"Brain and Learning: Capturing the Flow of Thought

Mr. Wong Sau Yuen (Brain Neurological Trainer)

I was invited to speak to a group of high school students about the dangers of online dating. Knowing that kids at this stage of life are not only opinionated and picky when it comes to listening to speeches, but also realizing that it's hard to get their attention when the academically oriented Obasan lacks the light and fervor of an idol, I thought of using the love they are most curious about and concerned about as a lead-in to the speech.

When I held up the picture book in my hand and told the older children, who had a hard time settling down, that I had to tell a story at the beginning of the speech, the youngsters, who were brave enough to express their own ideas, did not hesitate to say, "We are not children, we don't want to listen to a picture book story.

Looking at their sunny faces, I put down the picture book with a smile and told the story myself.

A vow that never changes

The warm spring sunshine heats up the earth inch by inch. A colorful little caterpillar crawled slowly along the newly sprouted willow branches. Where it touched the water, she saw a dark, round, pearl-like tadpole in the water. When they look at each other, they fall deeply in love. Like all lovers in love, they make a vow that never changes.

The colorful caterpillar sees the tadpole with two hind legs and screams, "Didn't you promise me that you would never change? How could you break your promise?" "I'm sorry!" The tadpole begged, "Please forgive me, there's nothing I can do." The hurt and disappointed caterpillar said, "Okay, I forgive you this time, but you have to promise me that you will never change again."

Spring is on its tiptoes, dancing gently with the breeze and rain. Some time later, the caterpillar, which had become more and more colorful and beautiful, saw the tadpole, which had secretly sprouted its front legs again, and exclaimed in horror, "Didn't you promise me that you would never change? How can you break your promise again?"

Dancing wildly with a pair of inexplicable forelegs, Tadpole begged bitterly, "I'm sorry, it's really not my fault, there's really nothing I can do, please forgive me!

Looking at the tadpole with tears in his eyes, the caterpillar sighed deeply and said, "All right! I'm giving you one last chance. Promise me you won't change."

When the willow leaf turns from green to rich green and the flowery caterpillar sees the tadpole again, the tadpole's elegant tail is gone, and the caterpillar, with tears streaming down her cheeks, says, "Not only have you lied to me three times, but you're not the same person you were before.

After saying that, ignoring the tadpole's bitter plea, the caterpillar shed tears, along the willow branches, one by one, into the willow bush, and cried as much as he could, until the thick sleep brought him into the dreamland.

I don't know how long she slept, but the hot air shook her out of her dream, and when she opened her eyes to look around her, everything seemed to have changed. Drying her damp wings, she felt a hidden pain in her psyche that reminded her of her love for the tadpole, and decided to forgive her heartbroken tadpole once again. She flapped her colorful wings and set out to find her beloved. At the pond where they first met, where the willow leaves touched the water, she saw a green frog sitting on a lotus leaf, and with a burst of ecstasy in her heart, she cried out, "Have you ever looked at the rounded and tanned .... of a rouge?

Before he could finish his sentence, the frog jumped hard and opened his mouth. The colorful butterfly was swallowed into his stomach.

The frog pets his stomach and pines for the colorful caterpillar: "I wonder where she is now after she left in a fit of rage?

Differences in ability and experience

When the story was finished, the doctor exclaimed through the vein, "This story is too brutal to tell to the children, or it will scare them."

After the speech, this sentence has been stuck in my mind, and I can't get rid of it. Occasionally, it comes out to stir up my mind: "If children hear this story, will they be scared like these big brothers and sisters said?

I couldn't help but be curious and decided to experiment with the story on a group of Primary 1 children. The reaction of these kids was completely beyond the worries of high school students. They were entangled in a mud fight over whether their hind legs grew first or their front legs grew first, and they accepted the storyline, which was considered cruel and horrible, as a matter of course, because frogs eat insects.

Now the curiosity bug that lives in your brain can't help but crawl out and ask, "What about the older kids? How will they react?"

So he told the same story to a group of upper elementary school children. When he came to the point that the caterpillar and the tadpole made a promise to each other that they would never change, the children laughed out loud and said, "That's impossible! The caterpillar will turn into a butterfly and the tadpole into a frog, and they will both go back on their promises. By the end of the story, they were so proud of their insights that they weren't scared at all.

When I told the story to my young friend, who was suffering from love, her tears, which had hardly stopped, poured down again, crying, "Are you saying that my boyfriend will devour me like a frog? This story unexpectedly scared her, and her violent reaction also scared me.

While telling this story in the professor's class, these thoughtful mom-students were reminded that "wisdom is needed to raise children, and that if one loves only with animal instincts, one may, like the frog, 'love enough to do harm,' and hurt the most beloved child instead."

As my deliberate experiment meandered by accident, the words of Louise Rosenblatt, a master of education and literary studies, suddenly flashed through my mind: "Strong reactions to a work are often related to the reader's abilities and experiences, as well as to the reader's personality, mind, and cognition." Thus, whether a story enters one's mind through reading, viewing or reciting, each person will interpret the story in a different way, recognizing different levels of facets and meanings, as well as different joys, domains and insights. It also allows the curious observer to capture the quiet and hidden flow of thoughts in the brain.