SMK Convent Sentul school song

It's quite unusual but lately the school song has been ringing overand over again in my mind and in my heart . And the sections that alight on my mind and heart doesn't always start from the beginning of the song - sometimes just the chorus will come to mind and at other times the end of the song. Hmm...? I do wonder why this happens.


Our school song goes like this.

O! Hark now hear our joyful cries of pride in our school
Steadfast are we in our duty, simple in virtue
We pledge to you our loyalty and hardships we endure
We will strive to make you proud our school that we adore
O! Lord we pray for guidance and blessings on our way
Help us to accept success and failure in work and play
O! Hark now hear our joyful cries of pride in our school
Steadfast are we in our duty simple in virtue

When I first heard the minus 1, I thought it was pretty difficult to follow. Now after about 4 months in the school, I am struck and awed by the wise words in this song and the ethos that has been ingrained in the school through the school song.

This morning for instance, the part that became alive to me was the line "Help us to accept success and failure in work and play." Typical traditional culture teaches us to embrace only success and reject failure. But this song teaches us to accept both success and failure in work and play. How profoundly wise.

I am at this point of time reminded of a movie I often showed to students and teachers on white water rafting near Jeram Besu between Raub and Pekan. Before the people embarked on their 5 km journey down the river, they were literally trained to fail as part of their safety procedures. They were asked by their trainer to deliberately capsize their boat, to be thrown into the cold waters and then to work together as a team to make their boat turn upright again after they had been thrown into the water. This was to ensure that in the event when the boat actually capsized, the participants would not panic and drown due to the panic of having the cold waters strike them

It is only when the boat is made to capsize that the reality of the cold fast and raging waters strike us. In the face of the crisis or so called failure, we have to calm our fears, settle our embarrassment and other issues and simply learn to rise again.

We need to purposefully teach our students and society that failure is a neccasary part of life and failure is a stepping stone to success. Too often we unknowingly propagate the myth and the lie that life is pure success all the way. And when our students faced failure at some point in life, they feel embarrased, ashamed and depressed and drown in these negative feelings and become unable to deal with the crisis.

How much wiser to recieve the words of the school song and to know that failure is part and parcel of life and handling failure positively brings us closer to success.


Down the river of life are challenges and crisis. We need to handle the failures before we can taste real permanent success.