2009 GEP Screening And Selection

[glchua]

turquoise:

Hi Dharma,

The first thing the teachers/HOD told the parents and girls at our dd's school was, Do not send your child for any outside tuition. They do not need it. By and far, they are right, because the teachers are very accessible and the girls are bright enough to manage the syllabus. Having said that, I do know of girls who have lots of tuition. And some of these are very bright, scoring very well. I think it's the kiasu mentality of the parents rearing its ugly head.

I feel that tuition and parental coaching should be kept to a minimum. I think, very often, this \"kiasu\" mentality is founded on some short term, result oriented need of parents, not some long term aim of nurturing capable adults.

The child will cease to know how to walk independently if overly hand-held. The road is very long, there will be a day in which the stuffs you need to learn can't be reiterated by another, and there is no 10 years series to practice on. That is why many of our students struggle in the university and struggle when they go to work. They just can't listen, learn and think.

[Courage]

glchua:

Leonardo da Vinci never had a formal education. Einstein did badly in school. I don't think Richard Feynman is in any special program. But all of them are good in tinkering with things from young. Something our children have very little time to do.

Glad to hear this. :celebrate:

[watmekiasu]

glchua:

Leonardo da Vinci never had a formal education. Einstein did badly in school. I don't think Richard Feynman is in any special program. But all of them are good in tinkering with things from young. Something our children have very little time to do.

Not only that, when they find something that they are interested and good at, they are encouraged to focus or specialize on it. Here, we spend the least time on our strongest subjects and the most time on our weakest. That's one reason why we fail to have locals outstanding in specialized field in the internatonal community as they started too late.

[rains]

I’m not sure if I want my kid to be put thro so much hardship just so that she’ll be a history maker. I just want her to have a cushy job and be happy all her life. I don’t want her to be humiliated as being ‘too stupid for schools’ or sleep 4 hours a day, conduct 1000 experiments before she invented a lamp.


No need. No need. I just want her to lead a simple life and be a happy person.

[Fairy]

MdmKS:

Dharma:

Having said that, year after year, I find a number of GEP pupils who still attend external enrichment classes, when the school is already doing so much for them. A large number of them end up with very high PSLE scores (> 270).

It surprises me as the demand of the school’s workload is already so much and can’t understand where they find the time. Not sure if any enrichment class outside there is able to offer something new to them.

I came across GEP students at enrichment/tuition centres to \"upgrade\" or \"learn aheard\" themselve. The P4 kid was attending P5 level for English there,...etc but whether this is the right thing to do? The parents told me they are just not so educated ah soh, they can't teach the GEP kids so better let them learn ahead and be able to do well in school.

P4 attending P5 class? I am aware (from an aquaintance) of a P4 GEP girl who has completed P6 enrichment classes together with the graduating classes! This girl is also attending SMO (J) classes meant for the sec1s! That's really kiasu. Anyway, look at the participants of SMO J. It's meant for sec1 & 2s but many primary school students took part. Of course, their results are non-spectacular. Their parents probably sent them for classes/competitions to get the exposure ahead of their time. There's no end to how kiasu people can be.

I am also aware of sec1 IP students signing up & already completed a year of sec3 enrichment classes for pure Sciences & Maths. (Information from enrichment centres).

The competiveness of these students & parents is suffocating for normal students who prefer to take one step at a time and enjoy the learning journey. However, these students have sacrificed a lot of their childhood, leisure and life to stay ahead of the cohort. Except for the truely highly gifted who has a good reason for their thirst for knowledge, the rest have paid a high price for what they are chasing after. So, don't envy them. Be glad that our children are more balanced and have the best of both world.

[hopeless]

Hi,


I have started to love this websites as the days passed. It si informative, caring and best sahring of parental experiences. Hope to read more.
Thanks. Keep up the good work of continuing sharing.

[keroppi]

Fairy:

Be glad that our children are more balanced and have the best of both world.

