Renu Sara Alexander | Principal - Spartan Matriculation School | Education | LeadTalks Chennai 2019

we're moving to our next speaker this person represents the education profession she's been an educationist ever since she passed out of college in early 90s she she's a principal of the Spartan schools institutions that's what she is she's won several awards she's received the best teacher award from a late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa she's also won Woman of the Year award Chennai a couple of times 2013 and 2015 what makes a unique she's a principal and she really plays that role beautifully but she's a principal who can ride a horse and ride a 250 cc bike just in case her students run away on the bike she can chase them down that is who she is right well her purpose is to empower children so ladies jump and put your hands together for mrs. Renu Sarah Abraham come on you can do better than that hi I share the same feelings that as Susan so that's why I asked for the podium back so just see this much and with all these years of experience nothing has changed my dad was an Army officer and my mother a fabulous lady with huge leadership skills so one would expect the resultant daughter to be very confident but I had a very different childhood my parents tried their best to build me up they weren't very successful so my dad had this mantra that he would keep telling me as often as he can that my daughter would be second to nobody I remember the first time he told me this I was actually hiding the report card behind me in a class of 43 I had just got the 42nd ranked I believed what my dad said because he brought me up like a tomboy so he didn't waste a moment when he heard that I was - there was a debate in my school I was probably just 10 years old so he'd crafted out the script beautifully and he trained me the day arrived I do remember standing in front of the audience wishing everybody just like I did now I do remember smiling with fake confidence but what I don't remember is what happened to me after I fainted out of sheer fear I swooned and now you will understand when Joshua MA then asked me whether I can speak at the leeteuk's my first answer was no because the magnitude of fear has definitely reduced but it is still there deep within I thank all the people who prayed for us yesterday because antica it really worked miracles I'm standing here with 20 percent more confidence than yesterday I thank God for having chosen me because after giving a string of excuses to Joshua nothing worked he kept patiently saying no you're gonna talk so then the final excuse was you know I'll pray about it so it didn't work because he said you know at the lis talks nobody talks unless God directs us to you I was amazed I said a tiny dot like me I mean tiny not physically but God has actually recognized me a big thank you to Susan and Joshua I had a very strict upbringing being an army daughter and those of you in the audience who are the youngest will understand that you're always bossed over you have nobody to boss over so maybe when I was about 10 years I had this little something in me that I wanted to I didn't want to be this prim and proper girl I was always taught to say yes when I firmly believed it was a norm so one day I came back from school and I looked out for the weakest target and I found my mother and I said this is my opportunity believe me for no rhyme or reason I go to her and I blast her I scream I shout and there's not fair how can you and she looked shell-shocked what happened to this girl and then she said something that was life-changing she said you have all of your father's angry genes in you and nobody can help you I remember that night going back into my room my pillow soaked with tears and this was a very simple prayer I said Big Daddy I have fabulous parents but if you can uproot this angry genes from within me and pour into me your love I would be grateful so as a ten-year-old girl you look around if any miracle has happened nothing happened but the work had already began and now with 29 years of work when I turned back I believe in Philippians 1:6 he's still working on me today as a mother of two grown-up boys and a whole plethora of children I am still a firm mother I'm still a firm principal but I doused them with love affection and compassion all of which are building blocks for children adults in India normally to connect with the children the very common question they ask us so what do you want to be when you grow up and I had my answer ready I thought that was my purpose I stood there and said you know what when I grew up I want to get married and I want to have lots of children of my own and I want to take care of my parents and my in-laws now it seems a little weird that how can I even think of something like that but God hands you down exactly what you asked because he gave it to me on a platter the only difference between left to myself I would have had maybe a football field full of children but much to my husband's relief we have only two children of our own but I'm surrounded by children I'm soaked in them we do have the opportunity to take care of our parents and in-laws so just to tell you this that these children who I'm surrounded by and the children at home what do I teach them I realize teaching them physics chemistry and maths is futile so instead I teach them to honor their parents I teach them to reach out and help the community give as much as you can try and remove the plank from your eyes before you can knock off the speck from your neighbor's eyes and finally to keep themselves sexually pure I just realized that it is not available in any textbook but it is available in the best-selling book of the world the Bible so we introduce generously the Bible and along with that tons of sensitivity why is sensitivity because it is the need of the our because in the era of video games children feel you can kill three times and live back so before I talk about three real-life incidents on sensitivity I just want to tell you that I would be using in my examples a lot about my own children and the children in school now why am i mixing family and work because when we come and stand here most of the time our family takes a back seat if there is a tiny success story that I have to talk about I want thank God because in all my years I have been able to balance off both my family and work and never ever has God permitted me to compromise on the tool so I thank God for my husband who actually gave me the freedom to work I want to thank God for