Today I start my blog about my sabbatical. It's still a few weeks to come, but I'm already getting a bit restless. I vacillate between wanting to prepare comprehensively to get the most out of the learning journey, and worrying about over-planning to the detriment of missing out on accidental opportunities that may come my way.
The theme for Part 1 of my sabbatical leave is on museums in 3 different cities - Singapore, Washington DC and New York. What triggered the start of this blog is the story run by The Straits Times' Life! section today about Asian Civilisations Museum head Kenson Kwok. I would call this man an unsung hero in that he's transformed the local museums to a new level of sophistication in quiet seldom- publicised efforts. I still recall the musty and eerie National Museum next to the now-non-existent National Library along Stamford Road in the years gone by when I was still a young student. For a long period, that old, boring mental association with museums lingered on. Even when I earned enough to travel overseas on holiday, I kept wondering why people would spend time and money to see inanimate ancient artefacts. And yet, today I read about this museum honcho, who after 17 years at the helm of curatorship, plans to retire to visit even more museums, and to further value-add to his appreciation, decides to learn Latin so he can read the inscriptions on Roman monuments. This is what I call PASSION.
(Side thought: Ummm, good storyline to tell my students about PASSION.)
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