Any Mommies in mid-late 30s or over 40 with small children?

My heart aches for the child. I am surprised that PCF can have this type of teacher. My kids went to PCF and I thought the teachers are not bad.

Kindergarten teacher charged with ill-treating child
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/kindergarten-teacher-charged-ill-treating-child-20120829
A former PAP Community Foundation (PCF) teacher was charged in court on Wednesday with ill-treating a child and using criminal force on her.

The 25-year-old woman is alleged to have ill-treated the five-year-old by telling her to remove her clothes and stand naked in front of her classmates in a classroom on Aug 15 last year.

On a weekday morning last August, she allegedly swung the girl and caused her to hit her head against a whiteboard.

She is also accused in two other charges of pushing the victim, causing her to fall on a basket of toys; turning her around and pushed her on the shoulders, causing her to fall and hit her forehead on a wooden shelf.
 


re: child abuse

many of these cases if not worse are not reported. the present childcare my gals are(were) in(phew will be in past tense by next Mon) have minor cases of "child abuse". instead of acknowledging it is the tr's inability to handle the child, the parent was asked to take the child out. on another occasion, a child fell and was not informed. he went back and started vomitting. the mum called MCYS just to check what is the proper procedure. The childcare was "investigated", the boss was not happy, asked the parent to take the child out. sad right?

my own stories: elder gal came home on one evening with fever as high as 39 degree celsius! when called to ask why no tr knows abt it, they said they did check the children's temp at 4plus and she was ok. Thank goodness my gal is ok, or i would have sued them for negligence.

younger gal was not easy to handle, always crying. her tr was on medical leave one day and the upper level class tr took over. once the door was closed, she brought my gal to the toilet and pulled her arm so hard to make her stop crying and change into her uniform! i witnessed with my mum as we could looked thru the small gap at the window. when i questioned the supervisor, she said that what i see may not be "so hard a pull". I was so upset. till today this tr has not apologised to me and she has been promoted as a supervisor at another centre! guess what, she still have the cheeks to ask my gal" why you still so scared of me?" she has scarred my young one so badly, what does she expect? hugs and kisses????

now that my gals are leaving, i am just crossing my fingers that they will be happier in the new environment.

easy for the pple to say give birth, but who to take care? childcare? grandparents? maids?

when childcare closes because of hfmd, don't we have to be around? not all have maids or grandparents to help. many are like mumusings and myself, we are on our own. sigh... hubby n i would love to have four kids, but looking at the situation, better not. kids suffer, we suffer. just hope that my gals grow up happy and healthy
 
i do not advocate over-teaching at preschool level which the present childcare is doing too. K1 learning P1 syllabus, K2 learning P2 work! crazy! sounds good but child's cognitive is not there so what if you teach so much? till now, my elder one cannot even do simple addition! when asked her to do math, she gives me the "do i have to?" look, i am so sad that her is so fearful of the subject.

sigh...so much for the mistake that i have made: sending her to the wrong childcare. i could have destroyed my own child's happiness and love for learning....
 
Hi Helen,

Sorry to hear abt what happened to your daughter. I'd rather my kid learn slower/lesser than be subjected to sub-standard teachers. It's tragic that so many kids are sent to infantcare these days --- I know parents need to work and have little "choice", which makes the entire picture even more bleak because many people assume paying $ = decent job done with the kids.

Sigh... like what Tam says. Govt may wish for kids to have a happy childhood but the end-product (PSLE/Grades/ranking) doesn't quite match the objective, does it? Parents will still have to push their kids towards extra classes in order to bolster their kids' abilities in order to "thrive" academically.

Until they do something to tweak the way Maths is taught/conveyed and do something abt the quality of pre-school teachers, I dread the day I have to send my son to be humiliated by the system
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Hi Helen,

I am sorry to hear about what happened to your gals. Yes, Govt say one thing and do the other. How to give our kids a good childhood when the pressure is forming in the pressure cooker since Kindergarten, waiting to explode when our kids enter P1.

When Garmen says, let kids have more creative learning environment & "teach less", schools start to give weekly tests! Its more stressful for us, parents!

