The other day, I had an interesting conversation with Ace. Out of nowhere, he asked me if I prefered Ms Roberts (his form teacher) or Ms XXX (who is his friend, Zack's form teacher). Zack is in a different class and apparently the other teacher handles her class very differently.
"I don't know the other teacher so I cannot compare but I like it that Miss Roberts is strict with you because I think strict teachers help you to grow and improve more." I told him.
And then Ace told me that Ms XXX is actually very different from Ms Roberts. "Ms XXX always tells a story when she has a few minutes before arabic lessons. We never have time to do that in Ms Roberts's class. In her class, we are always busy doing work and if she has time, we are always sitting on the carpet listening to her because she is telling us where we can do better and we are always learning something." And apparently because of this, his friend, Zack, says his form teacher is much better because she tells them alot of stories and Ace's teacher only tells stories at the end of the day.....
This inspired me to share with Ace the story that I have just heard about "a few minutes". This one is from a children's soka magazine in India called Bodhi Tree that one of the soka members shared with me. Apparently, there was this scientist who is a nobel prize winner. When he was young, he was good in his studies but he never seem to be able to score an A in math.. he noticed his classmate always scored As and asked him for his secret. The classmate said he did not have any secret and did not do anything out of ordinary except study. Then he noticed that his friend always seemed to continue studying even when he has already switched off the lights to get ready for bed because his friend's lights will still be on. And so he made a promise to himself to always study a few minutes more every night and these few minutes more eventually made him the nobel prize winner he is today and gave him his A in math in the end.
So I explained to Ace that the few minutes before arabic is also very important. Even though it is fun to listen to stories and you will also learn from listening to stories, would you rather listen to stories or spend that few minutes on how to do better and learning more things?
"Of course on learning.." Ace replied.
As an after thought, he added that he thinks he is going to do better this year and get getter results. When I asked him why he thought so, he said, "Last year, I was lazy and anyhow do my work, this year I am hard working. So, I think I will do better this year because mummy, I am aiming for 1 for all my subjects."
Apparently, Ace's results are graded 1, 2, 3 or 4. 1 is like very good.. 2 is better than their requirement for this age, 3 is meets the requirement for their age and 4 is below requirement. Last year, Ace recieved 3s for most of the things. He got 4 for arabic and PE and got a 1 for art. I am very happy that he is aiming for a 1 for everything and I am quite sure he is going to make some improvement in his results. But I am not so sure he will be a 1 for everything...
And so as to manage his expectations, I told him that it is great that he set a goal for himself.
"So what if you dont achieve it? What will you do? Are you going to give up or keep trying till you get there?" I asked him..
"Of course I dun give up! We Singaporeans are afraid to lose and always want to be the best.. and we don't give up till we achieve it!" and he said it with such PASSION and CONVICTION!
I laugh until I peng lor.. glad he sees kaisu-ism in such positive light. I asked him later who told him that and he said it was Daddy who told him that.. but when I recounted the story to Max, Max LOL and said he never said tat to Ace lor:) wahahaha....
PS: I found out that Ace has a classmate T, whose parents are PRs or New Citizens in Singapore. T's dad lived in sgp for 13 years and they came over to dubai when T was about a year old.. as a result, T is not able to speak singlish but because he is good friends with Ace, he likes to find common ground and whenever they have similar reactions or preference for certain things, T will always say, "See, we are alike because we are both Singaporeans.." I never understood his rationale till I met T's parents at his birthday party.. and then I realized that Ace told T that "You cannot speak singlish, so you are not Singaporean..." Then I recalled that Ace came home everyday and will tell me little things like T's dad can speak singlish.. few days later, he comes home and tells me T has a red Singaporean passport.. Apparently, T has been trying VERY HARD to prove to Ace that he too is Singaporean... makes me think about this.. so what makes a Singaporean.. someone who stays in Singapore for long time? SOmeone who is born there? Someone who has the red passport? What do you think?
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