Ninth student leadership workshop

Two weeks after attending Speech day at Penang Free School, I was back at the Pinhorn Hall last weekend (04 and 05 November) for the latest edition of PFS Student Leadership Workshop, this time for the Sixth Formers with one or two Fourth Formers thrown in. These Form Four boys had missed a day of their own workshop earlier this year and were slotted in so that they could complete it and obtain their certificates.

By and large, the participants were from this year's batch of Lower and Upper Six students. Most of them had enrolled in the Free School after completing their Form Five from other secondary schools in Penang but there were also a few who had been with Penang Free School since their Form One.

Generally we find that the Form Sixers provide us with a challenge different from the Forms Four or Five because these students are more matured in their outlook. This year, it wasn't any much different from past challenges. They wanted more impromptu discussion, not simply being force-fed information from the presentations. Lean Kang, being a former corporate figure, was very much up to the task to meet the students' expectations.

My session on the Free's School's history and traditions were cut short because the audio-visual equipment malfunctioned halfway through and put paid to even the quiz section at the end. But fortunately, I was still able to continue to some extent. In particular, I promoted Cheah Cheng Hye as a role model to them and showing them an excerpt from a talk that he had given to an audience in Kuala Lumpur some six years ago.

I was asked why people like Cheng Hye and Dr Wu Lien-Teh had not returned here to contribute to our society. On the contrary, I replied. They were forced out from Penang due to circumstances but both had made great strides in their careers overseas. But they did not neglect Malaya or Malaysia. 

Cheng Hye still has his responsibilities to his public-listed company but he keeps in touch with Penang often enough and had been supporting us in many ways. His latest effort was a financial contribution to the Free School Guide project. His heart will always be here with us. Dr Wu made it a point to visit the Free School whenever he found time while travelling between China and Europe. But he left China permanently in 1938, returned to open a clinic in Ipoh, finally retiring and died in Penang in 1960. 

Lean Kang's message to the participants was that it was not enough to have the knowledge. It is not what you know but what you do after knowing. Putting knowledge into practice or else everything will still be lost on you. Therefore, the students of this workshop have a few weeks to do this before we are gathered again on 02 and 03 December for the second weekend this workshop.