Hi Tam - I find that many schools start to assume that all parents can afford to send our kids for tuition classes/ enrichment classes, that they neglect the need to teach from basics in P1....this is very sad as isn't P1 the beginning of formal education where everything needs to start from scratch, like we used to be during our time? I guess, its not only us, its happening everywhere, Japan, HK, Taiwan, Korea, etc.....its the evolving world that we are in tha results in this situation.
 
Hi Helen,
I understand how you must have felt when you saw what happened to your younger gal. I used to wonder why almost every childcare center or kindergarten close their windows. I thought it is because teachers do not want kids to see their parents and become distracted. Now I know that it is because teachers are afraid to let parents see how they handle the kids. Kids are too young to tell their parents what happened to them.

The best person to take care of kids is mommy. However, due to the high cost of living in Singapore, both mommy and daddy have to work. More childcare centers are not helpful because young kids often get sick and parents must take leave.

That is why the birth rate will continue to fall.
 
Hi mommies,
Sharing this letter published in the Straits Times yesterday.

Proper childhood? Mum outlines challenge
I AM a mother of three, aged four, six and eight, and a part-time teacher. This is my family's story about letting children play in kindergarten ("'It's good for young children to play'"; Monday).

Nicholas my son and eldest child, who is now in Primary 2, enrolled in a popular kindergarten that stressed learning through play, singing and team building, with minimal academic focus.

Apart from swimming lessons, there were no enrichment extras. He was having his childhood, and we were happy.

When he started Primary 1, he was excited and I took leave to volunteer in school. Then came the shock, for him and me.

He failed in English and mathematics consistently. He was not really reading because he wasn't taught to read in pre-school.

Then the calls started coming in from his school teachers, advising me to send Nicholas for enrichment classes and to get him more help. And that was what we did for an entire year, even as I asked myself why schools were not doing what the extra classes and tuition were.

He was tired. So was I. And I vowed that what happened to Nicholas would not happen to Sarah, my second child who begins Primary 1 next year.

She is currently attending two pre-schools; one focuses on play and cultural activities, while the other drills her on the three Rs that Primary 1 demands.

My husband and I believe that children should have their childhood and enjoy school. But I just do not want to be getting phone calls from the primary school teachers about Sarah as I did with Nicholas.

So before parents like me are told to let our children have their childhood, and as much as we believe it is the right thing to do, the primary school system must be changed to help us.

Lisa Latip (Madam)
 
mumusings, snowball,
There is an article in the Straits Times today : "Play or cram". According to the article, there will be a new committee setup to look into pre-school education which will release clearer guidelines on what pre-schoolers need to know by the time they enter Primary 1.

I don't see how this is going to help if primary schools have a different set of expectations.
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.sg/2010/04/what-to-expect-in-primary-one.html

The gahmen blames parents for not letting kids enjoy their childhood, but the fact is that parents are forced to do so because primary schools set such high standards in P1. Schools do so because they want to boast how many students get A/A* in PSLE.

The only solution is to remove ranking/banding/GEP/PSLE/IP etc. When I was in school, there were no such things. I don't think that the younger generation is any better than my generation. In fact, the younger generation does not seem to be capable of independent learning, which means the ability to learn something completely new without any teachers. Even the brightest require GEP to teach them, which defeats the purpose of education.

Without ranking/banding/GEP/PSLE/IP, and everyone goes through O levels, kids who are late bloomers have up to 16 years old to catch up. Then kids will be able to enjoy their childhood.
 
hi mommies

as u know, at P1, P2 the class size is 30. and with holistic assessment, most schs adopt "no exam" for both levels. parents become panicky as children were not "trained" to do exam paper/format. There is still much to do abt bridging the gap between P2 and P3. Becos, like what many of you mentioned, at the end of the day PSLE still "force" all parens, trs and principals to drive kids towards exam-oriented learning. my niece is another good example of the story Mdm Lisa shared. sad isn't it?

last friday was meet the parents session and many came to me asking:" why is the written exam so easy only 10 qns? why is it only tested up to A book?" etc many felt uneasy abt not letting the kids take the "formal exam".

