Dear 4 Courage,
We touched on the issue of 'beauty' in one of our P4C lessons some time back. Here's an article which I found to be very interesting and would like to share with all of you. Do you have any comments after reading it? Pen it down in the blog.

What is Beauty?

Whether something is regarded as "beautiful" or not depends on the prevailing or most popular definition. The definition changes from era to era, culture to culture, and from fashion designer to fashion designer.

There's nothing wrong with appreciating beauty, but if we come to worship what's being sold to us as "beautiful", and begin to revile others, even ourselves for not making the grade, then it's time to ponder our definition of beauty.

Are we forsaking worthy parts of ourselves like our talents, lovingness, kindness, humour, and health for the sake of our appearance? Are we causing grief and distress to ourselves because we don't fit the mould they use for churning out swimsuit models?

Our external appearance is only a part of the package. We are more than our body. And if your body is healthy, then you are more blessed than many other people. Besides the Body, there is the Mind, the Heart, the Soul. Placing more importance on the exterior breeds discontent, fear, envy, and self-loathing.

Beauty, in its most wholesome sense, has to be authentic. The real You is the most attractive thing about you. If you depend solely on your external appearance to feel loved or valuable, then you'll probably forget to nurture your other attributes. In time, you'll find that you are not much more than a shell.

Beauty is being comfortable with yourself. It's the realization that you truly are your own person. That you are no longer accountable to the judgement of others. This is you and this is what you do, and the judgement of others should in no way overshadow your own interests and mental well-being.

Redefining beauty for yourself is a continual process. It means not mindlessly accepting what is being portrayed to you as desirable or good. It means allowing yourself time and space to explore your inner emotions, hopes, and dreams.

Beauty is your whole Being. It's your goofy laugh, your creativity, your generous heart, your corny jokes. It's your enthusiasm, your appreciation of the simple things in life, your piety, your dedication, the plain acceptance of your flaws.

The closer to get to what is true in you, the more you understand yourself - your strengths, your weaknesses, your motivations, and fears. You also learn that even if you strip yourself of your external value and power, you are no less beautiful and lovable. An important consequence that comes from this is also that you learn to appreciate others more fully for who they are, not just what you can see.

A Slice of Life is written, produced and presented by Eugene Loh unless otherwise stated. If you wish to share the scripts with others, please credit it to 'Eugene Loh, A Slice of Life, 938LIVE, a station of MediaCorp Radio'.

Dear 4 Courage,
Please respond to the video we had viewed this morning as part of our P4C lesson. Some of the big questions raised include 1) Do animals deserve to die? 2) Do animals feel pain? 3) What are rights and do animals have their rights? 4) What is cruelty? 5) Are we contributing to animal cruelty by eating meat?

Dear 4 Courage,
In a few weeks time, you will be sitting for your SA2 exams. I hope you have started revising for all your subjects. Remember, you reap what you sow. Hence, sow good seeds by paying attention in class, revising at home and striving for accuracy in all your work so that you may reap good results. I hope to see all of you in a good Primary 5 class in 2008.

Dear 4 Courage, How time flies! In the twinkling of an eye, you have completed about 3/4 of your Primary 4 education. Let us walk down memory lane to recap on some of the activities and programmes we have gone through this year... :)

National Day Celebrations 2007

Our most recent National Day Collage Painting activity - a big thank you to Mrs Seh (Sean's mother) for being with us on that day! And to all groups, give yourself a pat on the back - you have come up with very beautiful and colourful pieces of art which shows different aspects of Singapore.

Suzhou Twinning Programme on 13 August 2007

Telematch at Pasir Ris Park with our new-found friends from China.

A group photo before we departed for Singapore Discovery Centre for another afternoon of fun and interaction. How was your session at SDC? What did all of you do together with your new-found friends?

A shy Ernest receiving a token on behalf of 4 Courage / EPPS from the Suzhou Chengdu Da Tong Shu Xiao Xue representative. I hope you are still maintaining contact with your new found friends from China. Did you manage to exchange email or home address?

Authentic Problem-Based Learning (APBL) from 20-24 August

On the final day of presentation and testing, we all had a fun experience trying out our home-made filters. First, our class monitor helped to draw water from Kampong Elias (we heard the water was prepared by Mr Ang and it was really dirty, muddy and full of debris - Mr Ang had, of course, added disinfectant to the water.) Then we proceeded to the hall and made use of Dataloggers to test out the clarity of our water by measuring the intensity of light which passd through. Guess which group had the best-designed filter that could remove most of the impurities?