The Alternative Story (TAS) - Discussion

[ridcully]

antebellum:

ridcully,

I am impressed. It is refreshing to find someone who speaks frankly in this forum.

Are you an English teacher ? Just curious.

I have a question. Is it necessary for a child to understand all these terms like subjects, false subjects, etc if her ambition is not to be an English teacher ? Is it possible for a child to do very well in creative writing if she does not know how to explain all these terms ?

Possibly too frankly at times. I hope my sincere message in improving people's English is not spoilt by my giving offence.

For my sins, I am an English teacher with over thirty years' experience.

Well, that's a very interesting question about whether it is necessary for a child to understand all these terms like subjects etc. I would have to say no. Writing expressively requires style and content substance rather than grammatical exactitude. However, most parents want their children to write decent compositions for school examinations, especially the PSLE; therefore, grammatical exactitude, together with extensive vocabulary, is indeed necessary. The PSLE compo paper is not creative writing.

Notwithstanding my initial 'no', I would say though that stylish writing requires a feel for the language and clarity of thought. These, in my experience, are greatly assisted by having a technical command of the language. There are some children who are natural writers, but a little bit of grammatical polish does not harm. On the other hand, a lot of children will not be stylish writers; they should at least not burden the reader with a double whammy of poor style and inexactitude.

:salute:
R

[markfch]

ridcully:

I accept that the manner could be interpreted as somewhat uncharitable. Hopefully, the uncharitable approach will help ensure greater accuracy from the original poster in future, but alas I see from the poster's reply that that might not be the case.

Even if your intention is good, there is no need to dish out the kind of sarcasm you did in the last few posts.

I think everyone here is free to interprete the motivation for your posts.

[ridcully]

markfch:

Even if your intention is good, there is no need to dish out the kind of sarcasm you did in the last few posts.

Apologies offered for any offence caused by my responses.


R

[quirkymum]

Ridcully,


I have read your posts before and I appreciate you helping us parents with queries but I do not think it is nice to go around tearing others down. It is rather unpleasant to read your recent posting here.

I am not speaking up for TAS because my kids are there but because I feel that the KSP forum has been a very useful place for us parents to learn and grow together. Let us keep this spirit. It would be sad to see the day come where the KSP forum is used as a place for competitors to throw mud at each other and take pleasure in pointing out each others mistakes.

[coolit]

Phew, this discussion seems to be getting heavy. But I want to speak up for

TAS. My children have been at TAS for almost 2 years. Their teachers have
always been giving their best and they teach very well. My ds has been
getting over 33 marks for his compos since he joined. He used to be
between 26-30 in the past. Dd also doing well. I have recommended more
than 5 friends and relatives to them and all like the lessons and are doing
well.

One of my friend’s child is a special needs child and the teachers in school
and her former tuition centre already gave up on her and recommended
putting her in a special school but she joined TAS last year and now she is passing her composition for the first time and passing her comprehension
as well.

What works so well for my friends and I may not work well for everyone
but it cannot be a fluke that TAS has helped my friends’ children and
my dd and ds so much.

[ridcully]

quirkymum and coolit, and others


I have already apologised. May I ask you to be gracious and accept an apology when it is given.

For the record, I did not attack TAS. In fact, reading through some of the earlier postings by TAS in this thread, I must say that the answers are very helpful and accurate. What I attacked was the latest poster from TAS reassuring a parent that his/her English was up to the mark when in fact this clearly was not the case, at least on the basis of the proffered postings. Maybe after a good cup of coffee, that poster is completely different.

Thank you for reading my previous posts. What you will notice is that I only challenge people, usually from tuition centres, who purport to teach English well, but then who make several mistakes in their advice. If you are happy to remain in blissful ignorance about what is being taught to your children, then that is your prerogative; and you do not have to read my postings. But yes, perhaps I should be kinder in my expression.

If you are implying that I am a competitor throwing mud at others, then you are very much mistaken. Although I teach, I have never revealed where I work nor promoted the place. Several parents have emailed me seeking private tuition and I have refused. In contrast, the tuition centres I challenge in this forum are commercial entities actively promoting themselves and seeking your dollars. Let the buyer beware.

The nail which stands out takes a chance in getting hammered down. It is easy for you to post saying "I don’t like that!", but you should ask yourselves whether you really try to help others here, or do you simply consume others’ knowledge and advice?

