Thursday, February 09, 2017

Seeing the best in our education system, seeing the best in our child.

Just returned from a parent teacher briefing, some reflections today... The teachers are very dedicated. In the briefing, they are educating the parents on the curriculum and what to take note. The parents are asked to attend workshops so we can also learn and coach them at home. I noticed the part where everyone took out their phones to take picture was when the teachers talked about Exams, the allocation of marks..etc. the deeply rooted exam culture is still present in our society. It's a quantitative way of measuring if your child is Smart or not, where does he stand amongst others and how are his chances of surviving this rat race. Unfortunately not all will 'win' in this race... as we only measure them by paper and testing. But if each child is recognised as individual with different talents and innate qualities, every child will achieve great heights! Not in the same way but it's ok and encouraged.
I am constantly in guilt of pushing my kids to meet standards set by the schools and society. Many of my views and opinions springs from my search for true education for the future so we are able to allow these gifts and innate talents to manifest itself, to achieve greater heights, to bring peace, unity, justice and progress to the world, to do what humanity is meant to do.
Having said that, I am reminded that there's a reality now that we need to work with and to deal with, to accept and look on the positive side of things. I realised the most important thing in learning is 'joy', the teacher that inspire the child and the parents- ME who will make the biggest difference in their learning journey. So.... I am coming to a new realisation that I cannot fight this education system, but to accept and work with it, and help my boys to walk this journey joyfully, as joyful as possible. (not easy... but will try... As Abdul Baha, the son of the prophet of Bahai Faith says: "Kam Kam, Ruz Bih Ruz" which means:little by little, day by day...). To do our best in schools together, but more importantly to see their strength and help them achieve their potentials.

1 comment:

Mdm Chew said...

hi Shirin,

happened to stumble on your blog and post and found it very interesting, your ideas on children and education. i myself struggle with this as well, with the asian schooling system which we were brought up in being so stressful for the child especially exams!

with this in mind, i made the decision to enrol my son for a IB education. you should read up about it. its very holistic and each child is graded based on their own aptitudes; not comparing them to their peers and marks they get from an exam. there is no 1st, 2nd and 3rd or even last place. they are graded individually . just thought i would share as you seem to be such an open minded parent wanting the best for your child. education is changing, although very slowly here in Asia.

http://www.ibo.org/globalassets/digital-tookit/brochures/what-is-an-ib-education-en.pdf

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