

One telling statistic from the Klaas study is the decrease in the numbers of pastors’ kids who become pastors themselves. Klaas estimates that pastors’ children made up about 40 percent of seminarians in the 1950s and ’60s. It’s a much different picture now at the two seminaries in the denomination Klaas was working with. Last year, pastors’ children made up only 5 percent of seminarians at one and 17 percent at the other.

The bottom line is that churches need to do a better job at caring for and supporting their pastors. Another way of looking at it — from the vantage point of the pastors themselves — is to say that pastors need to do a better job of caring for and supporting themselves (through training, taking time off, participating in support groups, etc.). Instead of sitting back and hoping that the church will do it for you, create a plan and insist on the church’s support for you to take the steps you need to care for your physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened in my case, had I done this. I tried to do it, but was not clear enough about what I needed, or insistent about getting the funding to get help. To be honest, I don’t think I really understood what I needed or how badly I needed it until it was too late. Don’t make that mistake.