Rgds
R

[ridcully]

coolit:

Phew, this discussion seems to be getting heavy. But I want to speak up for

TAS. My children have been at TAS for almost 2 years. Their teachers have
always been giving their best and they teach very well. My ds has been
getting over 33 marks for his compos since he joined. He used to be
between 26-30 in the past. Dd also doing well. I have recommended more
than 5 friends and relatives to them and all like the lessons and are doing
well.

One of my friend's child is a special needs child and the teachers in school
and her former tuition centre already gave up on her and recommended
putting her in a special school but she joined TAS last year and now she is passing her composition for the first time and passing her comprehension
as well.

What works so well for my friends and I may not work well for everyone
but it cannot be a fluke that TAS has helped my friends' children and
my dd and ds so much.

I am delighted to hear that, and full credit to TAS. Please note that I was not challenging TAS itself, as stated in my previous posting.

Rgds
R

[antebellum]

ridcully:

antebellum:

ridcully,

I am impressed. It is refreshing to find someone who speaks frankly in this forum.

Are you an English teacher ? Just curious.

I have a question. Is it necessary for a child to understand all these terms like subjects, false subjects, etc if her ambition is not to be an English teacher ? Is it possible for a child to do very well in creative writing if she does not know how to explain all these terms ?

Possibly too frankly at times. I hope my sincere message in improving people's English is not spoilt by my giving offence.

For my sins, I am an English teacher with over thirty years' experience.

Well, that's a very interesting question about whether it is necessary for a child to understand all these terms like subjects etc. I would have to say no. Writing expressively requires style and content substance rather than grammatical exactitude. However, most parents want their children to write decent compositions for school examinations, especially the PSLE; therefore, grammatical exactitude, together with extensive vocabulary, is indeed necessary. The PSLE compo paper is not creative writing.

Notwithstanding my initial 'no', I would say though that stylish writing requires a feel for the language and clarity of thought. These, in my experience, are greatly assisted by having a technical command of the language. There are some children who are natural writers, but a little bit of grammatical polish does not harm. On the other hand, a lot of children will not be stylish writers; they should at least not burden the reader with a double whammy of poor style and inexactitude.

:salute:
R

Hi ridcully,
Thank you very much for your reply.

ridcully:

The nail which stands out takes a chance in getting hammered down. It is easy for you to post saying \"I don't like that!\", but you should ask yourselves whether you really try to help others here, or do you simply consume others' knowledge and advice?

I really hope to see more people like you who can continue to speak the truth instead of worrying too much about offending people.

The problem is that most parents cannot judge for themselves whether a tuition teacher's English is really good or not. They are happy enough when their kids' English compositions improve by a few marks, which could be due to the fact that TAS makes their kids memorize model compositions, and not because the quality of the teachers are good.

Comments from experts in English like you are far more accurate that those written by other parents who are not even good in English.

[quirkymum]

Ridcully,


I can see you have your own fixed viewpoint so I also do not wish to spend too much time in this ‘ding-dong’ back and forth of posting. Anyway, with some tutors, their replies can be grammatically incorrect most of the time but for TAS’s posting, most of the time it is correct. The errors I believe are made as a a result of a lack of proof-reading or typo errors. As someone who can also handle the language well, I know when a tutor can speak and handle the language well or not. First, I was impressed by TAS’s answers to parents, then I went for a holiday class and my children really loved it and I was also impressed by the way the teachers could explain to me what the children learnt. I went for a TAS workshop held by the founder and I came away learning so much. She definitely knows what she is talking about. I am not here to defend TAS as I said earlier but I take issue with the fact that you feel you need to prove your point that others are not good by putting them down and highlighting their mistakes and if parents feel that TAS or whichever other centre you deem as not very good is still good for their children, you suggest that we are blindly following the masses.

I know what I want and how to recognise good centres. TAS may not work for everyone but it works for me and the important thing is the teachers care for the children and they can teach well and produce results.

Glad that you are helping us parents with queries like I mentioned. That is definitely helpful but your postings here are not.

[ridcully]

Thanks, antebellum. I appreciate that.


I meet too many kids who get the wrong answers on their school worksheets but in fact are merely following what they have been taught. I wonder how many parents tell them off when the kids meekly reply, \"But teacher said it's like that!\"? These days, I give the benefit of the doubt to the kids.

:celebrate: