A Fairy Tale Module in Primary 1?

September 19, 2013 · By ·

Counting down 4 months before K enters Primary 1. I think I am less enthusiastic than I should be, instead of giving him more preparation work for primary 1, we are taking it easy.

A little too easy I think, as the only classes he attend weekly are Chinese enrichment classes. I have to admit that Chinese is just about the only subject that makes me a tad nervous about Primary 1. Yesterday, it just dawned on me that there is this other subject that I have not taught him; Fairy Tales.

I have discovered that your child needs to have the knowledge of fairy tales, specifically, politically correct fairy tales. See this photo taken from a friend, who shared her child’s answers from a segment from an actual Primary 1 English Test  Paper on Facebook.

Pri1 1Photo used with permission from the mom

So the child was penalized for not knowing her fairy tales, or rather, stories that are in their right structure and order. Handsome princes can never be turned into snakes by fairy godmothers, and castles should always be beautiful, but cannot be on beautiful green fields.

Really, I don’t see anything wrong with the answers she provided. There are no grammatical or spelling errors. and the language structure is correct. The teacher must have added a politically correct fairy tale module in her evaluation of these answers, thus, the child will not pass based on her slightly varied take to what is deem as a right representation of sentence structure in fairy tales.

I assume that the purpose of this question was to get the child to test the child’s ability to; re-arrange the sentence, identify and build sentence parts and probably capitalize sentence beginnings and punctuate statements. This questions were likely meant to test the child’s skills to select the appropriate language structure and become an independent writer. So then, why is the child being penalized for not knowing her fairy tales?

This, I believe, is just a common example of how conformity is being inculcated in our local education system. Success through education is determined by exam results, which have marking schemes to follow. There is only ONE right answer to every question.

I thought about what I will do if K encounters the same things when he start Primary school next year:

1. Meet the teacher, and explain my view on why this answer should be marked as correct. However, this will be dependent on whether I have already sized up the teacher to find out more about her personality. If she is open and accommodating to parental feedback, she might feel a little apologetic and then change her marking on the paper. Or if the teacher is by-the-book and inflexible, my child might get unnecessary attention amongst the 29 other kids in class or just get ignored eventually.

AND / OR

2. Explain to child that conformity is part of societal expectations, model answers and behavior is needed to get approval from teachers and school. However, share with child that his answer is correct according to English language structure and rules. And continue to encourage creativity in modules of creative writing, problem solving and life in general, apart from school.

Frankly, I think this is rather sad, but so real in our educational system. Here’s my proposition for Singapore School Education that embodies how I see it at this point;

Singapore Primary School Education – Train your kids to be square pegs to fit into perfect square holes for a box.

Likely Responsible for coma-tosing your child’s creativity over time.

I can’t help but to be cynical when I see things like that, and wonder what then happens to the round pegs, triangular pegs, the oval pegs, or how about those pegs which don’t really have a defined shape.

In the meantime, I need to get my hands on a fairy tale book to do read-alouds with the little boy.

Do share what you will do if you encounter this situation with your child. Will you take it in your stride and just address it with your child separately, resign to the situation and not pursue it further, and/or choose to speak to the teacher?

*This post has a follow-up post that will address some of the comments shared, do read the post here. 

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Categorized: Education, Parenting · Tagged:

Words of Wisdom about Children

July 23, 2013 · By ·

Children, I think is one of God’s ways to remind parents that He is present in our childrens’ moments of love and joy.

Looking at how children marvel at their discoveries, how they see the world brings back memories of the time when I was a child. The world is still a marvelous place for them to discover its beauty and mystery, and for giving life to their wondrous imagination.

Children has a natural affinity and connection with spiritual things, and often they have a more sophisticated grasp of spirituality with their simple faith and their ability to not ‘over-think’.  Often children are able to differentiate what it means to be religious (i.e., to go to a place of worship) regularly, versus “believing and trusting wholeheartedly in God that watches over me”. Something that many adults might have trouble with separating this difference.

There are many things children are able to teach us about faith in God, here are some of the ways :

Children are examples of humble faith in God

‘Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.’

– Matthew 18:2-5

Sentosa 1

‘Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.