I do agree that we must nib the prob at the root. removing PSLE is a big move, only the one sitting at the position can give the green light, but does he dare to?too many uncertainties...

i get so tired just preparing kids for exams. And I pity the P6 trs who are always fire-fighting! I am so BORED with drilling...what abt the kids?!!?

told one P that my A* will not show in PSLE but 10yrs down the road. but who cares? they want to see instant results! Instant trees do not last, my ex-colleague who was "famous" for producing A* suffered depression eventually and quit. The same yr which we taught graduating class, my pupils scored more A* than her! I was surprised as the number of hours put in by her is way more than me. my kids get more rest/toilet breaks too! But I could see how it affected her. Sad... no wonder more kids are taking their lives, more adults too....

it is so starking clear what is the root cause of all problems, but to face it , takes courage.mayb by the time PSLE is in history, our kids have reached adulthood.... let us keep our fingers crossed
 
Helen,
Sad to read about how you and your colleagues are pressurized to produce A* students. I suppose principals get a higher salary increment if they can produce more students with better results. I think kids are the ones who suffer the most, being pressurized both in school and at home.

Parents try so hard to push their kids to the top schools like RGS, RI, etc, then some still need to hire private tutors for their kids. If these schools are so good, why do the students still require tutors in order to pass a subject ?

I was formally from RGS, the teachers there are not great compared to other schools. I still remember that I could not understand what the Physics teacher was teaching because he spoke English with a Hokkien accent. I got an A1 in Physics because I studied the textbook on my own, without any tuition. Nowadays, I heard of parents complaining that they want teachers in top schools to give one to one lessons because their kids are weak in the subject. Even in top schools, the teacher has to take care of a class of 40 students, how can he/she be expected to give one to one attention to teach of them ? The brightest students are expected to be able to learn independently like I did, and I am not even gifted.

Most parents think that the top secondary schools have the best teachers, which is not true. MOE tells parents that every school is a good school :
http://www.moe.gov.sg/initiatives/every-school-good-school/

Then they should not allow secondary schools to set COP for admission. Let parents ballot for secondary schools just like for primary schools. By allowing the top secondary schools to take in students with the highest PSLE scores, parents naturally think that these are the best schools.

Even with PSLE now, some students can get into the top schools with much lower scores than the COP, thanks to DSA, GEP, etc. The system is just too complicated and unfair. A mainstream student can be smart and very hardworking, but still could not get into the school of his/her choice.

Now that Singapore has the lowest birth rate and one of the highest emigration rate in the world, I hope that the gahmen recognizes where are the real problems and come out with the right solution fast. Otherwise like LKY say, we will "fold up" one day.

My kids have another 3 to 4 years before they take PSLE, hopefully things will be different by then.
 
Hi all,
Sorry to distract from the topic of education for a while. Carrefour is clearing lots of their homebrand items at lower prices. Pasta S$1.25 per pack and most sauces between S$1.30 - S$1.95. Great if you like to do western dishes at home. Interesting place to shop at once in a while (not very fond of the cashier staff) but it's a pity they're going to fold up business here.

Hi Tam/Helen/Snowball/Yawn,
I really really have a phobia for school now
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I enjoyed teaching but I don't think I can stomach what my son is likely to face.
 
Mumusings

Thanks for sharing. but just a reminder: do check for expiry date when they are clearing stock at a low price. i was at sembawang shopping centre last week and there was a chocolate sale. took a look at some of the chocolate. lo and behold! expiry date is one month time! geez... did not dare to buy as i do not want a tummy upset or face a packet of chocolate ful of worms! heeheehee

today is the first day for my gals in the new childcare. they had a great time. They told us the trs brought them for nature walk in bishan park and they enjoyed it. They even asked if they are going back to school tmrw! You can imagine how glad i was! i believe that kids can only learn and learn well if they do not feel "threatened". No learning can take place if the basic needs are not met: sense of security is one of them.

hopefully they will enjoy "schooling' now and put the past behind them....their mummy can't though hehehe
 
Hi Helen,

Carrefour is clearing their current stocks as they're closing down. Expiry as late as 2014 and 2015
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They're selling items at around 50% off I think.

