Farewell Party for the Retired Teachers

(Click on the photo at the pause and you'll see the caption.)  

Yesterday we had a farewell party for the three retired teachers right after the end-of-semester meeting.

The procedure went like this:

For each retired teacher,

1. a video about or to them was presented

2. gifts were given

3. the retired teacher gave a farewell speech.

The retired teachers gave each of their colleagues a gift--three soaps and a red envelope containing two 5-dollar coins. The two 5-dollar coins, read as "Wu-yuan, Wu-yuan," in Taiwanese means that we are destined to meet one another.

All the teachers cried and laughed at the party. The following are some words from the retired teachers:

Mr. Cheng (鄭民生老師):

1. 內中是第一流的

2. 內中老師聊天有內涵，備課認真

Mr. Chou (周玉璽老師):

1. 送香皂，代表各位老師散發出老師的香氣，一種人類特有的愛的香氣

2. 一個人的力量太渺小了，一群人的力量才有可能一起渡過可能的災害

3. 人與人之間最難的就是不瞭解對方

4. 慈悲與智慧

5. 退休不是力量的分散，而是力量的擴散

Mr. Yang (楊智華老師):

1. 請看我畫的畫

2. 人應該能從動物的角度去體會動物的心情 (His awarded painting is about himself as a monkey, watching from the cage the visitors throwing food to him.)

Mr. Wu, Principal:

我送退休老師花和水果的用意是希望老師們能在這花花世界修得正果 。

I recall a sentence from General MacArthur's Address to Congress in 1951:

"Old soldiers never die; they just fade away..."