24 — Wednesday, June 16, 1999 — North Shore News

EACH year at this
time, hundreds of
thousands of students
across the country, and
lots more around the
world, go through a
coming of age process
known as high school
gtaduation.

Often sitting in long
gowns, with silly looking
cardboard hats on their
heads, they listen, perhaps for
the last time, to some adult
who will pontificate about
the ideals of their future. An
hour after it is over, and cer-
tainly within a year, virtually
all they heard from the speak-
er that day will have disap-
peared from their mind.

Sometimes remembering
things requires 2 simple story
or picture.

Someone sent me a story
recently, actually a parable,
that I have modified a little
to fit the circumstances of
students. I hope it will at
least partially answer the
question that the grads asked
so many times when con-
fronted with new information
in school, “Why do we need

C2e "

to know this?”

Three young people were
travelling on horseback one
day when they saw a sien thar
said, “Wise Man Ahead — 5
kilometres.”

Excited that they might
learn something that would
improve their lives, they hur-
ried up their pace until they
came to a sign thar said,
“Wise Man Ahead — I kilo-
metre.”

Now, with anticipation
growing, they broke into a
tull speed gallop. In only a
couple of. minutes, they
passed by an old man who
Was stooped over picking up
pebbles along the side of the
road.

Shortly after passing him,
they looked far ahead and
sceing no other person
returned to ask him if he had

north shore news

ARENTAL GUIDANCE

ion delivers di

seen the wise man.

“There's been no one else
on the road today, but me
and vou,” he replied.

Puzzled. the three young
people asked him what he
was doing.

“Lcome here and gather a

few pebbles,” he said, “as |
have done each day for many
years. Today's work will make
me both glad and sad tomor-
row and so F will return
again.”

Two of the voung people
burst out laughing, “You are
a fool, old man. Gathering
pebbles will never make you
anything but miserable and
hunched over with their
weight. Perhaps the sign
should have read five miles to
the fool!” And they rode off
on the road, laughing as they
departed.

Bur one young man
stayed behind. “I don't
understand, old man, why
gathering pebbles would
make you glad and sad each
day?”

““Try it for yourself, my
friend,” che old man replied,

“and see if it is not true.”

The young man Jooked at

the distance his friends had

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gone but decided to stay and
gather a few pebbles to put in
his saddic bag. He then
jumped on his horse and
raced to catch up to his
friends.

“Where were you”
asked.

“Gathering a few peb-
bles,” he replied.

His friends reared with
laughter and mocked him
mercilessly. *You are a bigger
fool than the old man,” they
cried, and they rode off
quickly, leaving him behind
to wonder if he had, indeed,
been made a fool of.

That night, he came upon
the camp of his two friends
and settled down to sleep,
still raunted by the jokes
made at his expense. The
next morning he awoke and
began packing his saddlebags.
Having suffered again, the
early morning ridicule of his
friends, he turned the bags
upside down to empty out
the pebbles.

They dropped one by one
to the ground but suddenly,
one dropped that was difter-
ent than the rest. He scooped
it up, brushed off the dirt,
and found that overnight one
of the pebbles had turned
into a magnificent diamond.

His triends stared in
amazement and they all
jumped on their horses to
rush back and tind where the
old man was gathering peb-
bles, but he was gone and
they could not find the place
where he had been.

The young man was
immediately glad he had
gathered pebbles, bur he and
his friends were sad that they
had not gathered more.

So it is with learning.

Each day we have the eppor-
tunity to gather a few pebbies

they

on our travels by learning
something new that improves
our knowledge, our skills, our
attitudes to others and our
own self-contidence. While
some of the things we learn
may change our lives, not all

lamonds in the rough

will, Still we'll be glad we
learned them, and perhaps
sad we didn’t learn a tew
more.

— Graham Hookey is the
author of Parenting ts A
Team Sport.

Jeb shopping.

ZSOFIA Zambo (left) and Sarah Mearns. (right)..get
advice from summer employment officer Karen Foster
at the One Stop Career Shop for-Youth. The employ-
ment centre opened last September in North Van.

T
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