Which type/franchise of child care centre are your girls at now?
 
Mumusings
Thanks for the info, will go check out Carrefour
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Don't worry, school is really not that bad. Just continue what you're doing with him now even when he starts primary school. And treat primary school as social ground for him to interact & make friends.
 
mumusings,
Recently I was just talking to my hubby about why Walmart does not come to Singapore. Now that Carrefour is closing down, I realize that our market is really too small, since we already have NTUC, Sheng Siong, Cold Storage.

There is a very good article in the Straits Times today, you can read it at this MP's blog :
http://hri-kumar.blogspot.sg/2012/09/primary-colours-dispelling-myths-about.html

Highly recommend parents to read this, especially those with kids in pre-school.
Quote from the article:
"Parents will do what they believe will give their kids an advantage. That has been, and will always be, the case. And we should not stop that - it is their prerogative how they wish to raise their children. But what we can and should do is to address features in our system which compel such conduct."

Primary school is good for kids like my girl who is a conformist and know how to please the teachers. For kids, especially boys who do not pay attention, do not like to conform, and cannot read well, then it is not going to be a good experience.

Most parents now know that kids must be well prepared before going to primary school. This is very true and is not likely to change by the time your boy goes to school. There is no need to send to many enrichment classes, just make sure that he can read well. Some parents over prepare their kids by making them learn up to P3 standard before entering P1. This is unnecessary and will result in the kids complaining that school is boring.
 
Hi Tam,

These hypermarts come to S'pore with the mind to conquer the S'pore mkt and be the market leader....but, they forgot that they can never beat our almight in-country "Fairprice". So, they pack up and go lor.
 
mumusings

my gals are at PCF Sparkletots now. they are enjoying everyday for the moment. now that the school is going to talk about supermarket, they were so excited and wanted me to "donate" as many boxes as I can so that they can start up a mini supermart in school! hahaha i almost emptied every box i can find in the house. They were rarely so excited when they were in the previous childcare.

Tam
thanks for sharing
 
Good morning mommies!

Had been reading and following the thread without participating
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With the recent announcement of changing the EL syllabus for P4 next year, I'm trying to read up more on the stellar program or whatever program the MOE is having now.
Actually I still prefer the olden way of teaching (or at least that's how I had been taught in primary school) and do not see what's so bad about it
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re CL compo
Does your DC need to memorise "beautiful/nice" sentences to use in CL compo?
DS school teacher gave out a list of nice sentences for him to memorise to aid him in his compo writing. I told him no need to memorise, just read more story books and I did get him those model compo for him to read too.
BUT, now even the tutor wants him to memorise such sentences.

A must? Why?
Meaning for EL compo, we need to do that too?
Makes me wonder is this the reason why DS never score well in compo writing???

Please share ...
 
Hi Snowball,

Made another trip to Carrefour. They're packed up already, save for essentials and consignment goods. Clothes, electronics, books, videos and most perishables have been returned to suppliers. Even homebrand products are largely cleared. Only pickles, mustard, special cooking oils, coffee, dehumidifier, mineral water and some household products are left at Suntec. Hb bought 2 packs of Costa Rican coffee powder. Now at $3.45. Very nice, he says. I saw a lady cart cartons of dehumidifiers, nearly 50 packs of coffee powder and 20 bottles of all sorts of sauces!!!!

Honestly speaking I don't like Fairprice homebrand products. Sausages made me sick and the shrimp wonton tasted dead/stale. It's ridiculous considering they definitely make profits from sourcing from OEM-type factories. Worse, prices are only 20cents - 40cents apart from the top brands. Self-raising flour doesn't really raise either and I have a terrible allergy to their sanitary product (tried once during emergency).

For housebrands, am sticking to Cold Storage, Watsons, Guardian, Carrefour (too bad to be gone by month-end) and angmoh homebrands like Tesco and Waitrose instead.
 
aa,
I heard it is quite common for school teachers to ask students to memorize beautiful sentences for both English and Chinese compo. Most kids do not read enough Chinese books, so Chinese teachers have to make them memorize. My girl also has a list, but she did not say that teacher wants her to memorize.

