Tadika Than Hsiang organized the 3rd annual Transmission of the Ten Good Deeds on the 15th March 2013, to parents, teachers, Ai Xin Ba Ma and Than Hsiang kindergarten children.

The ceremony for parents and teachers was held at 9:00am in the Multi Purpose hall on the ground floor.

After paying homage to the Triple Gem, Ven. Zhen Ti addressed parents that though the kindergarten has a written text and activity book on the Ten Good Deeds for teachers to educate the children; it is far more important for the little ones to put the Ten Good Deeds into practice, focusing on the First Deed and Second Deed, which are to be filial to parents and to honour the elders. Shifu advocated that parents and teachers need to work hand in hand in order to achieve good results; taking the advantage children at this age, being obedient to parents and teachers are able to cultivate these positive and wholesome practices in their subconscious minds and take them through their adult lives. They need to portray role models in speech and deeds as children do what they see.

The Ten Good Deeds for the pre-school children are:

The older version gave way to the current one, taking into consideration of educating the children positively.

Nowadays, young couples usually prefer to stay on their own and problems would arise when both parents are in the workforce, lacking to spend quality time with their children. Shifu stressed on the importance of parents’ roles and responsibilities as they are their children’s foremost teachers. It is the parents’ role and duty to provide a harmonious and happy environment at home so that children seek warmth and comfort at home and not venture away from home where they might run into unhealthy companionship and negative influences.

Shifu was concerned that some parents are treating their children like ‘supermen’, besides school work and activities; they have to attend piano lessons, art lessons, swimming, tuition etc. Parents should not place so much emphasis on the academic achievement or forcing the children to attend activities without considering their interest and abilities to do so. When great emphasis is placed on materialistic attainment and scoring high points, the need of developing positive characters holistically are sadly neglected. Far worse, these innocent children fall victims to psychological pressures. Instead the children need the parents help to seek out their potentials to become positive individuals to society regardless of what type of profession they are in. The most important love parents can offer their children is to let them be happy and healthy. Parents by nature love and cherish their children but some parents in the East are overprotective and decide almost everything for their children without taking into consideration that they are hindering their thinking skills to problem-solving.  They grow up to be robotic, lacking the quality to be leaders.

Shifu urged parents to allow their children to grow healthily and normally, enjoying their childhood with joy and play. Parents need to learn to allow the children to fall and get up on their own, to learn from making mistakes.  Parents in the West allow lots of space and room for their children to grow, nurture them to be decisive and they are independent at a tender age of 16 but it is also vital that parents need to guide their children placing emphasis of values on virtues like gratitude, honesty, integrity, kindness, tolerance and consideration and how to live in harmony with others in the society.

Shifu also urged parents to be more open in expressing their love to the children, to tell them and let them know the love, concern and support they have for them. In doing so, children learn to express their joys as well as problems to their parents, an important outlet for children to vent out their frustrations; otherwise children might suppress their emotion which could lead to depression.

With the global change of advance technology, parents and teachers need to upgrade themselves not only to share knowledge with their children but also to monitor the healthy and beneficial materials that their children access. Children being immature need adults’ supervision to help them differentiate good from bad.

The objectives of the Transmission of the Ten Good Deeds is to have a look at  what the children have to do, and what roles the parents and teachers need to perform.

The Ten Good Deeds

Shifu reminded us to not only to play the roles of  parents and teachers to children but to be their friends and guiding star; to be a good listener and to share their good and bad times. Quality time spent like visiting relatives, work, eat, play and watching educational programmes and reading beneficial books instead of violent ones definitely  help the children to grow up happily and healthily.

Teachers need to treat all children like their own, showering with  them concern, love and compassion and accepting for what they are, giving more attention to the weaker ones as they need more help than the average children. Shifu commended on the teachers’ profession as they are nurturing the leaders of tomorrow, though very difficult but not an impossible task.

Then Ven. Zhen Ti transmitted the Ten Good Deeds to the teachers followed by the parents. They repeated each deed after Shifu and the transmission concluded with their agreement that they were able to do so. Each of them was presented with a certificate, the size like the Mykad, to be conveniently placed in their wallet. Shifu reminded them to have a look at them regularly to remind them of their roles and responsibilities.

The ceremony ended with Shifu leading all to recite the Transference of Merits at 9:50 am

Then Shifu, teachers and parents proceeded to the Great Compassion Hall where over 46 six- year- old children waited patiently to receive the Transmission of the Ten Good Deeds.

Ven. ZhenTi and Ven. Hui Xiu witnessed the ceremony while the former principal, Mdm Tan transmitted the Ten Good Deeds. The children, with the permission from their parents, agreed to receive the transmission to be filial to their parents and to be obedient to them. They further agreed to respect the elders and obey their advice. They also agreed to practice the deeds diligently in their daily lives. Each child received a certificate of the transmission, a beautifully laminated card with the inscription of the Ten Good Deeds.  Our children then offer dana to the Venerables as a token of respect and gratitude.

The auspicious ceremony ended with Ven. Zhen Ti leading all to recite the Transference of Merits.