Primary One Report

While my son was counting down the days to the school holidays, I was counting beans. I counted his final test scores and derived an equivalent PSLE score of 188!! This means that he is headed towards Normal stream in his secondary school years.

That sounds remotely like paranoia from the mom’s side but can you really blame me for it? I am worried because today’s syllabus is way advanced compared to my time. I am worried because I aced my primary school and it got me where I am today. I am worried that my son is headed for a future bleaker than mine.

And what can I do about it?

In English, Joel did well in almost everything except comprehension and composition.

In Mandarin, he fared miserably for his comprehension and composition.

In Maths, he cannot grasp the concept of multiple choice questions and problem solving.

In all this, I figure the root cause has something to do with his powers of comprehension. But why? I have been reading to Joel since he was 1.5 years old although he only started picking up reading by himself this year.

Perhaps I have been interfering with his education and should have given him more independence in his learning journey. I know I had alot of it. My education was really my own journey and my parents rarely had to lift a finger to help me.

Maybe that’s how we end up bringing up a generation of strawberries because we interfere too much and leave little room for risk. But therein lies the risk, if I let go, will my son know how to pick himself up? What if he cannot recover?

On those dreary days when I had to strain my nerves coaching him, I keep asking when I will be able to let go of his education. After his PSLE, his O’ Levels, his A’ Levels, his degree… It never ends does it?

As long as you are a parent, it is impossible to let go of the hope that you want a better life for your child. That he/she should achieve more because they had more and better resources around them. Then again society is already demanding more from them.

A few days ago, Joel suddenly told me that he wants to have a shop that sells books when he grows up. Most children aspire to be doctors, lawyers, accountants and engineers. My son wants to be a businessman. Now well you don’t need a degree to do that.