Convocation 2017 - Speech by Guest Speaker Ms Lydia Lim from The Straits Times
From Jiayu CHENG
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Ms Lydia Lim's speech is reproduced here:
Mr Tan, Member of the University Board of Trustees, graduates, ladies and gentlemen.
I am honoured to be asked to address you today.
Congratulations on graduating. I can imagine that you had to invest immense effort, much time and to sacrifice for the learning that we are here to recognise today.
But let me pose a provocative question : Do you worry that what you have learned will get old in no time?
I ask you this because we live in a world where technology is transforming education, jobs, how we live. The change is so rapid it renders some types of knowledge obsolete, within a short span of years. There is great pressure to keep up with the pace of change, or risk being left behind.
In this world, what is the learning that does not get old?
What is the learning that, to vary a line from Shakespeare, is an ever-fixed mark that looks on disruption and is never shaken?
I believe it is learning to listen to yourself, to the voice that speaks from within, your true voice which tells you who you are meant to be, and what you are meant to say with your life.
This is the voice of vocation that Parker Palmer wrote about in his book, Let Your Life Speak: Listening to the Voice of Vocation; yes the same Parker Palmer who wrote Courage to Teach.
What is vocation? The word is rooted in the Latin for “voice”. That gives you a clue as to the kind of vocation I am referring to, not the vocation that is determined by the needs of the economy, or the job vacancies waiting to be filled.
I am talking about vocation as your calling in life, a calling that is not something imposed on you from the outside but a voice that speaks to you from the inside. Parker Palmer says we must learn to listen to the voice of vocation. I agree.
My favourite definition of vocation is this one: Vocation is the place where your heart’s deep joy meets the world’s deep need.
Today, I choose to speak to you about vocation not because I think it is your surest way to success but because I believe it is the surest way for you to live a life that is true to who you are, on the inside - a life that is true to what and who you love and long to serve, true to the specific need in the world that cries out to you, and true to the deepest source of your joy.
When I think of an educator who lived out his vocation, I think of the late Brother Joseph McNally, an Irishman who taught for close to 40 years in schools in Malaysia and Singapore, was principal of St Patrick’s Secondary School, a lifelong champion of the arts and founder of Lasalle College of the Arts.
I never met him but when I was a volunteer guide at the Singapore Art Museum years ago, that’s the museum housed in the former St Joseph’s Institution on Bras Basah Road, I got to see up close one of Brother Mcnally’s sculptures, entitled Counsellor II – two figures, one in the form of a teacher bending down to a second figure, that of a school boy. It was a work of such grace and tenderness that it spoke to me of Brother McNally’s vocation as a teacher.
When he set up the St Patrick’s Arts Centre in the 1980s, the arts had a very low priority in Singapore society. That small arts centre has grown into La Salle College of the Arts, one of the region’s top arts schools. When Brother McNally died in 2002, then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong praised his “tenacious spirit” and wrote that “he achieved seemingly impossible goals with passion, doggedness and tender care”.
Today, we are here to celebrate learning, your learning and education.
Learning is surely one of life’s great gifts. And learning that is tied to education, to the capacity to in turn help others learn, is greater yet.
As you go forth to use what you have learned in your Masters Degree programmes and doctoral studies, I invite you to
- Make time and space to listen to the voice of your vocation.
- And as educators, to teach and work in such a way that you help others discover their vocation.
When you live your vocation, you will be able to achieve seemingly impossible goals with passion, doggedness and tender care.
Thank you.
Mr Tan, Member of the University Board of Trustees, graduates, ladies and gentlemen.
I am honoured to be asked to address you today.
Congratulations on graduating. I can imagine that you had to invest immense effort, much time and to sacrifice for the learning that we are here to recognise today.
But let me pose a provocative question : Do you worry that what you have learned will get old in no time?
I ask you this because we live in a world where technology is transforming education, jobs, how we live. The change is so rapid it renders some types of knowledge obsolete, within a short span of years. There is great pressure to keep up with the pace of change, or risk being left behind.
In this world, what is the learning that does not get old?
What is the learning that, to vary a line from Shakespeare, is an ever-fixed mark that looks on disruption and is never shaken?
I believe it is learning to listen to yourself, to the voice that speaks from within, your true voice which tells you who you are meant to be, and what you are meant to say with your life.
This is the voice of vocation that Parker Palmer wrote about in his book, Let Your Life Speak: Listening to the Voice of Vocation; yes the same Parker Palmer who wrote Courage to Teach.
What is vocation? The word is rooted in the Latin for “voice”. That gives you a clue as to the kind of vocation I am referring to, not the vocation that is determined by the needs of the economy, or the job vacancies waiting to be filled.
I am talking about vocation as your calling in life, a calling that is not something imposed on you from the outside but a voice that speaks to you from the inside. Parker Palmer says we must learn to listen to the voice of vocation. I agree.
My favourite definition of vocation is this one: Vocation is the place where your heart’s deep joy meets the world’s deep need.
Today, I choose to speak to you about vocation not because I think it is your surest way to success but because I believe it is the surest way for you to live a life that is true to who you are, on the inside - a life that is true to what and who you love and long to serve, true to the specific need in the world that cries out to you, and true to the deepest source of your joy.
When I think of an educator who lived out his vocation, I think of the late Brother Joseph McNally, an Irishman who taught for close to 40 years in schools in Malaysia and Singapore, was principal of St Patrick’s Secondary School, a lifelong champion of the arts and founder of Lasalle College of the Arts.
I never met him but when I was a volunteer guide at the Singapore Art Museum years ago, that’s the museum housed in the former St Joseph’s Institution on Bras Basah Road, I got to see up close one of Brother Mcnally’s sculptures, entitled Counsellor II – two figures, one in the form of a teacher bending down to a second figure, that of a school boy. It was a work of such grace and tenderness that it spoke to me of Brother McNally’s vocation as a teacher.
When he set up the St Patrick’s Arts Centre in the 1980s, the arts had a very low priority in Singapore society. That small arts centre has grown into La Salle College of the Arts, one of the region’s top arts schools. When Brother McNally died in 2002, then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong praised his “tenacious spirit” and wrote that “he achieved seemingly impossible goals with passion, doggedness and tender care”.
Today, we are here to celebrate learning, your learning and education.
Learning is surely one of life’s great gifts. And learning that is tied to education, to the capacity to in turn help others learn, is greater yet.
As you go forth to use what you have learned in your Masters Degree programmes and doctoral studies, I invite you to
- Make time and space to listen to the voice of your vocation.
- And as educators, to teach and work in such a way that you help others discover their vocation.
When you live your vocation, you will be able to achieve seemingly impossible goals with passion, doggedness and tender care.
Thank you.
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