I think it is fine to learn the list, but kids should not be made to memorize everything. In order for the list to be useful, kids must practice using the phrases in their compo. So it is best to let kids spend time writing compo and use the phrases. Memorizing can be a waste of time if kids do not know how to use the phrases correctly.

It is true that teachers now give high marks only when they see beautiful phrases. It is not enough to write blue sky, the kid must write sapphire blue sky or cerulean blue sky to get high marks.
 
snowball,
Yes you are right about Fairprice ! I have the Fairprice plus card now and I like it that I can use the points in the supermarket.
 
Hi Tam/aa,

I am supportive of encouraging kids to write creatively and sincerely BUT I am totally against using flowery language for the sake of impressing. Especially if the use of these expressions are of no relevance to the topic. I've seen the marking scheme (O-levels Cambridge) and they continually stressed on relevance and fluency + range of vocabulary.

I think I've written before 2 years ago in a post how I've come across scripts that are so contrived and fake. At the end of the day, putting big words won't ensure excellent scores. A teacher/examiner can tell if essays are 'memorised'. Given just an hour and a half, it's impossible to cook up a perfect essay. Not unless you already have the entire topic predicted/prepared beforehand.

Some of my friends did this in JC and my tutor failed them with a big word, "CLICHE". There was once in Primary 5 two classmates churned out exactly the same essay. Teacher gave one near perfect and failed the other 'cos the latter was usually the weaker student in class. It was a big thing 'cos both essays were 90% similar in structure/content! Turns out that both girls are cousins and memorised the same essay. BUT the teacher still gave one higher grades 'cos she's often the top 5 in the level. Her cousin was considered to be less intelligent and lucid.
 
Sorry, too slow to add:

It's ridiculous to make kids memorise sentences.

It's even more ludicrous to stuff big words into their heads unless parents/teachers explain the shades of meaning and the origins behind the words. (Same as with coming up with names for kids). One of my tution (girl) wrote so badly suddenly and off-point after she attended lessons at one of the language schools. She became so consciously using new words that the essay simply didn't flow naturally.

My hair stands when I see ladies with names like Molly/Mollie. Moll = tramp/prostitute/easy-woman. No other positive meaning to the word as far as I know. Moll Flanders (a fictional character, also based on the idea of 'Moll') by Daniel Defoe was a thief, cheat and even married her own brother.

One can learn phrases, idioms and pick up some relevant famous quotations BUT to use them only when appropriate. My hair stands when I hear kids trying to impress by using words they don't even understand (especially if there are deeper connotations). Where is the creativity and soul if all kids belt out the same expressions?

I know some sec schools make their scholars and weaker students memorise adjectives. Again very obvious 'cos these are the standard "hazel-eyes", "squared jaws", "aquiline nose", "ruby lips" sort of writing. It's like memorising the entire style off Sidney Sheldon's novels. Totally put-off. Unless one has Roman DNA or looks like Daniel Radcliffe, how is it possible to find aquiline sort of nose? Can't the person just have sharp features and an intense gaze instead?

Just my thoughts
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I get so mad when I see kids put through factory processes.
 
Re: memorising "beautiful" sentences

throughout my teaching years, I do not remember making kids memorise sentences for compo, maybe for spelling dictation. The reason: teaching them how to remember certain useful sentence structures. Which in turn can be used in compo writing.

Have seen pupils wrote a whole paragraph of scenery which has nothing to do with the rest of the story. The feeling I had was : pupils were made to memorise, if they do not use, very "sayang" so even if it is not appropriate, they just write down everything they have memorised. Do I award more marks? depends. If used appropriately without any mistakes, yes. If not, I will just award marks for the rest of the story.

giving pupils a list of sentences/paragraphs is just a guide. as a n adult, i do not refer to just a list when writing. Do you think kids will refer to it? high chance, NO.

