Why do you have to be like the others?
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The ads reminded me of Beethoven who continued with his music long after he lost his hearing. :love:
Why do we follows the other? Maybe we are afraid of our kids losing out or to see our kids struggle daily in school or simply making sure that our kids potential is fully realize?
Having said this, I'm still frozen in thoughts deciding which way to go. To follow or to just let it be. Well, I guess, I still needed time to think it through
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Right now my kids only attend one chinese enrichment class, which I plan to stop when they finish K2. They will not have any tuition in future.
I believe in teaching them to read very well, then they will naturally know how to write. By teaching them the most important skills of reading and writing, they will be well prepared for a life of learning ahead of them.
Instead of doing assessments and attending enrichment classes, they are reading all the wonderful children’s classics, as well as children’s encyclopedia. They are learning a wide variety of knowledge, as well as the beautiful style of writing of famous authors, and building up their vocabulary along the way. They are free to write anything that comes to their mind. Most importantly, they enjoy reading the books.
Kids can still have a happy and intellectually enriching childhood. -
for discussion, let me give a different perspective and some of my personal views:
acforfamily:
let me guess....is the student in a 'popular' school? would things be different if the parents have opt for a neighbourhood school?I thought that I could be a parent who would let the kid progress without tuition or extra classes, only to be told by the school that he has to perform better. I was naive enough to think that the school would only expect the students to know only things that have been taught.
acforfamily:
don't have to wait for teacher to give out sample compos. take a trip down to Popular Bookstore. Flip through 'Model Compositions for P1' will bring sweat trickling down your forehead; do most students really write that well?Imagine my horror when the teacher gave out sample compositions done by fellow classmates that indicated the use of vocab and phrases way beyond their years.
acforfamily:
the schools did so cos MOE does that too; see the recent PSLE. the phenomenal of average students going for enrichment classes to push up the standard seems to be confined to popular schools - correct me if i am wrong. that boils down to the same question; the quest of parents yearly to seek limited vacancies in 'premium' schools, they should go in with their eyes open and not blame the system if they want to partake in it.We seem to be living in a vicious circle. The schools set more and more difficult questions to differentiate the really good students. The average students find the questions difficult and go for enrichment classes, thus pushing up the standard. So the school has to set even more difficult questions.....
acforfamily:
how can we compare current generation with ours? we have to look at relativity. the system will always value meritocracy. those who do not want to jump on the enrichment bandwagons have to look at motivating their own children to take ownership of their own studies and also adjust their own expectations; accept effort rather than results, and accept that those with enrichment background is likely to have a better advantage than those who doesn't.We send our children to enrichment classes, tuition etc in the hope that they do not fall behind their cohort. But how many of us in our age group survived without tuition / extra classes? Aren't we all still doing well?
What would happen if one day, everyone stops going for all these extra lessons? Would we be worse off?
on another note, looking at ourselves, if 90% of your colleagues don't knock off at 6pm sharp, wouldn't you choose to be like them? -
One thing we can do, is to stop comparing results.
In fact, I hope that MOE disallows primary schools to rank their students in terms of academic results. Every educator is talking about instilling a love of learning in our children. Then why bother ranking the students ? Is there really a big difference between a student that scores 90 marks, and another student who scores 99 marks ?
What is the advantage of identifying the top student ? So that he/she can get a prize ?
Children should learn because they love to learn. Not because they want to be the top student in class. -
tamarind:
Sooner or later they will compare anyway. Competition spurs progress.One thing we can do, is to stop comparing results.
In fact, I hope that MOE disallows primary schools to rank their students in terms of academic results. Every educator is talking about instilling a love of learning in our children. Then why bother ranking the students ? Is there really a big difference between a student that scores 90 marks, and another student who scores 99 marks ?
What is the advantage of identifying the top student ? So that he/she can get a prize ?
Children should learn because they love to learn. Not because they want to be the top student in class.
Some children genuinely love to learn, but most love to just play, fool around or just do nothing. That's human nature. Stress in appropriate amounts drive progress. -
skunk:
I agree that competition spurs progress. I think it is fine to have ranking in secondary schools and above. If we want our kids to enjoy their childhood, and to really love learning, then there should not be any ranking of students in primary schools.
Sooner or later they will compare anyway. Competition spurs progress.
Some children genuinely love to learn, but most love to just play, fool around or just do nothing. That's human nature. Stress in appropriate amounts drive progress.
