Return of the King

I just got myself the extended version of LOTR: Return of the King

2 particular speeches strike me as inspiring:

first one by Theoden:
Forth! And fear no darkness! Arise! Arise! Riders of Theoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered.... A sword day... a red day... and the sun rises!


second one by Aragon:
Sons of Gondor, of Rohan. My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me! A day may come, when courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of Fellowship, but it is not this day! An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day, we fight! By all you hold dear on this good earth, i bid you, stand, men of the West!

there are 2 other scenes in the Return of the King that struck me as interesting. the first was when the Rohirrim charged at the orcs. instead of standing their ground, the orcs broek formation. this caused a whole lot more damage. in another scene, the men of the West, after the second speech that i quoted above stood their ground even in the face of certain death. the difference that led to the difference in behaviour? other than inspirational leadership, i think it would be discipline.

that made me think of this conversation that i had with a friend. she was telling me about the pointlessness of making students in the military band do footdrills. she feels that this drives away students who might potentially be interested in music but are totally against footdrills...

however, i don't think that footdrills are pointless.

i look at it as a test of how much they are willing to sacrifice for the music. if they are truly passionate, then they would put up with whatever crap that comes your way in your pursuit for music.

further, and i think this is more important, footdrills hide what i think is an important lesson. it teaches the students the ability to force oneself to do something that one does not like to do. perhaps teach is not quite the right word. more instil. it instils a sense of discipline. and you never know when you would have to put in that sense of discipline to do something that you don't really want to do but have to do it because that is the right thing to do. and that is when the discipline that comes from doing seemingly stupid things like footdrills come in.

it is a subtle lesson, which only bear fruits much later in life. that is the bane of education. Chinese say, "Bai nian shu ren" (literal translation: hundred years mould person). not that it really takes a hundred years of work to sculpt the person, but more that it takes a really long time for the education to manifest itself. it's not 'Li gan jian ying" (literal translation: put pole see shadow), i.e. the effects are not immediate. and hence the problem. in our society, where our KPIs tend to be very short term, digitize-able attributes, education starts to focus on all the wrong things.