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Tuition Progress
By peace | September 13, 2007
All parents want their children to score well in their examinations. No parents would love to see their children fail. Examinations are coming. Any parents who love their children would naturally be worried about their children’s academic results. That is why Valerie has come to my house for tuition as well.
I am worried about my children’s results too. My children are not top achievers. They do not have very good results too. I am very worried and anxious about their examination results. I had to do my work and I had to coach them. Children are naturally playful and human beings are not ‘robots’. Remember when we were young, I think we are much luckier in a way though many times, Richard told the children, “You are so lucky to have computers games.”. Well, during our time, our studies workload during schooldays were not as heavy as now. During our time, back in the 1960s to 1970s, school days were not so hectic as now. I think we were more fortunate that we are more ‘carefree’ in the sense that education system was much more ’slower pace’, this means that teachers were not stressful as well. For not being stressful, teachers can really inculcate the young with virtues and important values of life. In having a ‘lighter syllabus and thus workload, teachers were able to instill not only knowledge but important moral education to the children. Nowadays, more emphasis are placed on results. Everybody want to see good results. Who will care about virtues and place more emphasis on moral education? These are subjects that are not tested, and they are always placed way down the list of priorities when it comes to teaching. When teachers are far behind the syllabus, they would ’steal’ the time for moral and civic education and even art and crafts lesson, to cover up on what the class had missed or far behind from time.
Children today had lesser time to play. They had to attend private tuition, extra courses or lessons so as to achieve excellence in their life. This is especially so for children who have parents who can afford to nurture their children in every aspects. These children will naturally grow up to be bright students. But what about parents who cannot afford to send children for extra courses and private tuition? These children have only the school to rely on. The school is the only place where they learn new knowledge and new skills. Children with illiterate parents can only rely on the school and themselves. Children with educated but busy parents( and cannot afford to send them for extra courses and private tuition) are not much better than those with illiterate parents. These children will have progressive results deterioration if they never attempt to work hard or if they have difficulties understanding what their teachers are teaching in class.
For children who fail to understand what the teachers said and taught in class right from the start, it is very hard for the children to have interest in the particular subject which he or she is weak in. To produce good results during examination or anything, it takes consistency in daily performance. There is no instant miracle in education. Take the instance of Valerie, she is weak in her Mathematics. I had not taught her before at all, not even in her Primary School. Now that she is in Secondary One, and now it is September. Final-Year-Examination is just three weeks away. One week ago, she started tuition, as requested by her mother. Ever since the start of tuition, her mother had called me everyday to ask about Valerie’s progress. I had explained everything to her, same thing every day and she asked the same thing everyday. Tuition was supposed to be scheduled twice a week, 1.5 hourly each time, but I always extend until 2 hours. However, parents are always worried and ‘kiasu’(scared to lose) when it comes to children’s education. They had requested to three days, four hourly, and now it is moving towards daily, even on weekends.
Today, I can see Valerie is so tired. I am also tired. I wake up early, I have many tasks to do, but I put aside, as I always believe in being responsible. What I planned to do with her and what I planned to teach her I will always try to finish up with her even though it might exceed the time. I am not so particular about all these. But her parents seem to be ‘pressurizing’ her and me. Everyday, reporting to the parents about her progress. I can see that Valerie does not feel good too. I can understand how she feel as I was a student before. I had been a teacher before. I understand how it is like to be ’sandwiched’.
Results are not everything. So what if you scored distinction and straight As? It is not going to guarantee you anything in life. Results are not everything. Pressurizing your children, depriving them of rest and play, might do them no good in the end. There are saturation point when it comes to learning too. No one is a robot. We are made of flesh. Children need respect, care and our understanding too. Not all children are born ‘bright’. Different children have different capabilities and interest. As long as they put in effort, whether they pass or fail, there are always room for further improvement. Though we may feel angry with them for scoring bad results, but put yourself in their shoes. Who want to score poor results? We as parents, can see for ourselves, whether our children have put in their effort. If they had tried their best, we should give time time to improve. Tuition only started a week ago, from Maths failure to Maths Distinction or Merits can be hard, unless there is really miracle — provided the child keep practicing and practicing Maths. However, how much percent chance of miracle are there when a child need to master 2 textbooks, all within one week or even two weeks of tuition? There is really no miracle in studies. To reach any destination, there is only one step at a time. If you take too many steps, you need to expend more energy. If you are willing to put in more energy and you are willing to sweat, you will surely reach your destination faster. But when no journey was ever been planned, to start a journey to a destination suddenly, and to reach it within a day is impossible. To reach the destination sooner, you have to double up. Check here for correct method of learning and study skills.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
[...] But like I say, I am fine with it if I am free, but I don’t like it if they take it for granted — just like leaving Msn messenger without even saying a “goodbye”. Even friends say goodbye to each other. I did not even know that she left. That is why I say it is hard to earn money. It is even harder to earn the money of kins and friends. Where is the line? It is hard to draw a line. If you draw a clear line, you stand to hurt relationships. But what if you are too kind? You do more, you are not appreciated. You do less, people not happy. You make mistakes, they blame you. This is difficult money. I would rather not earn this money if I know this would end up in this state. I do not like to have unhappy relationships. But regardless of how they think, my conscious is clear. I have done what I am supposed to do, and I have taught her what I had planned. To be able to finish with all revision, right from the day she came for tuition, I had already planned the days. I always believe in planning. I hope Valerie will improve in her Mathematics and show progress in her Final Examinations too. [...]
October 11th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
[...] Yesterday Valerie’s mother send me a message. Valerie had scored very well for her Maths Exam. Her Maths Paper I was 43/50 and Maths Paper II was 42/50. This make her Maths Exam a total marks of 85/100. This is indeed a fast progress. She was very weak in her foundation and concepts the first time she came to my home for tuition. She was not even sure of significant numbers and operations of signs when she came. I was not aware of that until she did the exam papers. [...]