Views on learning and education.

When we first move to Singapore, I often regret about the move. Leaving begin comfort and familarity.  But after 4 years, looking back, I realised that we were destined to move here. Things have happened along the way that have changed the way I look at things. My experiences homeschooling a toddler-preschooler, experiences in forest school, having met so many amazing homeschooling families from all over the world in Singapore and now homeschooling a primary 5 kid. The people I have met, have inspired me and truly treasure these relationships I have. 

My views on learning, parenting and life in general has changed. I now see schooling and society at large from a different perspective. Briefly, here are just some of my realisation. 

I have come to understand the following...

• Education is compulsory but not schooling
• Schools were create right about the same time when prisons are created. 
• Homework has not been proven to help improve grades or knowledge.
• Grades are not an accurate reflection of intelligence. 
• Being able to read and write does not equate to intelligence. 
• Children are naturally curious and love to acquire knowledge. Not just when they are baby,toddler or preschool ages.
• Children are self motivated if given freedom, space and time.
• Each child develops at their own pace and have innate potential.
• Children can learn through play
• Children can learn better through play
• Children learn better outdoors. (proven by research--will see if I can find the reference) 
• Resilence cannot be developed through textbook or man made situations.
• Letting go is hard but once I have started letting go and respect the growth and development of the child, I started to see magic. They begin to take charge of their own learning, I can see them bloom like a flower. Their innate potential and personality started to unfold and reveal itself.

Here are some of my learnings from these few years and especially these few months of homeschooling. I feel that I am just at the beginning of my journey or rather our journey. Please feel free to comment and share your views. 

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.

Exams... the new killer.

Exams... Examinations... Assessments...Test...

What's the purpose of it all?

It is formed on the basis that children need to be motivated to learn, that learning must be imposed, learning is not natural, that humans are born with brain with nothing and we need to fill it up with knowledge. And therefore exams are there to "make sure" kids learn.

My boys, 8 and 10 years are having exams this week. They are stressed... their mother, me is more stressed. I am in a huge dilemma of whether I should just step back and let them learn whatever they can and want in school and sit for the exams with that and accept whatever results that get OR like almost every other parents, be worried and 'kiasu' (scared to lose) and get heaps of assessment books and past year exam papers from the 'prestige' schools to drill my boys to score better in exams.  I am falling into the second category... which I hate what I am becoming! Every cell in my body is rejecting it.. and I am becoming increasingly frustrated and forcing my boys to learn as if they are empty vessels and bribing them with rewards to motivate them to learn. What can I do???

Schools or training centers were created to train human resources for the factories, for production, for the economic growth of the country. Therefore it's a set curriculum where everyone has to go through, and a set goal and examinations are conducted to make sure the outcome achieved is of a measurable standard. However that's not the case for every circumstances and that is not what education should be like. We have blindly followed the same model and make examination compulsory even for even little 6 year olds. My view of what examination is as follows:

- Examination limits imagination and creativity

- Examination limits the knowledge that is to be learnt and explored as they only learn those that are in the syllabus of the exam.

- Children are made to learn things that are not relevant nor of interest to them. 

- Children have no time to explore and learn things that are of interest to them... however little that is left.

- Examination kills the joy of learning

- Examination encourages competition 

- Examination discourages sharing of knowledge 

- Examination marks and grades damages self esteem and causes depression
- And sometimes Exams causes children to take their own lives... such a tragedy...

- Examination causes stress and pressure to perform

- Children are pressured to meet expectations of parents, teachers, school, society, government.
- It is a hindrance to the progress of civilization, retard the progress of humankind.(please read on...)

Children are taught as if they are empty vessels to be filled, and teachers are merely filling a bucket and not lighting a flame. Baha'i's believe that all man are created noble. "Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom."

Every human being is unique and each have their latent talents and virtues waiting manifest itself. However if we were to standardize learning and judge the intelligence of a child by some examinations, test, grades or marks, then we are judging the fish by it's ability to climb the tree.

