Now, it’s about you, girl

Ann has spent more than half her life overseas. Singapore education system, the real deal, is something completely new to her. To add to that, she began her school here at P3. What they call a ‘step up’ level. From the P1, P2 honeymoon years to where the real work start kicking in. For her to achieve these, I salute her…

• English – 89
• Math – 92
• Science – 93
• MT – 76 (sigh…must really do something, she was in the 90s range)

What really amazed me was her Math’s result. P3 Math is crazy, it is so ‘killing’ hard. She grabbed the whole concepts very well and very quickly. The kind of mistake she made in her paper was..6x6 = 18 !!!!! Yes, SCREAM>>>>. Careless, careless, careless! The harder the question, the more she could do but when it was easy addition and multiplication, she could go so wrong. She will learn.

Met her form teacher yesterday, she gave good comments, “Ann is a very bright girl, she speaks her mind and sometimes even give it to the boys……and I think the boys deserve it.” (We chuckled together). But there was one thing Ann has to learn…that is to give her comments politely. She once wrote a note to her teacher and said, “your ideas are lousy.” Aiyo…I have to dig a hole to hide my face. I must remind myself to teach her to voice out politely. You know, when overseas, everyone is very frank, in US, in an international school. No one took offence. Now, back in SG, people are different. Mama must learn too.

It was however, regretful, to listen to what her MT teacher said. She hails from PRC. She said that when a child is very good in her studies, she will be welcomed. If she does badly, she belongs to the lower grade students and no one will want to be her friend. I could only tell her firmly that I totally disagree with what she said and I will never teach my children that way!

Parents, don’t push bringing up kids to the school. Your morals, your values, your beliefs must be taught to your own children. The school only is in-charge of their academic health.