All About GEP
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Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=\"2051182\" time=\"1639062156\" user_id=\"195250:[quote=\"Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=2051182 time=1639062156 user_id=195250]
“A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help.
Let me a bit off topic here. In real life, things may not be working out so perfectly as in the movie.
Last night, I bumped into a friend at Jurong East MRT. He was a \"gifted\" kid and has graduated as the Master of Mathematics from NUS. He is so intelligent that he always wins during our boardgames events as he can calculate all possibilities of winning the games by every move.
But the problem is - he doesn't know how to get along with people and he usually stands firm on his own beliefs and never care how other feel. Finally he has argued with people in different boardgames groups until no one want to play with him. I had tried my best to bring him out to meet my friends for eating and boardgames events before the pandemic but I gave him up at last because he made everyone angry with him.
He told me he is now working as a private Mathematics tutor for secondary school students and he cannot earn much from it. I asked him why not he get a full time job and he said he cannot work with people.
There is no professor and no psychiatric counselor to help him as in the movie.[/quote]
Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, “Jump in, I can save you.”
The stranded fellow shouted back, “No, it’s OK, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me.”
So the rowboat went on.
Then a motorboat follow by a helicopter came by. “The fellows in the motorboat/helicopter shouted the same, “Jump in, I can save you.”
To this the stranded man said, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.”
Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to Heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, “I had faith in you but you didn’t save me, you let me drown. I don’t understand why!”
To this God replied, “I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?””
My view is, movie often dramatise, for entertainment. We can take it as an analogy to our daily equivalents . Just like the story above. Maybe your mathematician friend is that fellow, you the rowboat, and this KSP forum the helicopter?
Maybe your mathematician friend need to be exposed to other perspective not found in game theory first, and exposures to more people, later?
You are very kind too
Out of curiosity, What were the quarreling about
between your math friend and the others? -
Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=\"2051182\" time=\"1639062156\" user_id=\"195250:[quote=\"Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=2051182 time=1639062156 user_id=195250]
I couldn't agree more with what you said. You hit the point!! Whatever we want our kids to achieve, we should always bear in mind socialising skills, human relation , interaction with peers etc are important too. We can't be labelling the child as \"smart\" so to only mix with the \"smart\". In reality the child eventually need to learn to mix with all walks of life to better fitted into the society. I would say slow down if you walk faster than others...walk faster if others are fast...
Let me a bit off topic here. In real life, things may not be working out so perfectly as in the movie.
Last night, I bumped into a friend at Jurong East MRT. He was a \"gifted\" kid and has graduated as the Master of Mathematics from NUS. He is so intelligent that he always wins during our boardgames events as he can calculate all possibilities of winning the games by every move.
But the problem is - he doesn't know how to get along with people and he usually stands firm on his own beliefs and never care how other feel. Finally he has argued with people in different boardgames groups until no one want to play with him. I had tried my best to bring him out to meet my friends for eating and boardgames events before the pandemic but I gave him up at last because he made everyone angry with him.
He told me he is now working as a private Mathematics tutor for secondary school students and he cannot earn much from it. I asked him why not he get a full time job and he said he cannot work with people.
There is no professor and no psychiatric counselor to help him as in the movie.[/quote] -
Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=\"2051182\" time=\"1639062156\" user_id=\"195250:[quote=\"Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=2051182 time=1639062156 user_id=195250]
I couldn't agree more with what you said. You hit the point!! Whatever we want our kids to achieve, we should always bear in mind socialising skills, human relation , interaction with peers etc are important too. We can't be labelling the child as \"smart\" so to only mix with the \"smart\". In reality the child eventually need to learn to mix with all walks of life to better fitted into the society. I would say slow down if you walk faster than others...walk faster if others are fast...
Let me a bit off topic here. In real life, things may not be working out so perfectly as in the movie.
Last night, I bumped into a friend at Jurong East MRT. He was a \"gifted\" kid and has graduated as the Master of Mathematics from NUS. He is so intelligent that he always wins during our boardgames events as he can calculate all possibilities of winning the games by every move.
But the problem is - he doesn't know how to get along with people and he usually stands firm on his own beliefs and never care how other feel. Finally he has argued with people in different boardgames groups until no one want to play with him. I had tried my best to bring him out to meet my friends for eating and boardgames events before the pandemic but I gave him up at last because he made everyone angry with him.
He told me he is now working as a private Mathematics tutor for secondary school students and he cannot earn much from it. I asked him why not he get a full time job and he said he cannot work with people.
There is no professor and no psychiatric counselor to help him as in the movie.[/quote] -
bbbay\" post_id=\"2051206\" time=\"1639094475\" user_id=\"175278:
I will pm you direct for this later as we are already off topic to discuss here.
Out of curiosity, What were the quarreling about
between your math friend and the others? -
Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=\"2051182\" time=\"1639062156\" user_id=\"195250:[quote=\"Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=2051182 time=1639062156 user_id=195250]
If you have the opportunity, you might want to suggest that the son go for some kind of evaluation? Just based on this description, he sounds like he could have Asperger's Syndrome (high-functioning autism). Some of these are highly intelligent, but unfortunately lack social skills. Coaching can help. [My 24-yo daughter has Asperger's, though just average intelligence. She starts her first real job today, so we are crossing all fingers and toes!]
...But the problem is - he doesn't know how to get along with people and he usually stands firm on his own beliefs and never care how other feel. Finally he has argued with people in different boardgames groups until no one want to play with him. I had tried my best to bring him out to meet my friends for eating and boardgames events before the pandemic but I gave him up at last because he made everyone angry with him.