Love this video and the courage to stand up to centuries of 'schooling'.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqTTojTija8





I believe that learning is a natural phenomenon. Babies absorb knowledge, language, mobility without anyone teaching him/her. We have to just step back and allow this natural development to happen. We often do things for children because they are 'clumsy' or 'slow' but if we show them how to do it and provide the means for them to practice and do it. They can achieve so much more.

I strive to practice this at home since my kids were born, by guiding and showing them how things are done, I then allow them to do it by themselves. Result is motivated, independent, active learners. Never do something for a child that he can do it for himself, if not we are impeding the development of the child. Montessori schools strive to do the same. And therefore I studied Montesssori and send my boys to Montessori pre school. However we don't have Montessori Primary/Secondary schools here, sadly so I have no choice but to enrol them into traditional schools. And that is when the light in their eyes dimmed.... and learning become dry and imposed and forced upon them. No freedom of choice of what they want to learn or their interest and talent lies. Everyone does pretty much the same thing.

If Albert Einstein, Thomas Edision... and all the famous inventors of the past were to be confined in a classroom doing what every other kid is doing, and sitting for standardised test, we would not have electric light bulbs, electricity... and every other great invention there is.
Baha'ullah, the prophet of the Baha'i faith continue to say:  " All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization."

If we were to advance forward, we cannot only teach the children the knowledge of what is already known. We have to allow plenty of time, room and space for the children of today to explore, to become active learners, independent thinkers, have time for them to dream, imagine and then discover, create and experiment and build a better world then what we have today.

I am guilty at charged of limited time for play and exploration to STUDY and score for the examinations the past few weeks. It has been a very stressful time for both the kids and me. What is the purpose really? I see no joy in learning the things they are being forced to learn regardless whether they want to. But there's a few incidents where I gave them some break time, and they found some recycle papers and started making paper planes. And all 3 of them were so engrossed in it that they took such a long break that I was beginning to get irritated and I find myself wanting to tell them to stop 'playing' and get back to 'work'. But, I took a step back and I observed.  They are so happy and they are working together and discussing ways to make the plane fly higher, faster. They were exploring and experimenting what happens if they fold the front and make it thicker, what if one wing was bigger than the other, what happens when they use another type of paper, if they fold it a different way. I came to a big realisation that this 'play' is the real 'work'! First they chose it, they were joyful, what started off as a simple origami craft at break time became a test for a hypothesis, they were experimenting and learning about physis and science and in the process, they were focus, their attention were high, they were engaged, they were thinking, they were motivated to find tapes, staplers, other materials to make their plane better, they were repeating and practicing until they achieve excellence or almost there. Can you imagine the satisfaction, the sense of achievement, the amount of self esteem each of them have?

Can you imagine if for every single thing that each child learn, they get this feeling of achievement? of self fulfillment? Can you imagine what all this children will create? And when such motivated positive children grow up to be self fulfilled, motivated, young adults... together what they can achieve? The future is limitless!

I don't know what I can do now to help my children achieve this, but I will strive to provide more break time and allow for this latent potential to manifest itself. I hope in time we will abolish examinations and find a way to harness this great and precious resource we have to advance civilization.

A new year! New challenges! New uncertainties! Keeping hope.

Its the new year! I'm trying to keep positive and driven but it's getting off on a rocky start with doubts and uncertainty.

For many years now, I have been 'obsessed' as so to speak about education as I believe that the only way to make this world a better place is to educate the young minds in the 'right way'. I hope to do my part amongst all these chaos... bitterness.. injustice...inequality... prejudice...

The 'right way' seem very far fetched.. and sometimes I feel like I am not moving any closer to my dream...

I met Montessori, fell in love with the beautiful phillosophy of respecting the little beings, believing in the nobility of the spirit, and that the hope for a peaceful world begins at birth.

Dived into the world of nature with Wardolf. Forest Kindergarten. Green School in Bali. So much reverence and respect given to mother earth... connecting back to where we came from... immersing in the forest.. the sea... the moutain... preserving our earth for generations to come, growing new aspirations.

Inspired by Reggio Emilia, bringing out the creative being in us, freedom to create and build, propelling a forward looking, ever advancing civilisation.