my spiritual mentor my mom would never waste a moment took you know instill into me every little small thing that God would want me to do right so it quickly go through the three incidents and they're all things that happened in my life number one my oldest son and I went for a long drive when he was all of six years old and suddenly he spotted a gray hair on my head and he said mama do you know you have a gray hair ladies don't like to be reminded about that but all the same I said I know Shh so he said what does that mean I said it means that I'm growing old to which here you know we had about a 45 minutes inconsolable session of crime I was upset that my son was upset but I was extremely glad that he was sensitive to his family because he thought growing old means dying second incident is about my young a boy when he was all of three years old we realized that he loved his birds and animals so when he was celebrating his third birthday we bought him a pair of ducklings and that night he went missing so we looked for him everywhere on the roads and he wasn't there so finally fuming and you know upset about the situation went to our kitchen and there was a zero watt bulb burning there and my son was horizontal switching on the big lights assuming that something has happened to him we found a tiny boy in a tiny swimsuit with the entire snorkeling kit equipment on his face he had apparently poured half a mug of water on the floor and two ducklings next to he what do you understand so I said what is happening and then he said something beautiful he said mama I have my daddy and mummy these ducklings have no parents so I have decided this three year old boy has decided to be the daddy and mummy to these ducklings I will teach them to swim today is as 20th birthday and I thank God when I look at the level of sensitivity nothing has changed in fact he says this is my most insensitive day because on the 20th birthday I didn't even smile at him I was soaked in fear and you know of what is gonna happen what my today holds for me I even forgot to wish him my third incident is about a very difficult child in my school he's in standard 9 so I realized that this boy had issues both in school and home mother had come forward and said you know I need you to do something I said yeah I had an issue with this boy he walked out of class yesterday and disobeyed his teacher so I told him you know I'm gonna punish you so the mom was excited Wow so how did you punish him so I said I told him I'm not gonna talk to you for a day this boy fell at my feet and said ma'am I am extremely sorry I will never repeat it again please forgive me mother was excited by the innovative method of punishment she said I'm going to apply this tomorrow she goes back home comes back a week later looking not very happy so I said did it work she said yes he was very upset I mean he upset me and so I looked at him and said you know what I'm not gonna talk to you for two days and it's unbelievable what he said he said praise the Lord I will have two days of peace so she asked me what is wrong so I said the boys the same the situation is the same the level of sensitivity is definitely different so if you ask me what my purpose is going to be it is definitely to train up the child in the way of the Lord when he grows old he will not depart from it I move on to integrity children and adults around are watching us all the time if we can we need to walk the talk another two incidents would change my attitude towards integrity starts with my family we went on this long drive and a little fellow was just four years old he was unwell so he was clinging on to me and as we were driving in our car he asked me this question so dad he doesn't ask me he asked his dad this question daddy what was our first car so the dad said you know a Maruti 800 so what was our second car so he said it was a Santro and what was a third car and he said this is the car we are driving on and he said what is the fourth car going to be my husband was very patient but this disciplining mother it took an inner stir I said this is my moment I took the boy aside five minutes of counseling saying you need to be happy in life with what you have you can't be greedy you can't be average is you can't keep saying what's next what's next he listened to me patiently for five minutes and asked me a question that left me dumbfounded he said in that case you should have been happy with the first car why did you move on to the third one I realized a very wise man said talk talk and talk and if necessary use words children are watching I am a principal who sits amongst the children I don't have a room of my own so the other day in school I had this you know vision of a child a first hand a child looking very fierce and angry and she was he was actually pulling a teacher who was laughing and smiling I said what is this and I watched him come towards me and he was literally dragging remember a standard one child and as he was dragging and he put his answer paper in front of me he said do you know ma'am how hard I worked for this examination I said I under stand and this teacher after all that I've written has given me only 50 marks so I looked at the teacher and said how dare you give only 50 marks and she looks at me with a smile and says man I gave him 50 on 50 the boy couldn't understand he looked at me I looked at him I took out my green pen scored out the fifty and put hundred out of hundred this boy looks at the principal he looks at the teacher and says I told you we have a very fair principal so I realized that it is very important for us to have integrity and even from the child's point of view in our school even if you get the last rank since I had tasted the 42nd rank God was preparing me even if you get the last rank it's not a crime it's not a sin but if you've got the fifth rank compromising on your integrity by cheating and telling lies we have an issue there so we don't talk to those children for a whole day so they don't know that these days it's fashionable to get the last rank and not to compromise and try and get the first rank my second thing is every school has a little bit of cheating and thieving so it was there in our school I categorize parents into to clear categories one is extremely generous parents who give them a lot of money and give them no time at all the next category is those who completely starve their children of money in the name of discipline the Bible says that don't make me so poor that I may steal don't make me so rich that I may forget you so I decided