In a week after Raya

Work, work and more works

I started my week after eid celebration with some serious works.  My schedule has gone back to my busy days managing new investment portfolio for my firm.  It's quite a relief to get an assistant (Fund Manager) stationed in Dubai for full-time looking after one of the Funds.  In this day and age of IT & Communication technologies, things are moving so fast that sometime (well, most of the time) you lost track of things.  I just have to adjust my schedule to optimize productivity...hopefully!

Series of meetings and deals have been reignited and hopefully there will be some traction soon.  I can't really committed my morning with the secondary students since I will have to use the time with the US team and another half of the day to follow-up with work progress and what not...

Generally, as of late, the stock market and IPO activities are softening quite a bit.  Hong Kong and Korea are still two attractive market for us; apart from the rebounding US market. 

Meeting Parents

Yes, I managed to meet some parents during lunch hour and late afternoon.  These were parents that need to get their child registered when classes are already full.  Ummu Nafeesa loves to pass on this kind of issues for me to handle... for some good reason, I guess.

We have formally closed standard 1 entry due to space limitation (3 classes and 60 students); but I do entertain parents who wish to get their child in.  I know that these were special cases and I also noticed that some were truly genuine cases that need serious consideration.  Another reason that I realized was that these parents were serious in getting their child into Sri Ayesha.  I appreciate serious people pursuing serious thing in life.  If they're serious, here's the deal:

1. Don't expect your child to be genius just because you send him/her to private school;
2. Do your part at home;  If you're enriching more 'distractions' at home, then you're not helping.
   
3. Learn our methods of teaching (Montessori & Khalifah parenting);  I have had parents who questions our way of doing things and compared that with other school.  Well I just told them that we do things differently here...and it's ok ;-)
   
4. At Sri Ayesha, children grow at his/her own pace.  A child may be delayed in some lessons or exposure for a reason.  Talk to your child's class teacher or Principal if you're unclear.
5. Don't make your child as a test subject with any system of teaching once you've studied and understood a particular school's philosophy and its methodology. If you need to change course for your child, get the school and your child's involvement in the decision making process.  It matters.
   

The rest of the story, we'll figure out when we want to cross the bridge.


Eid Celebration

On Friday, we had a nice celebration of eid for all levels at school.  I managed to try out some delicacies from parents and teachers.  I took some times talking to some foreign students and try to get their views on this type of celebration.  Some have experienced such celebration before but there're some who are first-timers.  It's different alright but one comment I received from one of the student was very interesting.

He said, "..this is my first time living in a Muslim community with too many views and trends.  Some are very strict while some are very liberal.  We used to be minority group in Western country and we tend to stick together on many issues.  But here is very different..."


"That's the reality of our ummah, they can disagree in almost every single subject," I replied with a smile.  It's good that he has been sensitive and observant of his surrounding.  In fact,  I can't disagree more with his simple observation.  I remember having the same thoughts when I first came back with family to settle down here.  I thought that Muslims will thrive in diversity like in Malaysia but apparently they lost idealism and very much at 'comfort zone'.  Case in point, everyone is competing for Hari Raya 'open day' throughout the entire month.  Why can't we stretch that for the year, so that syawal will not end up becoming eating month after a fasting month in ramadhan.   Lately, this tradition has taken place in a big way; I can't really remember such custom 15 - 20 years ago.  Of course things have changed.  Some people argued that it's a good thing - to reach out and extend ukhuwwah.  I still prefer moderation in everything. 

Last but not least, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Eid (belated) and may Allah SWT make every hour of your life good and blessed - Kullu 'am wa antum be khair!