Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about kids and school. Here in Saudi, many parents are worried about the lack of good education system. Whist I do agree with them but I don't see schools as a tool to guarantee your kids' future endeavors.
The thing is I personally view education as a part of learning experience that consist of sharing knowledge, friendship and discipline in life. To me,being top in the class does not guarantee a successful career nor do they guarantee top notch positions in companies. Just look at those millionaires like Bill Gates (Microsoft), Micheal Dell (Dell computer) and Milton Hershey(Hershey choc) These guys did not even finished college or high school!
We cannot depend on the school or put the teachers 100% responsible for the success of our kids in their life and future careers. High school is just a ticket for entries to college or universities. While your Degree or Masters is a ticket for you to gain entry to the corporate/business world. It is sad that our country emphasis so much on how many As you get as compared to your skills, your interest and personality. The As do not teach you to be street smart nor does they prepare you to face the harsh realities of the world after school.
Often,I think my view of my kids education kinda surprised some of my friends! For example I'm not really anxious when my kids missed school sometimes just because they were tired or had a light flu. (my kids should really appreciate this!) As long as they catch up on the work they miss, that's all I asked. STUDY SMART, that's the key. As long as dapat maintain above average ok lah. Alhamdulilah for my kids all three of them were top in their class last year, ha ha...I swear I was not pressuring them to study study study! I only motivated them to study and told them to do their best. I also do not believe in forcing them to study long hours coz we know the brain's attention span after 1 hour. Therefore, take a break, play ps2 or chill out and then continue.
As for tertiary education, why put pressure to yourself by entering unis that are very strict in their grading systems and where you have to compete with all those geniuses? Why put yourself in that kind of misery? Choose universities that makes you comfortable and gives you flexibilities and most importantly pursue the course that you are interested in. You have so many choices out there, get the education but still have fun :-)
Like yours truly, I chose Sheffield Hallam University because during my time, it was one of the very few uni that uses american grading system. That means I can study in UK but I had the luxury of american grading systems. Lega banyak tu coz I don't have to remember lessons I learned in one year for my final exam! American systems follows semesters, so I had less headaches during my studies. Most importantly it was one of the BEST experience in my life.
I don't like my kids to feel school as a burden...I want them to enjoy school and have fond memories of it. What I do is I motivate my kids to want to learn, to enjoy studying as they gained knowledge and to have fun too.
To me, we always have the choice, to do it the easy way or to do it the hard way. You decide, let your kids decide.