Like what Tam shared, they need to know how to use these sentences hence practice is more important. Language is dead if not used. Memorising something that is "dead" is a waste of time.

My method of teaching CL compo:
-introduce the different methods
-get kids to practice using the methods, no need to write a whole essay, just a paragraph or two
- when they have learnt a few methods, get them to use the different methods to "modify" a simple compo and make it more interesting.

Am reading a Chinese book “我教儿子学作文” by 肖复兴, find some of his methods of engaging his son in compo writing interesting. will want to try with my gals and pupils. Mommies who can read Chinese, you can take a look at this book too
 
Hi Helen,

Thanks for sharing the resources on essay writing. The odd thing abt me is that I can teach older kids/strangers better than my own kid for some strange reason.


Hi all,

Sharing with you random wanton rolls made from broken/recycled wonton skin
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Disaster-to-delectable food haha... First time frying something after my finger's healed. http://mumusingseat.blogspot.sg/2012/09/random-wontons.html

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Carrefour's nice Costa Rican coffee. I wonder if there'll be anything else to buy if I pop by next week...
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Finally,
Good luck to kiddies' final school term!
 
mumusings, Helen,
I totally agree with what you wrote.

My kids' school gives out books consisting of the best students' Chinese compositions. I read a few of those, and then found out that a couple of the compositions have the first paragraph in exactly the same words. Then later I found that this is copied from a creative writing book in Popular bookshop. School teachers must have been encouraging students to "copy and paste". Most students do not read Chinese story books, so in order to get high marks for Chinese, teachers have no choice but to make them memorize. One parent in the kiasuparents forum proudly proclaimed that her son spent a few hours a day memorizing Chinese model compositions. Then many other parents praised her for the "determination" to get high marks. Honestly, I am appalled by this type of mentality. Parents use the wrong methods to push their kids to learn Chinese, and then blame Chinese for being too difficult to learn.

The best way to write good compo, in both English and Chinese, is to read as many good books as possible, and practice writing regularly.

Helen,
I think your methods for teaching CL compo are excellent.
I also have the book 我教儿子学作文 ! I highly recommend it too.
 
Hi mommies ...

Thanks for all your inputs re compo writing.

Was working with DS on his CL oral reading last two days, very glad that he can read most of the words BUT a lot of effort needed in building his vocab ...

I went through the lists of "beautiful sentences" given by school and the tutor, told DS that he just need to read them but no need to memorise as honestly do not think he can use these sentences in any of his compo writing.
Like what Helen wrote, he might just be able to re-produce them into his compo, it will not be relevant, I rather he use simple words in his own simple sentences
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I will have about one month to work with him on this before his SA2 ...

re “我教儿子学作文” by 肖复兴
Where can we get this book? Popular?
 
Hi Tam,
Yes, the wanton rolls were cute and very yummy too! These days fried wantons have hardly any filling. Miracle I managed to fry them using my little pot -- was trying to save cooking oil
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I've ever read those 'model' essays when I pop by Popular Bookshop to browse. Good to read (for general feel of what kids are writing these days) but many come across sounding too deliberately-polished. Might as well just read many books/newspapers and work on own sense of idea/plot.
 
aa,
I sent a PM to you.

mumusings,
Yes fried wantons sold outside have so little filling, its like eating the skin only.
I don't like the model compositions, full of flowery language, no substance.
Both my kids like to write, but they do not like to write based on the given pictures. They prefer to create stories out of their own imagination, which I feel all children should be encouraged to do.
 
mumusings
yes it seems easier to teach strangers and other kids than your own. cos they are too comfy with mummy! so in order to get my gals to do/learn something, i need to be the "tigeress" and then they will be "guai guai" and do what i say. heeheehee... not very nice but no choice....

your food is always so "mouth-watering". your hubby and son are so lucky! mine always eating the same things.... too lazy to experiment...
 
mumusings,
The IP schools are still around, so parents will still try to push their kids into these schools.
Actually I was not even aware of the banding of secondary schools until today.
 
