Teachers introduced to Olympism

Some of the participants.

A total of 137 teachers from six Wesley Methodist Schools (Five secondary and one
primary school) were introduced to Olympism and Olympic Education.

The teachers, who gathered in Bukit Gambang Resort City for the annual Wesley Methodist School
Teachers’ Conference organized by the Methodist Education Council, were receptive to the
information presented to them by the Pierre de Coubertin Society of Malaysia (PCSM) entitled
“Olympism and Character Building”.

The three hour session on March 12th was divided into two parts; the first part was the introduction
to Olympism and the second part, a group discussion using the Open Space Technology on how to
implement Olympic Education in their schools.

For the first part, the teachers watched videos and were informed about the founder, principles and
values of Olympism by speaker, Nicholas Chan who is also the Vice-President of PCSM.

After imparting them with the basic grounds of Olympism, the teachers were then triggered to initiate a
group discussion using the Open Space Technology method. Topics like “Religion and Olympism”,
“Physical Education and Olympism” and “ICT and Olympism” were sparked and the teachers
brainstormed on how to get the message of Olympism through to their students. Each group
subsequently presented the outcome of their discussion.


At the end of the session, a survey was distributed and one of the questions asked was “Do you think
that Olympism can be integrated into the school syllabus?”. 97% of the teachers answered “Yes”.

When asked how would they describe the relevance of Olympism in a child’s upbringing, Cik Nur
Natasha Bt Muhamad Rani, a Mathematics teacher from the Wesley Methodist School in Seremban
wrote “It teaches the child to recognize the values of life through sports.” while Mr. Au Yong San
from the Wesley Methodist School in Melaka who teaches Geography and Art commented, “It would
inculcate the spirit of perseverance, tolerance, patience, competitiveness, cooperation and
comradeship.”.

Group discussions using the Open Space Technology Method.

This was the first time that PCSM was approaching teachers about Olympism and it proved to be a success as the teachers found Olympic Education to be relevant in the promotion of a balanced and holistic development of a child.

Out of the six schools that participated, two principals have already expressed their interest to organize an Olympism Outreach Program in their schools.