Education - Catch 40 Winks

A Fairy Tale Module in Primary 1?

September 19, 2013 · By Rachel ·

Counting down 4 months before K enters Primary 1. I think I am less enthusiastic than I should be, instead of giving him more preparation work for primary 1, we are taking it easy.

A little too easy I think, as the only classes he attend weekly are Chinese enrichment classes. I have to admit that Chinese is just about the only subject that makes me a tad nervous about Primary 1. Yesterday, it just dawned on me that there is this other subject that I have not taught him; Fairy Tales.

I have discovered that your child needs to have the knowledge of fairy tales, specifically, politically correct fairy tales. See this photo taken from a friend, who shared her child’s answers from a segment from an actual Primary 1 English Test Paper on Facebook.

Pri1 1 Photo used with permission from the mom

So the child was penalized for not knowing her fairy tales, or rather, stories that are in their right structure and order. Handsome princes can never be turned into snakes by fairy godmothers, and castles should always be beautiful, but cannot be on beautiful green fields.

Really, I don’t see anything wrong with the answers she provided. There are no grammatical or spelling errors. and the language structure is correct. The teacher must have added a politically correct fairy tale module in her evaluation of these answers, thus, the child will not pass based on her slightly varied take to what is deem as a right representation of sentence structure in fairy tales.

I assume that the purpose of this question was to get the child to test the child’s ability to; re-arrange the sentence, identify and build sentence parts and probably capitalize sentence beginnings and punctuate statements. This questions were likely meant to test the child’s skills to select the appropriate language structure and become an independent writer. So then, why is the child being penalized for not knowing her fairy tales?

This, I believe, is just a common example of how conformity is being inculcated in our local education system. Success through education is determined by exam results, which have marking schemes to follow. There is only ONE right answer to every question.

I thought about what I will do if K encounters the same things when he start Primary school next year:

1. Meet the teacher, and explain my view on why this answer should be marked as correct. However, this will be dependent on whether I have already sized up the teacher to find out more about her personality. If she is open and accommodating to parental feedback, she might feel a little apologetic and then change her marking on the paper. Or if the teacher is by-the-book and inflexible, my child might get unnecessary attention amongst the 29 other kids in class or just get ignored eventually.

AND / OR

2. Explain to child that conformity is part of societal expectations, model answers and behavior is needed to get approval from teachers and school. However, share with child that his answer is correct according to English language structure and rules. And continue to encourage creativity in modules of creative writing, problem solving and life in general, apart from school.

Frankly, I think this is rather sad, but so real in our educational system. Here’s my proposition for Singapore School Education that embodies how I see it at this point;

Singapore Primary School Education – Train your kids to be square pegs to fit into perfect square holes for a box.

Likely Responsible for coma-tosing your child’s creativity over time.

I can’t help but to be cynical when I see things like that, and wonder what then happens to the round pegs, triangular pegs, the oval pegs, or how about those pegs which don’t really have a defined shape.

In the meantime, I need to get my hands on a fairy tale book to do read-alouds with the little boy.

Do share what you will do if you encounter this situation with your child. Will you take it in your stride and just address it with your child separately, resign to the situation and not pursue it further, and/or choose to speak to the teacher?

*This post has a follow-up post that will address some of the comments shared, do read the post here.

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Categorized: Education, Parenting · Tagged: Observations

Prelude to Primary 1

July 12, 2013 · By Rachel ·

Am I nervous about K starting primary 1 next year?

I used to be 1 year ago. But not anymore, and the irony is that he will stop going to formal school for the next 5 months before starting Primary 1 in January 2014. In fact, I am relieved that he is not going to his dad’s alumni primary school, a top Chinese primary school located in Marine Parade, and we will be applying for a ‘regular’ primary school in Bukit Batok neighborhood in less than 3 weeks.

Probably I might get criticized by other parents, who might be feeling a little jittery about their child starting primary school in less than 6 months. Think that I am seriously lacking in the brains department, when I forgo my chance to be secured a place for K in a popular primary school. “And this crazy woman takes the opposite path to go for a regular school? Plus, what about this drastic move of no formal schooling in the next 5 months before starting Primary school”?

Instead of being all nervous about which school to go to and fret about what to do, I took a brief time to make the most logical decision. Taking into account the recent upheavals that our family have experienced, these arrangements could likely last us for the next 6 years of K’s primary school years. I didn’t want to subject K the pain of having to adjust to a new school, getting used to a formal routine and new friends, and then having an all new routine again with primary school. Some things needed to stay consistent amid these changes, and the most consistent and comforting factor in this equation was my presence.

So really primary school is a small issue, when we have so many other more important things to be concerned about. See the big picture! Don’t be paralyzed by the details, I always will tell myself.

Our regular routine now looks something like on a weekday; Breakfast – Watch TV – Learning for 45 mins – Lunch – Play – Nap – Play or Read – Some more TV – Bath – Dinner – Play or Learn (usually he will end up playing again) – Readaloud and Devotion – Bedtime : Talk non-stop to Mommy, then slowly drift to sleep.

Whenever he is doing any of these things; Watch TV, Eat, Play and Learn, Sleep, I will be on my laptop getting my work done. I find it rather strange how I am more efficient and can get my work done effectively during these times. When previously, I used to have at least 8-9 hours to work when he used to be in Child-Care and I was not as efficient or effective getting things done.

