2018 PSLE Discussions & Strategies (Born in 2006)

[zac's mum]

Not sure if you have seen this poem, but it was making the rounds on FB today. It won the prestigious Commonwealth Essay Competition 2018.


Taking a look at the thoughts of a “typical 12-year-old” on the right side of the poem, you can see how stressed out and “sad life” a PSLE student feels.

I wept at the poignancy of this poem. They just want the assurance that they are loved by us, regardless of their grades. Are we giving them this assurance?

(Not even touching on the sadness of the left side of the poem or the impressive maturity of the author)
https://i.postimg.cc/BvfHCHxF/B0-ECDF28-68-F2-4521-AAB2-6-D3-A8-D43-B30-E.jpg\">

[Derek_Lee]

zac's mum:

Not sure if you have seen this poem, but it was making the rounds on social media today. It won the prestigious Commonwealth Essay Competition 2018.


Taking a look at the thoughts of a “typical 12-year-old” on the right side of the poem, you can see how stressed out and “sad life” a PSLE student feels.

I wept at the poignancy of this poem. They just want the assurance that they are loved by us, regardless of their grades.

(Not even touching on the sadness of the left side of the poem or the impressive maturity of the author)

Yeah, it has been making its rounds.... What amaze me more is how thorough the poem is, showing the full side of our education system from the 12 yo perspective.

[laughingcat]

Read this in FB. That is the life of most P6 kids. :faint:


When I showed this to my Caucasian frz, he said wow to SGP education that a 12/13 years old is able to pen such beautiful, thoughtful and powerful poem. Not an easy feat

[celeste.08399chua]

So I have a different take on this poem. I think the poet implies too, that our kids are blessed that their biggest problem, is just about doing well in some exams. Compared with what other 12yos face in this world, this is stress yes, but not life and death.


And learning how to handle stress is just one of those things that we must learn in life.

Do I sound rather harsh?

[Derek_Lee]

celeste.chua:

So I have a different take on this poem. I think the poet implies too, that our kids are blessed that their biggest problem, is just about doing well in some exams. Compared with what other 12yos face in this world, this is stress yes, but not life and death.


And learning how to handle stress is just one of those things that we must learn in life.

Do I sound rather harsh?

True in another perspective if we are to compare the left poem with the right one...

[laughingcat]

[quote]Compared with what other 12yos face in this world, this is stress yes, but not life and death.


And learning how to handle stress is just one of those things that we must learn in life.

Do I sound rather harsh?[/quote]
Not harsh. Agreed. Sometime the \"stress\" is overrated. Managing it is part and parcel of life.

[Estéema]

@ zac’s mum Thank you for sharing.


Stress is in midst of our lives. As parents, we need to help our kids navigate it, be resilient tonit or fend those toxic stress off.

[MrsKiasu]

laughingcat:

MrsKiasu:

[quote=\"ngl2010\"]I think rather than spend so much time in HCL, it is better to just take CL and spend more time on other subjects. The child may get 10 points higher than a miserable 3 points (maximum) which he/she may not be able to use it to apply for admission to SAP schools. JMHO

true and I agree..told kid before, and reply received was same same, cl and hcl :? and surviving so I thought just let it be if offered.

Guess what MKS.... I contemplated it after DC was offered HCL. But my DC's ex-school teacher advice not to proceed. Thinking about it, my DC will never go SAP school. So I have decided to drop it.[/quote]I m not sure abt the school/teacher whether encoursge or not, I m neutral..dd is the one who wants it. The way I see, like treat both as (same) Chinese papers and in terms of marks of course hcl is lower than cl. I seldom print cl/hcl past year papers for her to do since she already has tuition..dont say revising tingxie..earlier of the year esp first qtr, I still see her recording own tingxie and replay to give herself tingxie..I offered my help she says no need. After that, back to usual self haiz.

leeyl, xiao dingdang arh? likely no.. actually I m not sure what comic books..eg the Bt Merah library is small right, so once there she will go to that section and say she is so happy to see so many comic books, those with continuation/episodes type..I saw her roping in the librarian to help her find also..the 32 books loan was the 2nd batch after exam..I was quite unhappy say after this loan no more borrowing le since everytime also comic books..how to learn eg proper sentence structure right.

[MrsKiasu]

Estéema:

@ zac’s mum Thank you for sharing.


Stress is in midst of our lives. As parents, we need to help our kids navigate it, be resilient tonit or fend those toxic stress off.

Thanks for mentioning abt stress..I was talking to dd abt stress..there may be something I m taking too lightly without knowing that it may have a greater impact on kid's emotional well-being..to me I thought I was half joking whenever we discuss abt it. Keep mentioning about psle may be stressful to the kids.

[Hazelmama]

I remembered a ted talk about stress which was really cool. May be good to share another perspective on whether stress is good or bad or neither?


IMHO, parents cannot help DC if we do not learn and improve too. We should go out and learn something new too!

https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend/transcript?language=en

Enjoy!