Take 5: 19 January 2015 by Mr Ng Mang Chung Derrick

Good morning school, do you still remember last week’s Take 5, where Mr Teng celebrated the good deeds of 3 sec1 students? Jeremy Lee 1C picked up and returned a phone, and 2 other students Lee Jia Ying 1E and Lee Ray Yi Rayna 1D who had returned a $50 on the 1st day of school. Today, I want to celebrate another good deed… “Georgia Ng of sec 1E please stand.”

At the beginning for this month (news article dated 4th Jan’15), Ms Indranee Rajah (Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Law and Ministry of Education) presented 474 students with awards from Ministry of Education. Among the 474 students, Georgia is one of the few who were presented with 3 awards, the Merit Bursary, Eagles Award and Edusave Character Award. Not only that, Georgia has also made a card to express her gratitude to her mother, all these were featured in the Lian He Zao Bao.

For this week’s Take 5, I would like to share with you 5 benefits of reading, as reading regularly requires the habit of discipline. Before I start my topic, can all students get ready your student handbook. If you look at your handbook closely, on every week you have a different quote.

Look at week 1’s quote, “Confidence comes from discipline and training” by Robert Kiyosaki. Robert Kiyosaki is an American investor, businessman, self-help author, motivational speaker and financial literacy activist. He has written over 15 books which have combined sales of over 26 million copies. His most famous book is “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. “Rich Dad Poor Dad” advocates financial independence and building wealth through investing, starting and owning businesses, as well as increasing one’s financial intelligence to improve one’s financial aptitude. I have read this book at around your age and was really motivated and fascinated by it, and till today i still remember many of the important and valuable advices in this book and all these has impact and change me to whom I am today.

Do pay attention to the following tips that will make you a disciplined and effective reader.

Benefit 1: Mental Stimulation
Studies have shown that reading stimulates the mind and by staying mentally stimulated it will slow the progress of Alzheimer’s and Dementia, since keeping your brain active and engaged prevents it from losing power. Just like any other muscle in the body, the brain requires exercise to keep it strong and healthy, so the phrase “use it or lose it” is particularly apt when it comes to your mind.

Benefit 2: Stress Reduction
No matter how much stress you have in school or how many issues you face in daily life, it all just slips away when you lose yourself in a great story. A well-written novel can transport you to other realms, while an engaging article will distract you and keep you in the present moment, letting tensions drain away and allowing you to relax.

Benefit 3: Knowledge
Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information, and you never know when it might come in handy. The more knowledge you have, the better-equipped you are to tackle any challenge you’ll ever face. Additionally, here’s a bit of food for thought: should you ever find yourself in dire circumstances, remember that although you might lose everything else – your possessions, your money, even your health, knowledge can never be taken from you.

Benefit 4: Vocabulary Expansion
The more you read, the more words you gain exposure to, and they’ll inevitably make their way into your everyday vocabulary. Being articulate and well-spoken is of great help in any profession, and knowing that you can speak to higher-ups with self-confidence can be an enormous boost to your self-esteem. It could even aid in your career, as those who are well-read, well-spoken, and knowledgeable on a variety of topics tend to get promotions more quickly (and more often) than those with limited vocabularies and lack of awareness of literature, scientific breakthroughs, and global events.

Benefit 5: Better Writing Skills
This goes hand-in-hand with the expansion of your vocabulary: exposure to published, well-written work has a noted effect on one’s own writing, as observing the writing styles of other authors will invariably influence your own work. In the same way that musicians influence one another, and painters use techniques established by previous masters, so do writers learn how to craft prose by reading the works of others.

So Gessians, when was the last time you really read a book? Do your daily reading habits center around Facebook updates, tweets or computer gaming? If you’re one of countless people who don’t make a habit of reading regularly, you are missing out…

To end, I will leave you with another quote from my favourite author, Mr Robert Kiyosaki. “Life is much like going to the gym. The most painful part is deciding to go. Once you get past that, it’s easy.” On that note, I hope every Gessian will make the best use of your reading period and start your reading habit.

Thank you.