Hi Tam,

It's alot of stress for teachers according to friends 'cos all aim for average score for O levels to be as low as possible (eg. average of 9 points for whole COHORT for O levels). Also ranked are top schools for individual subject (eg. national average, value-added-ness etc). It used to be real ranking I remember (eg. RI #1, RGS #2, St Nicks #?, SCGS #?, Nanyang Girls' #? etc). Then it came to a point whereby IP schools were not included so some schools like Crescent, Cedar, MGS all 'moved' up 'cos Raffles schools were no longer competing in the banding.


Hi All,

Make your own Ribena at home using the Roselle fruit (in Chinese it's 'Luo4 she2 guo3'). Bubble tea stores are using this flavour these days too. Tastes like hibiscus/ribena. Add lemon for more zing and less sugar for healthier drink. I made some syrup, frozen cubes and ice jelly with just a pot of 12 fruits (cost $2.50 for 30 fruits). Can boil 2 batches (once with rock sugar and another time with ice-jelly powder) after removing the fruit. Have to resort to this 'cos my son is totally not into vegtebles and many fruits.

Will post up more links when I have time to write tonight.http://mumusingseat.blogspot.sg/2012/09/roselle-fruit.html

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mumusings,
OIC I did not know it was so stressful for teachers. I think the banding of schools contribute to the fact that so many students are gettting tuition, because teahers pressurized them to do so in order to get good grades.
There are a 2 page report about tuition in ST yesterday. The interesting thing is that good students actually asked to go for tuition and even say that they like it. So it is probably not only parents' kiasuism.

MOE minister said : " If students over learn, they become bored in class. ".

This is so true.

Love your photos of the dessert !
 
Hi Tam,
Alot of parents (and sadly educators) don't have the 'big' picture and/or details of the entire span of what education involves. I don't know why syllabus/scope isn't put across as a BIG picture. Many parents are fire-fighting every few years, not realising that some strategies simply won't work beyond the PSLE.

Literacy skills, character development, useful life skills (cooking, sewing, household, babycare), logical thinking, cultural appreciation and disciplne. To me, these are skills far more pertinent than ranking/banding/certs.

Look at all the scums in trouble these days. Even bigshot lawyers and prosecutors siphon money and engage in underage deals with girls. So what if a child scores well through school? Does that guarantee that he'll be a team player (everyone seems to want to be a fancy boss) and a RELEVANT parent??? At the end of the day, Singapore will end up with self-centred, self-serving and calculating generation of wannabes, green-eyed monsters and sloths.

How many young people know what they want in life? Other than "earning big bucks" and "retiring with $1000000"... how many of our youngsters have a calling to serve the nation, community, arts and vocations (nursing, teaching etc)???

Alot has to be done.

I am very grateful that Minister Heng has taken the first step to state that parents MUST be gracious and respect school rules.

For about 20 years now, the MOE has advocated that students/parents are teachers' "CUSTOMERS". One of my friends had a student laugh at her when she was mad with them for skipping remedial. The student said: "Why are you so upset? Doesn't our school fees pay you well enough?:"

I sincerely hope we slow down all the rush for fancy classes. How many of these teachers are really qualified and know what they're doing??
 
Hi mumusings,
I totally agree with you that many parents don't have the pig picture of what education involves. I heard that one parent spends nearly $6000 a month in tuition fees for her son who is a straight A student in a top boys' school. I wonder if she can afford to pay university professors to give private tuition to her son when he enters university. Parents think that they should give their kids as much help as possible. For example, if the kid is very bright, then he should be sent for P6 tuition at P3. This is actually detrimental for the child because he will lose the ability of independent learning. When he enters university, he attends lecture groups with hundreds of students. If he cannot learn by reading textbooks, he is going to struggle. Nowadays even GEP kids need tuition. GEP has been around since 1984, how many GEP kids became top students in prestigious universities overseas ?

As for educators, I think they have no choice because their rankings depend on how many A grade students they can produce.

Many young people nowadays don't even know what they want in life. I heard one student said that he is happy doing part time job and earning $200 a month, it is stupid to study so hard.

I do hope that MOE can do more then just cosmetic changes.
 
Hello Mummies,

How is everyone doing here.....I was super busy these few weeks.

