Parents, not enrichment centres, are key to result
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Chenonceau:
They are actually terrorising the PARENTS hor!!!
It's a barbaric system that TERRORISES kids into working hard. Not just kids are terrorised. Parents are too. Look at poor beanbear (post here http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=696954#p696954) whose P5 son (in the school's Math Olympiad training) flunked Math the whole P5 year!! :yikes:
Think Hitler... Genghis Khan... Attila the Hun. -
Nebbermind:
Exactly so!!
They are actually terrorising the PARENTS hor!!!Chenonceau:
It's a barbaric system that TERRORISES kids into working hard. Not just kids are terrorised. Parents are too. Look at poor beanbear (post here http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=696954#p696954) whose P5 son (in the school's Math Olympiad training) flunked Math the whole P5 year!! :yikes:
Think Hitler... Genghis Khan... Attila the Hun.
Because the children's psyches are more fragile... without an adult by their side to affirm and encourage them, many kids go into escapism. They feel no fear. They wanna play all day. How many terrorised parents say their P5 kids are still in lala land? It is psychologically too painful for a kid that age to face a failure they have no answers to.
(1) I did all my homework.
(2) I paid attention in class.
(3) I understood everything Teacher said.
(4) I dunno why I flunked and other people didn't. I must be dumb. Anyway, who cares... let's play some computer games. Dumb is dumb. I'm just not cut out for academics. I hate studying and learning.
Kids use avoidance coping strategies to manage the stress. Adults use active coping strategies to manage the stress. It doesn't mean kids are less stressed or terrified.
If I didn't constantly explain to my son that it's normal to feel stupid in P5... that the exams are designed to be way beyond his ability, he would be out all day playing an escapism game too. DS works hard because I am there to give HOPE. I am also there to temper the stress in such a way that he can ENJOY his learning. -
I am also against this ‘terrorism’ approach at P5 but is this out of some kind of desperate measures? I don’t know but it is something MOE should investigate. Such an approach takes the joy out of learning. Even if a child eventually mugged to get good PSLE results, I believe the damage caused by such an exam takes a long time to heal for the joy of learning and what if a child does not recover from it?
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Sill, alot of parents believe in this kinda terrorism...which is why past yr ppr of branded schools which is typically more difficult are selling so well!!
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ksi:
I am also against this 'terrorism' approach at P5 but is this out of some kind of desperate measures? I don't know but it is something MOE should investigate. Such an approach takes the joy out of learning. Even if a child eventually mugged to get good PSLE results, I believe the damage caused by such an exam takes a long time to heal for the joy of learning and what if a child does not recover from it?
We are all part of this complex educational system but there are a few levers that are being used more heavily than others. For example, you'll find that most if not all educators will expound on the importance of creating the result called \"joy of learning\" or \"holistic development of children\" and what lever can we use to create this result? Creative teaching methodologies, engaging child-teacher relationships, focus on the intangible variables such as Level of Children's Interest in the Classroom, Child's level of Attentiveness, Level of Motivation to learn more, etc. But do we truly truly track these variables? Are we really interested to grow these variables? Do we believe these variables will translate into more tangible results like high exam grades? I suspect the answer is \"no\" because many of our behaviours (teachers, parents, policy-makers) show that we \"prefer\" to grow the performance-related variables such as Number of Passes, Number of High Quality Passes, Number of Excellent Scores, Number of qualifiers to higher education, Number of qualifiers to ivy-league education. As long as we track such variables with more gusto than variables like level of children's eyes lighting up during a lesson, our focus of attention is towards making more difficult assessments and creating more strategies towards excelling in those assessments.
So how do we as individual family members with our own child deal with living in a system that focuses on performance-based variables than joy of learning variables? I really have to confront what I can change and what I cannot. I have to ask myself \"What kind of education experience do I want my child to have? In a system where performance assessment is emphasized with clear criteria what is excellent, what is normal and what what is sub-standards so clearly laid out, I have to confront and ask myself - do I want to subscribe to those standards? Can I redefine those performance criteria so that my child can still work towards achievement but with self-confidence and self-esteem intact? What is really good enough for my child to strive towards while maintaining his needs to enjoy other aspects of life, and maintaining his sanity? When am I imposing standards that will push my child towards a path of psychological damage that will take years of adulthood therapy to heal? \" These questions and more are what I grapple with in my moments of quiet reflection. I continue to search for answers as I don't have absolute clarity on all these questions. My realization at this point is : As a parent, I have great power over how my child feels about himself and about his performance. What I choose to focus my attention on in terms of what is good enough and what is not has far reaching consequences on his formation into adulthood. I must choose to use this power wisely. -
ksi:
I am also against this 'terrorism' approach at P5 but is this out of some kind of desperate measures? I don't know but it is something MOE should investigate. Such an approach takes the joy out of learning. Even if a child eventually mugged to get good PSLE results, I believe the damage caused by such an exam takes a long time to heal for the joy of learning and what if a child does not recover from it?
Last year (p5) was absolutely mad :mad:
Sitting for extremely tough school exams is very demoralizing...whole idea of wake up call is stupid!!! So what if schools shock the hell out of students, and then parents get all jittery and scramble to find tutors but poor kids are suffering. They dont learn more because they want to, but because schools force them. To me, setting tough exam papers is face-saving for schools...they don't want word to spread around that their school exam papers are chicken feed. -
I am now really curious to know if most people are facing this challenge of a killer exam at P5 for their children. This might be the panic button triggered in P5 across the island to land most kids in tuition.
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ksi:
I am now really curious to know if most people are facing this challenge of a killer exam at P5 for their children. This might be the panic button triggered in P5 across the island to land most kids in tuition.
The CA1 next month may be the first heart attack....don't know if many parents/kids will face it, but myself and several friends did. The dip in P3 was a little scary but nothing compared to p5. -
janet_lee88:
Just to confirm, your friends' kids and yours are all from different schools? If so, how many schools would that be? :scratchhead:ksi:
I am now really curious to know if most people are facing this challenge of a killer exam at P5 for their children. This might be the panic button triggered in P5 across the island to land most kids in tuition.
The CA1 next month may be the first heart attack....don't know if many parents/kids will face it, but myself and several friends did. The dip in P3 was a little scary but nothing compared to p5. -
What worst than P5 was what a school did to their P6 prelim. The paper was a killer that it affected the overall score of the students. Most of them cried and the Principal 'consoled' them by stating that he expected the students to move on to the affiliated school so he saw no effect on them whatsoever. :stompfeet: What if the student didn't wish to go to the affiliated school? :faint:
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