– Matthew 18:10

Jesus blesses little children

Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them,“Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.

– Mark 10:13-16

Sentosa 14

Jesus has a passion that no child will be lost

“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

– Matthew 18:12-14

Sentosa 6

Children can and will praise and worship God

But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignantand said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, You have perfected praise’?”

– Matthew 21:15-16

Sentosa 7

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger. – Psalms 8:2

Sentosa 9

How to train and discipline children

Sentosa 17

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. – Ephesians 6 : 1-4

Sentosa 18

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart – Proverbs 29:17

Most of all, children are indeed a blessing from God.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward.

– Psalm 127:3

Sentosa 13

Words from the bible will always be able to provide plenty of wisdom for any parent to use in confidence in raising children.

 

All photos featured on this post are taken from a recent June holidays excursion to Sentosa that K had with Pauline‘s kids, T & J.

Linking up with 

MummyMOO
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Categorized: Hope, Parenting · Tagged:

Something this way comes

June 25, 2013 · By ·

Wednesday 19 June 2013. Outside, through in the light of day, a thick blanket of haze shrouded Singapore, all we saw of the sun, was a ponderous circle without edges. Even the birds seemed to have quieten in the mornings. When it became dark, the brown-yellow light of the haze lingered around the rim of buildings and our homes.

Hazesgp2013Singapore skyline on 21st June (skyline photo by Channel News Asia, PSI 400 illustration by Klipsch SEA FB page)

Some measure of distress and helplessness enveloped most of us, and anger was invoke due to fear. Most of us started to question why and how this could have happened, and found ways to deal with it by keeping themselves safe in our homes, scrambled to get masks to protect ourselves, while others started looking for blame. Some with businesses took this opportunity to stock-pile masks and earn a tidy profit selling them to people desperate to buy them.

Apart from taking the necessary precautions to reduce spending time outdoors, and getting some N95s from my weekend grocery trip. I wondered to myself how many of us was able to look past the problem quickly, and not dwell on this difficult situation and it’s limitations, and not feel a certain degree of being victimized by the authorities. Are we too overwhelmed by the negativity from this situation, getting too obsessed with tracking the PSI numbers, and not think about how we able to overcome or bounce back from this stress in our lives?

As parents, it’s natural for us to want to protect our children from harm. When the PSI climbed we worry about their exposure to the haze for short trips outdoors, we fret when we realized that there wasn’t a mask situable for their use. Then when we finally got a mask that they could use, we lost our temper when our child refused to don the mask. Imagine how much anxiety, confusion your child may be experiencing, even thought we know that all we wanted to do through our actions, was to find solutions to deal with this problem!

If we look beyond our little red dot, we will see that life is more turbulent than it has ever been for many of our fellow humans in many parts of the world. Just this week in the news, there have been floods, more floods, chaos from protests, sudden hurricanes, war and rumors of war.

As I am writing this post, the skies in Singapore seemed to have cleared up this weekend, but there is no reason why we should continue to take things we have for granted.

Life is uncertain, and being in a country like Singapore. We have been really blessed and sheltered from most disasters so far. Will this security remain? No one knows what is in store for us in the months and years to come.

Resilient

Helping our children deal with uncertainties

How are we helping our children to deal with turbulence in our lives? Can we give them the right ‘tools’ to deal with this difficulty? And it really possible to be happy and peaceful in the midst of our difficulties?

We can start by changing our outlook and attitudes. See past the problems even when we are caught in the difficult situation, accept that life is challenging and ever changing, and tell our children that we can cope with these changes and challenges.

Like what we have heard before, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. Cut out fear and negative thoughts, be aware of your attitudes, what you are saying, refrain from complaining. Stay positive, as negative thoughts will cause you to falter and breed bitterness and hopelessness.

With any challenge that may come your way, respond by hugging your child more, holding hands. Find ways you can be thankful together from your lives, and not focus on the negatives that are beyond your control and move on.

Sentosa 10

P.S. Our family is experiencing a painful period at this point of our lives, and under-going many changes. But I am thankful for my parents unrelenting support during this time, K’s resilience in handling it and most of all, God’s grace and mercy to see us through.

MummyMOO
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