Hamada tells students: Have ‘magical minds’
KEEP on wondering and never stop asking questions.
This is one advice dished out by Margarita Ventinilla-Hamada, founder/directress of Harvent Schools, in her speech before pupils, their parents and guests during the school’s Achievement Day in April.
She called on the young never to hesitate in challenging widely accepted opinions, both in private and when necessary, for the good of the society.
“Publish your insights, the noise it may cause notwithstanding,” she said.
Hamada said ordinary people cling to accepted mind-sets, and never bother to wonder if they happen to be wrong.
“Out of the magical minds came forth wonderful ideas that have enlightened us about the workings of the universe and our place and our role in it,” she added.
She cited Sir Isaac Newton who discovered the law of gravity and Albert Einstein who asked questions about a very ordinary thing – water – which led to the discovery of atomic, and thence, nuclear energy.
HAMADA
Hamada said it was the ‘magical’ mind inculcated in her as well that made her examine usual practices in society and to marvel at these.
“I asked the question that gave birth to Harvent School — the school that produces ‘magic’ pencils like you, year after year without your parents’ intervention,” she told her young audience.
“Because you are like pencils, everything you do will always leave a mark, but fortunately, you have a built-in eraser. You can always correct your mistakes and learn from them,” she said.
This explains, she said, why Harvent Schools pupils do not laugh at people who make mistakes because they know that mistakes are stepping-stones to mastering important skills both in school and in life.
Using pencils as an analogy, Hamada said all pencils have lead inside them but since her pupils are considered “magic pencils”, the lead inside them, which rhymes with the world “succeed”, is made of sterner stuff.
“Having instilled in you the habit of reading and, learning for the sheer joy it brings, I have high expectations that you will use this stuff inside you to the max, and become leaders and problem-solvers,” she said.
Hamada urged pupils not to lose their magic’ to sharpen the lead inside them so they won’t ever lose their ‘magic’, by getting into the habit of examining generally accepted opinions and ways of doing things and ask ‘why’.—LM
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