Review of Conference Highlights APEID Summary 2002
I have been given, once again, the assignment of presenting you with a synthesis or a summary of the main presentations of this Conference. The task is formidable, given both the quality and the quantity of presentations we heard this week. I was talking to a participant yesterday, who was saying that because of the excellent Thai cuisine and the numerous snacks throughout the week, he was in grave danger of overeating and getting indigestion. In similar fashion, we have been fed this week, in what Mr. Zhou in our opening session called a "laboratory of ideas," with such a rich diet of ideas and insights into today's youth and secondary education, that even a summary that tries to include everything could give us mental indigestion. To make this more palatable, therefore, I thought of inviting you to digest this banquet of ideas through a perspective I learned in my new home in Hawaii.
Since I moved to Hawaii, the beauty of my environment and the leisure time I enjoyed have brought me closer to nature. I learned from Tom Kaulukukui, a wonderful master of Hawaiian lore, that the island peoples rooted their identities in their understanding and familiarity with nature around them. He explained to me, using the traditional gestures of Hawaiian hula dance, how you can truly know yourself only if you know your mountain, your valley, your ocean, your rain, and your wind. What are the high points of your life, its low points, your surroundings, the events that rain down upon you, and the winds of influence by which you navigate your life?
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