I am a Bahai. Bahais believe in Oneness of God, Oneness of Religion,Oneness of Man,  The truth is but one, ignorance have multiplied it. Search and we will see that we all seek the same thing in life. Peace... Happiness... Unity... Love... Family... Laughter... Health... Shelter... Food...
Human is essentially a spiritual being and all knowledge comes from our Creator God. An education is only complete when we unite all these truths and with our heart and soul turning towards God.



I hope that in my lifetime I will be able to find a true path.. true education. One that is universal and one that is for everyone regardless of wealth or status, one that unites all, one that brings out the latent potentials and virtues in all of us, one that will strive for excellence in every field and most importantly one that will help bring about wonderful selfless beings to serve and make the world a better place.

Reflecting in my 'world' now...
I am currently home with my 3 boys. Despite all the above ideals I have in my head... sadly my boys ( 2 elder ones graduated from a Montessori preschool a few years back ) are not enrolled into any Montessori/Waldolf/Reggio/Bahai school. And I am beginning to feel very frustrated and pushing my kids to meet the ideals of our traditional school. I dont want to... but if I dont push them.. they will fall behind in the rat race. I am at war with my inner self... I feel that my world is in turmoil. It is said that turmoil and out of equilibrium is a good thing. It pushes oneself to discover new truths and find the new equilibrium.

I have contemplated homeschooling for a long time. But never had the confidence that I can do it. Schools are not perfect but it is what it is for now. It gives the children a sense of the 'real' world out there. I dont think we are meant to homeschool our kids, humans are social beings and we need to interact and socialise to survive. It is also a 'waste' of resource I feel, all the work that a parent does just to teach your own?  ( I am looking at it from a point of what type of education society needs.)

I did homeschool my kids. Basically learning begins at home and a child's first educator is the parent. I taught and guided Tristan with whatever I knew, I did it at a more 'formal' level for Trevor and Tyler with my Montessori training and took in students to create the social environment for sharing, caring and interactions to occur. However at this point of life, I am not able to commit and take in student as I am swarmed with housework and managing the kids.

Tristan is independent and is doing well academically and thriving in our traditional school system. Trevor I am getting worried as he prefers moving about and working with his hands, fixing things and building things. He is not sensitive to language, reading... I am finding a hard time teaching him. Pushing him to meet the standards set for him to meet. It is hard to decide which path to take...1- Push him to meet the standards but suffer all the way... 2-Let him be and let him do his best... but getting his self esteem crushed with standardise test...

I hope I find the balance soon... I really do...

What is the purpose of sending our kids to school?

 A lot on my mind and in my hands lately, having trouble sleeping.
I'm attending a Baha'i Children Class Grade 2 teacher training, it's been inspiring and thought provoking. And at the same time I read some articles someone posted on facebook and met many children and realised that we seriously need to change the way we educate our children! Or at least let me start in a small way, and hopefully in time for my children to benefit from.  There's only a little dilemma in me - how to balance this ambition of mine without compromising my time and relationship with my kids. Is it a Either Or decision or can I do both? So far I'm been chasing this dream of becoming a teacher! I've missed my chance to study early childhood education during my university days, but having got married and having my kids, my love and passion for teaching have grown and I know what I am good at and what I want to do with my life. I want to teach!

I am a mother of 3 now, I do not have the luxury of time and energy to pursue my qualification in education. I guess I just have to be patient and wait till the kids are older. Hopefully it's not too late then. :)

For preschool, we still have the luxury of choices and I am pretty happy with my son's Montessori school. But having said that Montessori till 6 years old is not sufficient, and due to pressure from the parents, and preparing the student for the transition of Montessori learning to Route learning in schools, Montessori schools have to forgo many things and introduce testing, homework, drills...etc.

Just a few things that I've been thinking about. Our school system... is it really good enough? Living in the Southern most city in Malaysia and a stone throw away from Singapore, I can say we have quite a few options of school. Firstly it's the Local Malaysia Schools - Kebangsaan Schools, the Chinese Local Schools, the Private schools doing Malaysian sylllabus, the International School doing International syllabus such as  Cambridge GCSE, IB Programs, IPC programs, Schools in Singapore and the less travelled road which is Home Schooling. Each has it's pros and cons.


