Education

For the past month or so we have talked about Eliza's future education. Ww would prefer she grows up in an international school environment or a homeschooling environment. Mainly, Ww being a teacher, feels that the primary school education is so competitive that it robs the kids of their childhood and a proper attitude to learning (my rephrasing). Not that it doesn't have any great advantages cos SG has one of the best educational system in the world. Then again, it depends on who carries out the teaching and how they teach.

So far a while we were getting quite pro-homeschooling. But we didn't have much information about it. And a very low percentage of kids in SG are homeschooled, i heard getting your kids to be homeschooled is quite difficult in SG too. We considered many factors and for now, the conclusion is to still send her to public school and ground her well at home. After all, there are good kids in schools.

Sometimes i wonder if i should send Eliza to some class or playgroup to let her learn stuff as it seems like the kids who go to childcare learn a lot and very fast. Then again, i'm reminded by a mum who wrote a reply on the kiasuparents.com forum arguing whether it matters that kids learn their abcs by 18mths or learn super facts by a certain certain age. It doesn't necessarily make them smarter than the kid next door or a high flyer in future. So true...and in our (ww & I) discussions we understood that it is the way they learn, how they aquire knowledge, their interest to learn that matters. Something about deductive and inductive knowledge/teaching that Ww was talking about. After all, most of the facts i learnt in my secondary/jc school days didn't help me much for my university studies anyway. Architecture was about analysis, deducing, exploration, design. Not much facts my literature, economics, physics or maths helped much. Maybe the thinking did.

On the other hand, with so many tuition, enrichments, exams stuff for education for kids, i sometimes can't help like want to go with the flow of the competition...after all who doesn't want their kid to be better / smarter, whatever.

I want to keep on remembering this when i get swept off in the race for edcation, quoting Dreamer
"education is afterall, not just about acquiring knowledge. it is about building one's character. building friendships. preparing us to contribute to the society we live in." and i add "to mould one to have godly character" something which can be quite lacking in public schools.

What a challenge! I feel that being a parent is one of the most life changing thing God is doing in my life to mould me inside out. It makes me put a mangifying glass on my own character, my own way of doing things etc...and realize that i'm so imperfect and that i have so much i need to change.