The students will still know their grades in each subject, so they know how well they are doing and whether they have made improvements. I think this is enough stress. There is no need to rank from number 1 to 40. If the teachers really need to know, they can still rank the students but keep the information to themselves only. There is no need to release the information to the parents.
I have heard of a student who was ranked number 3 in one of the top primary school. She went around telling her friends that her parents would be very mad with her because she did not get the number 1 position.
The problem is that the stress is no longer in appropriate amounts in primary schools.
The fact is that, in universities, polytechnics, and junior colleges, there are no ranking of students. I do not see any advantage in ranking students in primary schools. -
tamarind:
The problem doesn't lie with the system, it lies with human nature.
I have heard of a student who was ranked number 3 in one of the top primary school. She went around telling her friends that her parents would be very mad with her because she did not get the number 1 position.
The problem is that the stress is no longer in appropriate amounts in primary schools.
Even without open ranking, people who like to stress themselves in inappropriate amounts, will go around comparing no matter what, while those who like to run away from stress instead of facing up to it will have yet another excuse to run away from it all.
Don't say primary school, even toddlers compare toys and ability, the kid who can climb the highest on the monkey ropes, certainly earn some sort of admiration from some other kids, while the one who doesn't care, will \"escape\" the stress of such comparison but might never learn to climb the monkey ropes.
From the way i see it, it's a problem that cannot be simply overcome by mere changes in policy. Everyone must learn to handle it in their own way, but one thing is for sure, running away from it ain't gonna solve anything. -
Sometimes I wonder who is driving all these comparison? Is it the schools or the parents? From what some of you describe, it’s the parents who want to know how good the school is (in terms of academic results) and put pressure on kids. Of cos some stress is good, as it will motivate the kids to try harder, but beyond a certain point, I think it’s counter-productive. Maybe it’s easy for me to say all these as my kids are still pre-schoolers but I do hope I can retain my perspective and strive for a balanced approach even when my kids start school. JMHO.
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We must all remember that primary school is the place where we can cultivate a genuine love for learning in children. Competition is not going to make a child love to learn.
Changes in policy can help a big deal. If the parent don’t know exactly who is number 1, 2, 3, or 4, then
there is no need to push their kids to get that few more marks just to be better than the rest. A child getting very depressed because he scores 3 marks less than than the number 1 kid, is really not healthy. This is much worst than comparing toys and ability. The truth is that a child who scores 3 marks less than another child in maths, does not necessarily mean that he is less clever ! In polytechnics and universities, students only know their grades, not their exact marks.
There is no harm having competition only after 12 years old. In fact, there are many children who are late developers, and they will reach their maximum potential only when they are teenagers.
I remember reading that in China and Canada, there is no ranking of students in primary school.
I wonder why is it that so many parents complain about the stress in our education. But no parents want to do anything about it.
It is not that I am scared of competition. I used to be the number 1 student every year in my primary school (an average school). I still do not see how ranking can develop a love of learning in kids. In fact, too much competition is going to have adverse effects on the child, and may cause him to develop emotional problems. -
I am surprised that there are primary schools still adopting the ranking of all the students. I thought that school only practise rewarding top few students in class or cohort. I think this is healthy to encourage other students to work harder and to recognise students’ efforts. It is quite unhealthy to rank everybody especially for the students who are in the last few ranks of the class, they will feel very demoralise and embarass.
When my son was diagnosed with special needs, my sister in law tried to persuade us to bring him to Canada where she migrated. She feels that the education system in Canada is more supportive of special needs students and there are no excessive pressure to excel among the students and parents. Students who are talented in certain academic subjects, arts, music or sports are given opportunity to focus on the discipline they are keen and wish to develop and progress at advance level.
In Singapore, the education system is such that if you are in GEP, you are deemed to be gifted in all subjects and have to persue all subjects at a much advance and indepth level. In main stream, students have to be all rounded as this is reflected in the PSLE scoring system. Unfortunately, I have spoken to numerous parents who feel that their children have to spend more time working hard on the weaker subject at the expense of the subject they are more interested to develop further. I believe this education system may be one of the factor that driven many parents to engage tutors and enrol their children in enrichment classes. Basically, parents may not believe that the school is doing enough to help their children and perhaps this is another form of outsourcing help for their children especially both parents work long hours these days.
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