My "Cheap" Thrill

After busying with my P6 students in preparing their PSLE (Primary School Leaving Exams) and the younger ones in their final year exams, I've finally gotten a chance to take a break and catch up in my blogging.

As a tutor or teacher, I'm glad that most of my kids have done well. I was thrilled when I heard news of their academic results particularly how much they have improved.

Joanne, for example, a slow learner managed to leap to 53% from 38% in her Science. Kristal, my brillant P4 girl, scored 79% from 65% in her Maths. Adeline, who flung her P6 Preliminary Exams Math, managed to get a B from C in her PSLE even though I only spent a month to help her. And Yee Xuan who got 249 in her PSLE T-score from 220 plus in her prelim exams. There are many more...

In short, news of my students' improvement simply thrills me.

Most parents I know would simply look at the grades of their child. Whenever the kid could not get 90s or the perfect 100 score, they would deem their child academic performance as weak. I find such perception of their kid is so unfair and unkind. The goal or target they set for their child is so unrealistic. Often I would have to re-direct them to see their child's progress - the percentage of improvement from previous work. To me, this is a more realistic view of the child's academic effort.

My Niece, the Motivated Saver

Not long ago, I brought my niece and nephew to deposit their savings. Surprisingly the girl had managed to accumulate a substantial amount of money since our last trip there in June. With a single deposit of $100 into her POSBkids account, she was awarded with a “well done” rubber chop.

Beaming with pride as we trudged out of the bank, she audaciously declared that she is aiming to save to hit the next level of $300 by year end. The cheap plastic hand-held game, which worth $5 or less, is now her new target.

I told her frankly that amount was too ambitious to achieve within 6 months. Base on my calculation, it would take her a year to accumulate this money.

Maybe her Math is poor or she is plain ignorant. The 10-yr-old, nevertheless, seems to have made up her mind to achieve that goal by this December.

On top of her daily school allowance of $2, my niece reasoned that with the $4 she earns from her mum in babysitting her baby brother, and $10 from dad in washing up their master-bedroom toilet, she is very confident that she can work to earn and save the $300.

I’m really very amazed as well as impressed by her gungho and entrepreneur spirit.

My Niece, the Self-Motivated Learner

Two weeks ago, before the Nov-Dec school holiday started, my 10-yr-old niece called and told me that she had some good as well as very bad news for me. She disclosed that she had done very well in her English and Chinese final year exams. Her English is Band 1 with 25% score improvement, her Chinese is Band 2 with more than 100% improvement. Her Science has improved by 18% but her Math is in red.

I appraised her for such drastic improvement in most of her subjects and asked her if her school teachers have done anything special in helping her. Without any hint of bashfulness, she boldly claimed that she has made up her mind to do well and has been pushing herself hard to excel.

I saw my 10-yr-old has become a self-motivated learner.

For years, she has been having remedial evening classes with her school teachers but her academic results are often hovering around 40s and 50s.

I noticed that ever since the bank trip, my 10-yr-old has matured and learnt how to set targets herself – first in her daily saving, now in her academic achievements. I’m very proud of her and hope that she will overcome her apprehension of Math and strive to excel in that subject soon.