Renovation started 2 weeks ago....nightmare started...so many coordination, monitoring and clarification required with Contractor/ ID.

Also start to get busy at work...lotsa juggling to do now.

Hope everything goes well
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Hi Mumusings - I like Roselle Fruit drink..lovely dessert you have made.
 
Hi Tam,

Good points you raised. Yes, parents can 'pay' to augment their kids' 'intelligence' as far as O and A levels... what next? Bribe the professor for excellent grades or to be on the Dean's list?? (eg. like the girl who bribed/sleptwith the law professor Tay)

I know in some industries, ladies sleep their way up and also sometimes with clients (forums have been abuzz with bank managers and housing agents sleeping with clients to secure deals). How many millions can one earn from short-cuts? How many years can a person live on such tactics??


Hi Snowball,

I'm sure you'll feel gratified when the whole apartment's done up spiffy and beautiful
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I'm going to try my luck to see if I can find more roselle. I add a little lemon to cover up the 'greenish/cactus' feel. Good that kid likes it 'cos he hardly eats veggies/fruits.
 
snowball,
I went through the same thing earlier this year. Even though my contractor is good, I still had to make many decisions, such as color of tiles, color of kitchen cabinet and counter tops, type of washbasins, etc. I was worried about making the wrong decisions and in the end hate my choices. My hubby left everything to me, he only paid money. I could not make up my mind, changed the color of the counter top 3 times. Fortunately the contractor is a very patient old man and he never complained.

One mistake I made was I forgot to ask the contractor to change the old window frames in the toilet. I realized only when the new wall tiles are already done and it was too late. Now I have to live with the old frames.

Hope that everything turns out fine for you
happy.gif
 
mumusings,
Its really shocking about the girl who slept with the law professor for good grades. There could be many other cases which were not discovered.

All these sex scandals, corruption, etc show a big problem in our education system. Now that MOE wants to emphasize on character development, I wonder how they are going to teach good character when even a school principal is convicted of having sex with underage prostitute ?
 
Hi Mumsuings/ Tam,

Thanks for the well-wishes. I also hope that everything will turn out fine. Problem with my Contractor is that the ID and Contractor monitoring the main reno works dun seem to communicate well enough and in the end, many last minute decisions needed from us due to deviations from original designs proposed by the ID (for practical issues).

In fact, we did not do much amendments, but, still many last minute decisions required of us. I am getting the ID, the reno Contractor and our coordinator to sit down with us to talk face-to-face to minimise these last minute hiccups again.
 
Hi Snowball,

Yes, it's alot of phonecalls, double-checking and physically supervising the workers. If not for daily checks, they'd have gotten the dimensions totally wrong for my kitchen! 100sm for fridge area became 70cm and vice versa for washing machine!

What's nice is when the walls/flooring/cabling/lights and kitchen is done. The smell of fresh paint and the anticipation of new furniture = priceless
happy.gif
 
hi mummies

have been bz too.

re:"sleeping your way up"
this is not new. one of the pupils i taught years ago actually shared with me that his/her father who is a prof in the U has told him/her that his student "offered" herself so as to get A grade! Geez I was not surprised by the fact that the undergrad is offering herself but was shocked that the father actually told the child about this incident......eh....i was dumbfounded and did not know how to react then......

re:eek:verteaching
cannot agree more about overteaching. maybe for this, all kids need to go GEP hahaha. then they are challenged further. but.....parents will send them for more tuitions i guess and the vicious cycle will be endless......

re:no more ranking
eh...i do not buy in. sch will not do away with internal ranking. or the performance bonus for officers will be the same. disgusted to see how pple in this profession fight to be in the good book. talk about integrity blah bah blah..at the end of the day, I like you, u get big fat bonus. same as the world out there. for me, my bonus is: i get a good night sleep....heeheeheee
 
Hi Mumusings,

Yes, on the fridge base and washing machine base....I have to send numerous reminders to inform the coordinator about the size of my fridge and washers and ensure that they do the raised platform right.

Really hope that the tilings and cabinets are made to our expectations/ anticipation.
 


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