I see a big gap between class room learning and life in general. Just a question: What is the purpose of sending our kids to school?

Answers are many but I don't think we are really certain of what the real purpose should be?

Just from my own understanding - In the industrial period, schools were built and created to prepare the children for the work force, so a standard curriculum was applied to everyone. Every child have to study this subject and that subject and everyone need to pass it to go on the next level. Sounds like a reasonable plan if we are going to produce factory workers who will do the same thing to produce the same product. But in reality, we are humans. No 2 humans are alike and no 2 humans have the same capacity and talents. There's very little room for children to really explore and discover their talents and develop the gifts within them. Education in schools prepare children for the work force, but does it prepare them for life?

 "All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. " Baha'i writings.

Look at our life today, for the past 100 years, life on earth has progress and changed so much. We are so advance in our sciences and discoveries and everyday there are new technologies in the market and we can do so much with the knowledge we acquire now. However as much as we have achieve, we have lost as well. Look at how we treat the earth and how we treat our friends and neighbours? We may be losing more than we have gained.

We have to re-look the purpose of our education system. Is it just for the advancement of ourselves? Most of the children only want to get the best grade, to win and get the gold medal. Most want to study hard, earn lots of money and have a happy life. All of this is good, but a little inward looking, is education a pathway for fulfilling an individual's material needs? And always think, while we are enjoying our life here with 3 television in the house, each room with an aircon, water heater in each bathroom, 2 cars at least, a maid at home and money to eat out every week (I'm guilty as charged!) there are so many people in the world that are worrying if they have food for the next meal, clean water to drink, a shelter to live in, let alone a chance to go to school and learn.

We were talking about 'Justice' the other day in the Bahai children class that I conduct in my home. What is justice? "It's being fair."said one of the students. I did a little activity where I have a number of crayons in my hand, and I pass it to one of the student and the rest do not have any. How is he/she going to act in such a situation. The logical thing is to share it. 1st round I give the first child enough to share 1 crayon with each child. The 2nd and subsequent rounds, I gave less and less and in the end I only had one, they need to work out a situation that is fair to all.

After the activity, I asked the children again, so what is justice? How did they practice being fair? "We have to share it in a way that everyone gets an equal share."

'So justice is more than being fair, it's about sharing what we have.' So we shouldn't just worry about ourselves, and not only worry about our country but we need to look at ourselves as world citizen. We need to worry about our world. The earth is ours and we need to come together in unity to love and take care of it.

So our education should strive towards the betterment of the world.

With this in view, are we doing enough just to put our children through test and exams and go from one grade to another? Are we tapping on our most precious resource and potentials?

My son is in Primary 1, 7 years old and attending a school in Singapore- yes he travel overseas to go to school everyday :) . I was quite happy that Singapore is moving away from examinations and that there's no exam for Primary 1 & 2 but series of different test to evaluate the children's ability. However it's so ingrained in our education system that it's still a long way from ideal. My son came back and told me he feels 'stressed', that he needs to complete the paper in school with so many different questions on time, multiplication, division... etc.

Hmmm... 7 year old feeling stressed? I am also stressed that he can't catch up in school for one of the language subject that I agreed with the teacher's suggestion of tripling his tuition time these past 2 weeks. I'm partly to blame...

And also when I tried to teach him more things, he said 'teacher say just learn this is enough, Don't need to learn so much.' My fears are here, he is slowly becoming the 'exam-child' - only learn to pass the exam that's it. No joy, no curiousity, no creativity. Just memorise and spit out at the exam hall.

I met my nieces today and they are so happy because yeah exams are over and holiday is coming!
There's nothing wrong with that on the surface, but I just wonder why learning can't be fun? So fun that everyday is a holiday? Learning shouldn't be just in school, and not just for passing the exam but every moment is a learning experience whether at home at school or when travelling. Learning should be inspiring, exciting and interesting. Education is like lighting a fire and this light should keep burning brighter and brighter. Learning brings joy, brings laughter, fulfillment and growth. True education should also allow a person to listen, to observe and to think deeply about everything. To discover their talents and interest and work towards it and using the knowledge and expertise to contribute back to the society not just for personal interest.