He told me he is now working as a private Mathematics tutor for secondary school students and he cannot earn much from it. I asked him why not he get a full time job and he said he cannot work with people.
There is no professor and no psychiatric counselor to help him as in the movie.[/quote] -
slmkhoo\" post_id=\"2051215\" time=\"1639098449\" user_id=\"28674:
Wishing your DD all the best and plenty of success in her job!
If you have the opportunity, you might want to suggest that the son go for some kind of evaluation? Just based on this description, he sounds like he could have Asperger's Syndrome (high-functioning autism). Some of these are highly intelligent, but unfortunately lack social skills. Coaching can help. [My 24-yo daughter has Asperger's, though just average intelligence. She starts her first real job today, so we are crossing all fingers and toes!]
We had advised the young mathematician to go for some kind of counselling before but he insisted that he was OK and only other people were unkind to him. -
Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=\"2051216\" time=\"1639100269\" user_id=\"195250:[quote=\"Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=2051216 time=1639100269 user_id=195250]
Moved this to the All about Autism thread as it's rather OT here:
Wishing your DD all the best and plenty of success in her job!
We had advised the young mathematician to go for some kind of counselling before but he insisted that he was OK and only other people were unkind to him.[/quote]
https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=935&p=2051225#p2051225 -
As some parents here are in the midst of school selection for our kids to join the GEP, I’m hoping to find out how do we decide if our child’s standard of MT is suitable or not to take up HCL in P4? Is there a specific cut-off point we should look at based on his overall P3 results? Or is there a scoring range that shows if he is suitable for HCL? Appreciate if experienced parents can help on this. Thanks in advance!
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Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=\"2051182\" time=\"1639062156\" user_id=\"195250:[quote=\"Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=2051182 time=1639062156 user_id=195250]
Like with everything in life, nothing is 100%. The same can be said for the uneducated like there are stories of uneducated people who could not speak any English becoming millionaires and successful in life, though in a smaller percentage like 0.1%. With GEP, or the educated, it does not guarantee 100% success, but it will definitely increase the chances of success, like in the example above, might be a minority like 0.1%, which is why u have things like Pareto distribution and Bell Curve, in every category of society, no matter how you split them up. Also true that some intellectually gifted are anti-social, geeks used to be a derogatory term due to that. Also being liked is not a trait for success in life either, most billionaires got to where they are by being themselves, not caring about how or what society thinks of them, sometimes being too concerned about what others think of you is detrimental to your success also.
Let me a bit off topic here. In real life, things may not be working out so perfectly as in the movie.
Last night, I bumped into a friend at Jurong East MRT. He was a \"gifted\" kid and has graduated as the Master of Mathematics from NUS. He is so intelligent that he always wins during our boardgames events as he can calculate all possibilities of winning the games by every move.
But the problem is - he doesn't know how to get along with people and he usually stands firm on his own beliefs and never care how other feel. Finally he has argued with people in different boardgames groups until no one want to play with him. I had tried my best to bring him out to meet my friends for eating and boardgames events before the pandemic but I gave him up at last because he made everyone angry with him.
He told me he is now working as a private Mathematics tutor for secondary school students and he cannot earn much from it. I asked him why not he get a full time job and he said he cannot work with people.
There is no professor and no psychiatric counselor to help him as in the movie.[/quote]
In summary, if life gives you chocolate (like GEP), I reckon it's good to take it, make full use of what is available, if not, it is not the end, you carve your own success regardless, famous QUOTE from Lee Kuan Yew:
\"Life is what you make of it. You are dealt a pack of cards, your DNA is fixed by your mother and your father... Your job is to make the best of the cards that had been handed out to you – what can you do well; what you cannot do well and what you are worst at. \" Singapore won't be here today if Lee Kuan Yew cared about what others were criticising him for, like being a dictator etc...
Nobody can control the future, but we should not be boxed into what is deemed a success, making a lot of money or not is just one measure, antisocial is not a guarantee for failure as well. Growth for my kid is of utmost importance, no matter how much success, to continue growing is living, to stop growing is dying and failure. My two cents. -
Hi everyone, I’m a newbie here and was prompted to join KSP after this morning’s GEP briefing when I realised that I had more questions than answers. I was hoping to get some insights from other parents here on these specific issues:
1. There was a lot of emphasis during the briefing on making "rational choices" in terms of school selection, i.e. they reiterated a number of times that they would accommodate preferences if they were "rational". However, GEB’s notion of "rationality" seems to be tied in primarily with home-school distance. If my kid is deeply invested/talented in a particular CCA and it’s only offered in one GEP school that isn’t the closest in proximity to our home, I think it’s pretty rational to try for that school, because it would not only allow for a well-rounded educational experience, but would also save us a lot of time e.g. when it comes to reducing involvement in external training. Is there any way they would take that into consideration for placement?
2. Mixed form classes - how does this work in practice? Is it like a pull-out system where the kids start the day in the mixed form class and then get pulled out at various intervals for GEP activities? What are the logistics of this e.g. moving to different classrooms constantly throughout the day? I had the impression that GEP classes would be smaller (eg 20+ kids) to allow for specific hands-on programmes as well as for deeper levels of discussion and interaction. Would mixed classes be regular size?
3. I have a younger child who starts P1 in 2022. I’m concerned about them being in different schools (both due to logistics and attachment issues). I know the official party line is that there’s no guarantee of a transfer for the sibling, but just anecdotally does anyone have positive experiences with this? And if I should have any expectations either way, what is a reasonable time frame within which I should receive news, or is it generally an indefinite wait? Obviously things are a bit more complicated this year because of the various gridlocks during the process.
Really appreciate any advice that anyone might have.
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