Thanks, fairy. This is a great reminder. No, I don't envy them but sometimes I feel like I'm in danger of succumbing to it, esp after listening to the other parents.

[hopeless]

The problem with maths is parents who are strong or above average in maths through out their school life will at times find it quite difficult to make the child to understand the topic. You could never understand how they think as you have encountered problems when you are young.

I was never good at maths,as far as i could remember, i still used my toe to add up the numbers when i was in primary 2, and many more funny things along the journey in learning maths. As such, when my son starts to learn maths, i did not interfere as I left it to my wife to mentor him as her results were mush better compare to mine. However, then came an incident when i realised that being weak at maths during my younger days help. My wife was trying to explain certain concept to him and in the end he was more confused than before. I overheard it and ask her to give me a try, as I faced the same problem when i was young. I started to use toys as a visual tool aid to explain the concept and slowly he started to grasp the fundamentals. Luckily, he has my wife gene, which it takes 15 mins to understand and do the question. My wife was not convince as the methodlogy is alomist the same except explain in a different manner. I told her maybe i took a longer apth to reach the destination hence able to undertsand his frustration.

[glchua]

rains:

I'm not sure if I want my kid to be put thro so much hardship just so that she'll be a history maker. I just want her to have a cushy job and be happy all her life. I don't want her to be humiliated as being 'too stupid for schools' or sleep 4 hours a day, conduct 1000 experiments before she invented a lamp.


No need. No need. I just want her to lead a simple life and be a happy person.

The thing is, the history makers probably didn't find it hard. It is what they love to do in the first place, creating and discovering. I guess they might probably find doing 1000 experiments much more enjoyable than 10 exercises from PSLE worksheets!

Unless, of course, it is us parents or the government that is pushing them to do the work, then it will become WORK and not play.

[glchua]

Fairy:

P4 attending P5 class? I am aware (from an aquaintance) of a P4 GEP girl who has completed P6 enrichment classes together with the graduating classes! This girl is also attending SMO (J) classes meant for the sec1s! That's really kiasu. Anyway, look at the participants of SMO J. It's meant for sec1 & 2s but many primary school students took part. Of course, their results are non-spectacular. Their parents probably sent them for classes/competitions to get the exposure ahead of their time. There's no end to how kiasu people can be.

I am also aware of sec1 IP students signing up & already completed a year of sec3 enrichment classes for pure Sciences & Maths. (Information from enrichment centres).

The competiveness of these students & parents is suffocating for normal students who prefer to take one step at a time and enjoy the learning journey. However, these students have sacrificed a lot of their childhood, leisure and life to stay ahead of the cohort. Except for the truely highly gifted who has a good reason for their thirst for knowledge, the rest have paid a high price for what they are chasing after. So, don't envy them. Be glad that our children are more balanced and have the best of both world.

I think these parents are just killing off their children's giftedness this way. I think your choice of the word \"suffocating\" is very appropriate.

Very few who are pushed to get ahead in life academically will do well in later years. How many achievers and inventers who were child prodigies that entered Uni at 13/14? I don't know of any. I knew of a kid who was studying Physics at age 13 in Uni. It came out in the news at that time. But in the end, he disappeared into oblivion and did not even finish his Honours.

I knew of a guy who studied in the same year as me in Uni. He was very smart and was offered accelerated Honours. He turned it down just because he merely wants to spend his free time exploring other things. This guy is really gifted. He could study his friend's course and started coaching her without even attending the course. I can't reveal too much but he is doing very very well now and had won several awards and published extensively.

Academic knowledge is all black and white with defined answers and is necessarily tested as such. The real world is mostly grey with many a times, no answers. Scientific and artistic achievements are all explorations with no answers. Solutions to engineering and software problems in the industry are often not found in a textbook. Students that are too grilled will have a fear of stepping out, of not giving the \"correct\" answers and will stop exploring.

Students who are \"nurtured\" from young to stay in the \"correct answer\" path will in the end, just be mediocre like everyone else, contributing less than they were originally cut out to be.