One of the most unbelievable thing I heard during the teacher training today was from one of the children class teacher, she herself a mother of 3 kids in local Malaysian schools. She said her daughter told her that the teacher told them no laughing during the examination periods. It seems when you laugh, all the knowledge you learnt will be gone!!! How absurd!!!

"Joy gives us wings! In times of joy our strength is more vital, our intellect keener, and our understanding less clouded. We seem better able to cope with the world and to find our sphere of usefulness. But when sadness visits us we become weak, our strength leaves us, our comprehension is dim and our intelligence veiled. The actualities of life seem to elude our grasp, the eyes of our spirits fail to discover the sacred mysteries, and we become even as dead beings." - Bahai Writings.

Joy should be as the above quote said...
I feel sad that our schools teachers are teaching such things to the kids... real sad...

The other few things I am thinking and also worried about is one the how little we apply what we learn in schools to our life- there's no or very little link between the knowledge we get from school and real life. The second is each subject is very isolated, there's no link between English and Math or Science...etc. There is some but not clear and children sees them separately.  There should be a intergrated curriculum which some of the western school systems have adopted. For example if they are learning about trees, they learn the Language and vocabulary related to trees, they learn the Science of the growth and parts of the tree, they learn the numbers related to tree- maybe years it takes to grow, counting the bark/stem to know how old the tree is...etc, and they do crafts about the tree, eat and cook food that comes from trees, the impact of trees to our environment..etc.

I think this is a very interesting and integrated style of learning that repeats the topic enough times to create a strong neural path in the brain and the child's understanding of trees becomes very strong. This style of learning can also cater to different child's learning ability and their learning preference.

I think that's all for now, I've empty out my thoughts today finally feeling sleepy. Good night. :)

4 Months at Clover

Tristan has been in School for four months already, here's quick update on how's school so far.

So far so good :) the school kept up their promises and I must say they did a good job at that. Thanks to the committed Directress Chaz Yee and her team of teachers at school.

Environment: Overall Clover offers a good learning environment with just enough numbers. Not too many and special attention from the low teacher student ratio is very good. I like how they mingle the older and younger group in some of the sessions so the young ones can learn from the older ones and the older ones can help and lead the younger ones. Place is well kept and clean,well ventilated.

His progress: His fine motor skills has improved, in terms of colouring, pouring, cutting, glue-ing things. And gross motor skills such as throwing and catching ball has improved too. He learns some alphabet and numbers but teacher says sometimes he seems to know it but sometimes not sure if he knows or not. So we are yet to confirm if he can recognise numbers and some alphabets. He's starting to speak some chinese words randomly and seem to be able to understand when people speak to him. But everytime when I start speaking to hi in Mandarin, he look at me and say "Mummy..." with a weird look. I noticed he will start speaking pretty fluent chinese under stress. e.g. like the last hair cut at the saloon, he screamed " Wo Bu Yao"- (I dont want) & "Pa Pa" (scared)

One small thing : I wish there's more update on my child's progress from the teachers. I noticed that pick up time is the best time to ask the teacher how has he been in school. But if no ask, no update. So parents have to take a more active role to ask. But there's a 3 monthly (1 term) report on Tristan progress which is great. I see his work in school improving and can see his work progress. He is more attentive to things around him and he loves singing all the songs he learnt. (apparently he used to not participate in class, but he observes and learns and then sing to me when he is home :) depends on his mood I guess.

There's a show and tell session once a week, that helps him to stand up and speak up, public speaking. He use to be quite shy and whispers to teacher and but now he can talk more, sometimes is good sentences.

So far no complains, and Tristan loves going to school.And the things they do there is different and well thought of with special attention to what activity helps in e.g. motor skill, language, social...etc... I enjoyed the 'birthday walk' he had on his birthday few weeks ago.

See Photo on right.

I'm going to sit in and observe the school in action one of these days. Stay tuned :)