that I'm going to start this 10 rupee method so I said if anybody is hungry and your parents have denied you no problem come to the principal I'm gonna give you up to rupees 10 you can take it next day don't give it back to me but tomorrow if any other person needs the money make sure that you give it to them so the children were very excited but they came and told me ma'am soon you'll be a very poor principal so I said no I just realized in life that the more I give the richer I become so for all of you here who have children of your own or you plan to have children of your own I feel matthew 18:6 I really feel it says that if you cause any one of these children to sin it is better you tie a millstone around your neck and be cast into the depths of the sea go home and read that and this fear is what is keeping me alive after 25 29 years as a principal I move on to the last topic excellence I firmly believe that if your purpose matches God's purpose for you and you maintain a great deal of integrity I think it was Rajiv who said about excellence that for Christians it is not an option it is mandatory and so we I believe that you're on your road to excellence I repeat that that if your purpose matches God's purpose and you maintain a great deal of integrity you are on your road of to excellence my favorite character in the Bible is Joseph so just before that let me tell you that I was all excited till I sat here that last year I started to read the Bible and I by October we have a small very cute group of all age groups we read the Bible and you know we are accountable so I realized to finish a Bible in a year we need about four chapters a day I was very proud of myself till I heard mr. how Kipp and he said I read it 13 times and I realized he's clocking an average 52 chapters per day so anyway I remain happy and excited that I managed to do but this time January 1st onwards I started reading the Bible and this time on believe me when I say has just popped out to speak to me so this I this final excellence would be about Genesis 41 15 and 16 in Genesis 41 15 Josephus asked to come in front of the pharaoh and pharaoh says i heard you have the ability to interpret dreams i stop there and take you on another track now i had the privilege a few years back to take my students to nasa orlando so just before we went there this guy who came to give us instructions on how to behave in america so we said oh wow is there something we don't know they said yes their pet question is how are you and in India if somebody asked us how are you we will say are you another soul of the yesterday my cat my neighbor's cat fell into the well and I had to dive inside it pull it out my sister rolled off the step and she's right now in the ICU he said stop this is just a courtesy question how are you means just say I'm fine thank you and why do I talk about this because this guy Joseph has got some the biggest roar deal in life for almost 75 percent of his life his mom died his dad and his brother sold him his Potiphar's wife accused him wrongly was in jail all sorts of things happen to him so I realized if I was Joseph and I am going to be in front of the Pharaoh what would I reply to the statement that you know can you interpret dreams so now I'm Joseph I would definitely said yes sir I can interpret dreams but I also want to tell you something else you have to get even with my brother brothers you know what they did to me and then you know my mom passed away no sympathy at all no family friends I came here Potiphar's wife was accusing me and I jumped into the jail and this Butler who star or this cup bearer who's standing here never even thought about me when he came out but what did Joseph say I Pete Genesis 41 15 he says Pharaoh says they see you have the ability to interpret dreams and Joseph says it would be beyond me to interpret dreams only God can if I'm standing here today tomorrow you will be standing here would be turned back in life and give God that glory and honor for having brought us thus far and if you're feeling down in the dumps feeling useless and terrible sitting here remember you may be the Joseph in the jail who can't see your excellence your prosperity but if your purpose matches with the purpose of God and I promise you if your integrity is going to be hundred percent not 99.9 percent you will be Joseph the governor permit me to end this with a small tiny song in my son's favorite words I am NOT a trained singer and after what I heard call it and Benny and all of them sing I would request you to close your eyes so you don't see me at all but concentrate on the words because I apply it not once a year I apply the song every day in my life so if you can go back from here applying this in your life you will see your life moving into excellence there is mean every soul some brightly burning some dark and cold there is a spirit that brings a father ignites the candles and makes it to carry your can no run through the darkness seek out the hopeless confused and tall hold out your care for all to see take your candle go light us we are roof whose hearts are blazing so let's raise our candles light up the sky bring to the Father in the name of Jesus make us or be in darkest time so Gary okay run to the door sweep deceit I'm tall holdout for all to see take your candle ooh-hoo light your world take your candy [Music] go light you thank you so much that was that was awesome I know what you were scared about but you know when growing up I had a my principles actually became family friends to us because every week they would call my father to visit them for the stuff that I did in school right so yeah we shared a love-hate relationship but on a serious note you know I'm so grateful for teachers because teachers played such an important role in my life I'm still in touch with my 8th standard teacher so let's give it up for all teachers and professors you know because God uses them right yeah I'm just going to request Joe and Betty to come on stage and to hand over a memento for Raina so Capri equilibria hands together for Raina as Joe and Betty come on stage I was awesome if you come on Center please yeah it says reimu's say Sarah Alexander future builder you you

Channel: LeadTalks Conference

Views: 79,012

Rating: 4.8283486 out of 5

Keywords: LeadTalks, Conference, Purpose, Integrity, Excellence, Education, School, Children, Spartan, Rotary Club, Woman of the Year, Best Teacher Award, Malayalee

Id: NNVUzm6oIDc

Length: 27min 25sec (1645 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 06 2019