Asia spending billions on tutors: study
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THAT parents demand tuition for their children and students futilely submit to it, all the while lamenting the inadequacies of our schooling system, ignores an inconvenient but incontrovertible statistical truth ('S'pore way works, but only with tuition' by Ms Wily Wan; last Saturday).
In any cohort lined up, there will always be the best and the worst so that shuffling the order with any amount of tuition can but change the sequence a little bit and only temporarily.
Indeed, it is impossible for the least innately endowed to catch up with the fortunate top percentiles if both sets of students enjoy the same benefits of our education system, apply themselves as assiduously and enrich themselves similarly through tuition and other programmes.
Background story
The most successful people in my cohort - the ones who were able to uplift, influence and benefit the people most, like politicians, entrepreneurs, musicians and, yes, pastors - were not book prize winners in school.
It is my experience that students who top the class in primary schools, through the artifice of tuition, do not continue to excel in secondary schools, junior college and university. It gets students only so far before things return to their natural order.
Personally, tutoring my children has made me realise that they have succeeded not because of me but in spite of my (superfluous) efforts.
Looking back, I would have been a far better parent by enriching their young minds through smelling more flowers and seeing the beauty in a grain of sand.
This is not advocacy for a defeatist or fatalistic attitude, allowing karma to dictate our children's academic fates.
Each of our students is unique and talented in his own way.
Our role as parents is to discover and nurture their innate ability (not necessarily academic) which makes them stand at the head of the queue based on their inborn aptitude, so that they already have a natural head start over others. Don't try squeezing square pegs into round holes.
The most successful people in my cohort - the ones who were able to uplift, influence and benefit the people most, like politicians, entrepreneurs, musicians and, yes, pastors - were not book prize winners in school.
Dr Yik Keng Yeong
http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_824531.html -
firefly38:
Now pri sch is like Half Life to me but not sure about how dd feels. Sec sch seems like No Life to me. One of my neighbour's dd sec1 this year and said \"每天早出晚归“ maybe for the teens is Full Life in sch coz they have less time at home to get nagging & scolding from us.... :rotflmao:janet_lee88:
Neighbour's son has one day school ends at 1230, but he has CCA till 6 or 7 pm. Cousin's son is hardly home before 4 when he was in Sec 1. Practically no life in secondary school...very much worst. After a long day, homework still must completed before sleeping.
On the contrary, secondary school is FULL of life.. The child gets to meet so many new people, learn so many new things, handle so many new experiences.. How can it be ''no life''??
And, not home before 4 does not mean ''no life''.. It simply means that life has extended beyond the 'home', for the child...
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SAHM_TAN:
Are you also going to chk which primary school she was from ? :evil:
For your future grand children school enrolment ! :yikes:
:siam: -
janet_lee88:
Art, technical, CCA. All these are subjects which take up time.
i thought so too, but some of my friends' kid after getting good PSLE results and got into good sec school have to work even harder, stay longer hours in school, school holiday also need to go back to school for CCA, weekends tuition continues and those get in via sports DSA have to train 4 evenings a week ..... i was like :faint: after hearing it....KSP:
[quote=\"janet_lee88\"]I am not rich lah.
Happened to have insurance account which just matured. Next year, son is definitely on his own liao...with 9-10 subjects, where to find time for tuition?
KSP, I agree with you. If the child gets reasonably good PSLE results and attends good sec school, time is spent on these activities. Does the child have time to get homework done? Friend's son in Sec 1 spends long hours supporting either tennis team or some other group.[/quote]4 evenings a week parents have to fetch from the training sports hall and settle down at home ~9.30/10pm then start hw, go to bed ~12/1am.....
:shock:
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Think we should start a thread on ‘Do you think you have a life with the hectic Sec Sch Curriculum’. Besides the parents, would be interesting to hear from the kids themselves.
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SAHM_TAN:
TLL collects fee every 4 lessons, if all 3 subjects is about 1k/mth plus CL $300, CL/EL creative writing another $500, Maths Olympiad so that could easily exceed 2k/mth.I think Janet has been open in her various postings.
If you consider the scenario of a primary school kid going to TLL for all 3 subjects plus a couple of other enrichments, it easily can also hit near 2k? -
BeContented:
Think we should start a thread on 'Do you think you have a life with the hectic Sec Sch Curriculum'. Besides the parents, would be interesting to hear from the kids themselves.
let's start with pri sch first... i feel i left with half life.... -
KSP:
Think Janet did mention before that some of the subjects are 2 sessions per week. Guess PSLE cannot play play, so better pay & pay. Let's hope life will be better after that
TLL collects fee every 4 lessons, if all 3 subjects is about 1k/mth plus CL $300, CL/EL creative writing another $500, Maths Olympiad so that could easily exceed 2k/mth.SAHM_TAN:
I think Janet has been open in her various postings.
If you consider the scenario of a primary school kid going to TLL for all 3 subjects plus a couple of other enrichments, it easily can also hit near 2k?
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KSP:
Ha ha....thot already read enough about Primary school.....all the threads about tuition, teachers cannot teach, PSLE/Exam paper difficult etc.BeContented:
Think we should start a thread on 'Do you think you have a life with the hectic Sec Sch Curriculum'. Besides the parents, would be interesting to hear from the kids themselves.
let's start with pri sch first... i feel i left with half life....
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This is a qn link to verykiasu 2010 post of the article.
For children we classify them into auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners, does any one know if these learning style con’t into teenagers and adulthood, meaning the learning style is permenant so to speak.
I’m exploring, in classroom, it’s mostly auditory kind of learning, more so as the level progresses, excluding non-academic and lab-based. So if a child never learn to bridge the gap of his or hers learning style with the delivery stlye of the teacher then when he or she is in sec level and higher, it will be harder to manage?
In primary school maybe for some cases, the tutor is able to customise to a particular learning style. But if the child never learn the skill to adapt it on his or her own then of course during sec school will face the same problem.
I agree that each child has unique talent and potential but also trying to explore other possibilities.
So wondering does the learning style of a child sticks with the child or does it evolve over time as the brain matures?
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