Nebbermind:

:offtopic:


Tao Li personal coach to prep her for the games...how much are they paid? By who?
And Tao Li...does she get some sort of salary being a sportswoman? Sponsorship $$$ enough meh?

Why do you bring her up? I can't comment on her leh. If she/her mum thinks my info not accurate can :faint: suffice to say being a sportswoman in SG makes a lot of sense for her family.

Nebbermind:

How many exceptional talents are there? Just look at our sports scene....30 yrs on and we are still trying to find another APS and Fandi. Not saying we shouldn't be looking out for them...but they are really so rare.

I'm sure there are no less talent in Singapore, but the emphasis is never on them. Sports school also wants their students to do well academically, besides their sports. SOTA also wants their students to excel in academic aspects and they still have to put in the hours for their arts. The study ones (GEP) just study lor, their CCA =part-time. For the sports and arts folks, study = full-time, music/sports also fulltime. Tough.

So why are we surprised there are no Michael Phelps or Pele. Hehe... these people live and breathe their sports. No Mozart or Michael Jackson. These folks don't need to study and all they knew was music.

Actually, my opinion (now at least) is that we don't need very gifted people to be in administration, just the guai guai kind can already. But, we need very gifted sportsmen, musicians, entrepreneurs, business people, artistes etc etc. If the administration folks are too creative, they cannot follow the leader, which is the gist of their jobs, right? At least from my encounter with them it seems so lah.


So yeah, that being the case, then I think our govt has defined the term 'gifted' correctly lor, just different from the rest of the world. I just think the high achievers really don't need any augmented educational paths, because they do well anyway. The gifted ones need a lot of help, they are not just 'special needs' but exceptional needs. The very skewed ones, tend to be the most gifted, tend to be left out, tend to not do well despite being the most gifted.

But I guess, there are always priorities and choices on who we want to nurture. Then, so be it. :boogie: It bears its own consequences, good or bad.

Nebbermind:

2ppaamm:

Wah, Pirate, I am also going to ask the same question. Is the center run by qualified educators? Hard work as punishment??? Hardwork for incentives! Smart children like challenges! :?

You mean they will continue to be defiant and challenge authority??

No, I mean they do not like status quo and often like to challenge their minds. For some, they find joy in challenging authorities, for others, they challenge their own abilities to go the next realm in areas they are gifted in: sciences, maths, philosophy, sports etc. Depends on how we nurture our kids lah.

Ok, this is what I think happens to a gifted child's mind when given repetitive work like that:
1. He switches off, work is easy. In future, you try and challenge him it will be difficult because he is used to easy, repetitive work.
2. School is boring, adults are boring, teachers are boring. This is the kind of work we are supposed to do???
3. If school punishes him for behavioral problem, he is going to look at others and say, \"O, to not get punished, I must not be smart.\" So he dumb down lor, imposter syndrome.
4. He will soon not learn to use his mind actively. A gifted child is not given much more, in my opinion, but given about the same, but knows how to utilize the resources available to him (his brains) a bit more. So, we are teaching him not to use his brains. He will get used to it.
5. He goes to sleep or daydreams. Finds it hard to learn and focus when harder things comes around.

That's why we need gifted programs. But problem is, I also don't agree with the Singapore-style gifted programs which is nothing but pumping more work in creative ways. Sorry ah... being frank here.

Hope this is not too long winded. :scratchhead:

omelette:

2ppaamm:

BTW, Omelette, why would the Kindy ask a small kid to write the same letter so many times, how would his mind think or learn after that? Can't understand the logic... :? The Germans believe this will make their brains less nimble and stop creativity. Is the Kindy run by well qualified educators?

Honestly I find it very redundant too. He goes to a neighborhood kindy. You should be able to guess the school right easily. :boogie:

Can you ask them to stop doing this? I feel so uncomfortable for your kid, I kept thinking about it last night... Argh!!!! :frustrated:

Hehe... to some extent it is true. The geniuses are the undergrads. But having said that, a Harvard/MIT degree is a Harvard/MIT degree. They have a much more rigorous curriculum even compared to many Asian universities. Top notch instructors as well. Also much harder to get A's (>95). So, while perhaps a post grad is slightly less 'atas', it is still great.


Er... so far I know of only ONE real MIT undergrad. And he does not even have perfect results, he was a good all rounder, not even straight As. So, I keep telling people not to mug until :siao: but people won't listen. In the end, they lessen their chances in IL. Ok, IL, chances are very, very slim. Also, there are many 'grades' of IL, some IL are not even as good as local unis. They are just a group of universities in the same league for sports.

I love that part about Ang Mo geniuses. How true. These kind of laid back geniuses will have been executed long ago in Asian countries. Haha...

Wah, Pirate, I am also going to ask the same question. Is the center run by qualified educators? Hard work as punishment??? Hardwork for incentives! Smart children like challenges! :?

Talking about laid back. My hubby is super laid back. My brightest son is the most laid back among all my kids. I was so worried today. He was sleeping in his tutorial class. And I was sitting behind observing. He woke up, answered all the answers right. (???)


Laid back...strange quality, but a great one. He doesn't ever get stressed out. But I DO, just watching him!!! :stompfeet:

BTW, Omelette, why would the Kindy ask a small kid to write the same letter so many times, how would his mind think or learn after that? Can't understand the logic... :? The Germans believe this will make their brains less nimble and stop creativity. Is the Kindy run by well qualified educators?

Ah? Really? So sorry. :oops: Try to do shorter posts and use shorter sentences.

To be able to 平平淡淡过一生 is a gift.