I break the monotony of his weekday by attending BrainFit 1 hour sessions twice a week for the next 8-10 weeks, Chinese class for 1.5 hours once a week and Art-class 1 hour a week. and play or outings for the rest of the day on Fridays after art class. K is thrilled anyhow, that he doesn’t have to mug for spelling tests and 听写 twice a week, until he enters primary school next year.

Our routine only includes 45 minutes of learning 4x a week, doing a couple of pages of worksheets for English and Math.

Homeschool 4
He reads chapter books regularly and enjoys the humor and comic genre, some of his favorites include the series of ‘Diary of the Wimpy Kid’ and the ‘Horrible Histories’ series of books, as he is one History buff.

I teach him some Chinese Word Recognition (Hanyu Pinyin later) with more attempts to speak Mandarin at home, and have additional help through external Chinese classes 1.5 hours weekly. Then we revise what he learns from class, at least 3x a week in that 45 minutes of learning at home.

Homeschool 12

Homeschool 1

We are doing well with our new routine for the past two weeks. In case you are wondering, we moved to my mom’s home in the last week of June 2013 and we have just started with 2 weeks of this new routine. K is settling well, generally the both of us have learnt through the last couple of years, to embrace changes as they come.

On a side note, close friends have likely got used to me being a little unconventional the past few years and they will likely not be surprised if they knew what I am up to lately.

I didn’t divulge my trials on this blog to get pity or empathy, although, I truly appreciate the care and encouragement given by many friends. I tend to share quite openly what I experience in life in this space, and I am well aware that there are countless others with worse situations or trials.

I have always been a ‘fighter’ and for this point in life, my unwavering faith in Christ has never been stronger.

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It’s Time to Re-Invent Singapore’s Education for our Children

April 1, 2013 · By Rachel ·

Reading this on Today online yesterday, made me want to run out to set up a Lemonade stand for K right outside our estate this weekend, and share tips with him on entrepreneurship.

Photo credit of Lemonade Stand – Pinterest

My only problem :

1. Most Singaporeans don’t drink Lemonade

2. The process of applying for a food shop license from National Environment Agency (NEA) will be too much of a hassle for profits of < $20.00

3. I might get complaints from some retiree staying in the vicinity who thinks that I am exploiting my 6 year old to earn money for me

How about selling packet drinks of local favorites on a really hot day. Now, I wonder if I still need to get a food license for that?

Book Smarts vs Street Smart

Mr Tony Wagner, a Harvard Education specialist put it very aptly in this article, ‘because knowledge is available on every Internet-connected device, what you know matters far less than what you can do with what you know…The capacity to innovate — the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life — and skills like critical thinking, communication and collaboration are far more important than academic knowledge. As one executive told me: ‘We can teach new hires the content, and we will have to because it continues to change, but we can’t teach them how to think — to ask the right questions — and to take initiative.’

There you have it. Most of us know how to use google search effectively, but how do you use that knowledge that you found or learnt?

Singapore children have no lack of knowledge when it comes to many things, and globally our country is a success story when it comes academic achievements. But with that vast knowledge that they have acquired in schools, how many are able to use that knowledge acquired from schools in real life?

Makes me wonder if these shortfalls in our education system have been the very reason our country has brought us to where we are today, to be so dependent on foreign talent for so many of our white-collared jobs.

Can’t find a job? Invent one.

Initiative, innovation and motivation do pay off for most who are starting their own business, however, Mr Wagner didn’t add that, everyone will need opportunities to present themselves. You can try to comb out the niches in every industry or be that blessed few to wait for it to come your way by chance. And I am certain it will help that your have tons of cash stashed away and are prepared to run losses in the first 1-2 years of the business.

How many Singaporeans are willing to take the path less trodden i.e., entrepreneurial path, and be willing to take risks and work hard for it? Making a quick buck don’t happen easily these days, unless you are planning some elaborate Ponzi scheme.

Has Singaporeans’ obsession with academic achievements blinded-sided our motivation, initiative, our critical thinking and collaboration skills? Is being comfortable-with-status quo and not-hungry-enough a problem for us?

Well last year, I needed a job. My first instinct was to look for one, simply because being an employee was perceived to be more secured, besides, a job under employment paid many times better vs a small work-at-home business. But there wasn’t any job available, so I invented one by myself.

Simply because I was at the right place, at the right time, it helped that I was hungry (i.e,. no choice) and had nothing to lose. Of course by taking chances meant that I had to make sacrifices and learn to live with less.

Why wait? Re-invent Singapore’s Education

Ministry of Education, have you read this article from Today?

Do learn from countries like Finland, which is ‘…one of the most innovative economies in the world…and it is the only country where students leave high school ‘innovation-ready. They learn concepts and creativity more than facts…all with a shorter school day, little homework and almost no testing.’

I think it’s about time that you re-invent our education system for our kids! Have a balanced curriculum where children have less rote learning and are given more opportunities to learn practical and creative life skills.

And ‘Tiger Mothers’? How many more tuition classes have you signed up for your kids this year?

I am no ‘Tiger Mother’ for sure and I am wondering if I can be successful in keeping tuition at bay for as long as possible, when K starts primary school in 2014.

As for helping him to develop his entrepreneurial skills, we are going to have to play Monopoly and open his snack shop a lot more in the coming evenings. The rules of the game? No sore losers, no cheating and the customer is always right. Learn through play first before we get to the real stuff.

Looks like we are going to be making some money very soon.

Money1 3