Before I became a mum, I really, really thought that I would be a modern and cool mum who’s more concerned about the happiness of my children rather than their academic performance. I would be one of those mums who would encourage my children to pursue their loves and interest, even though it meant dropping out of school to learn music or art. Quite frankly, that all sounds like a really neat idea, but in reality, we’re really all just stuck in the rigid and harsh education system in Singapore.
Whether I like it or not, I will have to be concerned about my children’s learning abilities, if they can catch up in school and if they’re remembering their spelling, additions and subtractions. It all begins at age 5. What a tender young age to deal with all these!
And that is why Meet-the-Parents sessions are so stressful. I’d love to tell the teachers face-to-face that I am not concerned about my kid’s academic performance and whether she got all her spelling correct. I even prepared a speech in my mind and the contents mainly comprise of how I am a mum who cares more about my kid’s happiness, social skills and EQ. I’d tell the teacher firmly that GOOD RESULTS IS NOT EVERYTHING. Yes, I would. I resolved to do that.
Joey was undoubtedly more excited about the Meet-the-Parents session than me.
We were waiting in queue for our turn, and she couldn’t help but kept peeking at her teachers. It’s funny how she transformed into a giggly shy girl in front of her teachers! I’m half suspecting she’d behave like this in future in front of boys she likes. =P
Anyway, to cut the long story short, I did not manage to tell the teacher what I resolved to say. Yes, I’m ashamed to say that I chickened out. The moment I saw the teachers, they started to tell me things like, ‘It would be good for you to read together with Joey.’, ‘Next semester, we’ll be starting on creative writing and the children would have to start creating their own essay pieces, so it’d be good for you to take this school holidays to prepare her.’.. bleh bleh bleh.
You see, it’s all about academics. I was a little freaked out to hear that they would have to start writing compositions next semester. I even asked the teacher, ‘Errrr are you sure the kids are able to do that? My Joey can’t even read now. How to write compositions??’ The teacher simply replied as-a-matter-of-factly, ‘Oh, we’ll guide them. They’ll have to catch on anyhow.’
Thanks ah. Very reassuring.
That just added 500 times of pressure on me, and I think I have to start drilling my girl on reading, recognising words and also start writing simple sentences during this school holidays. Argggghhhhh, it’s making me sick in the stomach.
God bless the children.