Patience - Virtue Assembly

1. This month’s value is…

2. Endurance of hardship
Tolerant perseverance
Calm or hopeful waiting

3. Intolerant or impetuous
Restless or irritable
Over eager
Fidgety

4. Long ago in Brazil,
there lived a plain
brown beetle…

5. One day, the beetle
was walking along a
wall, minding his own
business, patiently
trying to get home,
when out of a hole in
the wall popped a rat…

6. ‘Look at how slow you
are!’ said the rat, ‘I bet
I could beat you in a
race easily.’
‘Actually,’ said the
beetle, ‘I can…’
But the rat was so
impatient and fidgety
that he would not let
the beetle talk…

7. High above in the
trees, listening to
the two creatures
talk, was a beautiful
parrot, who
decided to offer a
prize to whichever
of the two was the
fastest…

8. The day of the race
came and the rat was
very confident. The
beetle remained
calm and patiently
awaited the parrot’s
starting cry…

9. When the parrot started the race, the rat ran as
fast as he could towards the tree which was the
finish line…
But he soon slowed, thinking that the beetle was
so slow he could not possibly beat him…

10. However, when he reached the tree, the rat had
a nasty surprise…
There, sitting chatting to each other, were the
beetle and the parrot…

11. ‘How did you get here before me?’ asked the
rat…
The beetle said nothing, but showed the rat his
wings…

12. ‘You never told me you could fly!’ said the rat…
‘You never gave me the chance,’ replied the
beetle,’ you were too impatient to let me speak.’…

13. And so it was that the parrot gave the beautiful
coloured coat to the beetle…
Who was very pleased with it…

14. And the people of Brazil were so impressed with
the patience of the beetle that they designed
their national flag to honour him…

15. When we are impatient we can miss things that
might turn out to be important. Being patient,
giving people a chance to speak and listening to
what they say can help us in our learning. How
can you be more patient in class…?