There was an article in news pages of The Straits Times today about a secondary school student having an accident while climbing Mt. Kinabalu – yep, that mountain that Ling has scaled 2-3 times now. The 13 year old boy fell and injured his head, but is in stable condition now.
Now, what I found especially interesting, and also heartening, was this part of the news article, which quoted the boy’s father:
Mr Chan, who has two other sons, said he will not discourage his son from other school trips after this.
‘It was purely an accident. These things happen, so I won’t deter him from other trips, but he has to show me he can take care of himself before I let him go on another one.’
This is exactly the kind of parents I think we should aspire to be. No knee-jerk reactions, blaming the establishment and hunting around for someone to blame and absolving your precious tots of any responsibility.
aye