Today, I encountered an interesting situation. There is this girl who has just passed her Gold test in the March round of test. Her parents wanted her to stop after passing Gold as she is also taking PSLE this year and her results were not ideal. (perhaps around 60 to 70 marks on average for her subjects) She has also been taking a lot of other courses and enrichment program and was supposed to stop all of them to focus on PSLE as those might have been taking up too much of her time too. Today is supposed to be her last class with me. She has been telling me that her parents wanted her to stop after the test since February and she didnt want to. She tried to convinced her parents but of course PSLE is more important and they told her that she can rejoin after PSLE. It is very understandable especially in Singapore. Usually after the kids get Gold, I will polish up their strokes and introduce the butterfly stroke if they continue. They will also train for the new Singapore Swimming Proficiency Award (SSPA). A number of parents do think it is enough to stop after Gold as there are no more tests under the Swimsafer Syllabus and that is perfectly fine. Usually when kids get their Gold under me, they are more than well equipped for leisure swimming and exercises. The girl started learning dolphin kick for butterfly in class today and of course, you need more than 1 lessons for it. It is meant to be an introduction for her. She tried but couldnt get it right. I didnt push her cause most kids cant get it right in 1 lesson and this is her last lesson. After class, she continued to practice by herself while it was her sisters class. She wanted to master it and knew she needs more lessons so she tried again to talk to her parents. Finally they did agree to let her continue. Now, this is the interesting part when I talked to her and ask her why she wanted to continue. I knew her results were not excellent and PSLE is still important so I ask her how she is going to cope with it. She mentioned that she has stopped almost all her other extra activities and have some extra time for studies. I asked her why not stop swimming too? She replied that for her other activities like Abacus, art etc, she can still read the book and practice by herself at home and get it. If she stop swimming class, she will not get a chance to go to the pool and then she wont be able to practice and definitely will not get it. When she rejoin after PSLE, she will also probably have forgotten quite a bit and she didnt want that. I was amazed by her replies. She might not be the straight As student or academic smart but her answers actually reflected a maturity not present in most of the kids her age and also high EQ in her. This student has always been very diligent and to an extent, talented physically and pick up very fast. She also has some leadership qualities in her (although to her younger sisters, she is bossy :P) A child might not score the highest grades in school. However, it is often the qualities that are not tested in an exam that bring him to excel later on in life. A paper certificate is important in Singapore but in my opinion, it is only a ticket to the working world and is not a pass to success. Personally, I am not from top schools and does not excel in studies. I am slightly above average, graduated from NUS Business Administration, has gotten into Deans list before and was offered to continue my honours in university although I turned it down. In the end, I am in a job that does not actually required even an O level certificate. Many people thought I was wasting away my studies by not joining the Finance industry as I was majoring in Finance. Most of my peers are there. I learnt from my peers there that a degree will give you a chance at the job but how fast you promote or how well you do depend on your abilities which might not be represented by your paper qualifications. Do spend more time observing and nurturing your childrens character and you might find out something new about them. I am proud of this student of mine and I am sure she is going to face some degree of success in life when she grows up :)
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 15:23:59 +0000
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