Tuesday, 10 November 2009

Mom, can I skip school today?


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.

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Little white lies

I think compared to men, more women lie to their friends and to their love ones. Between friends, Mothers to their children, wife to husband and between sisters and cousins. Im not talking about lies to cheat on your husband or lies that caused a bad relationship but more of little while lies....

Scenario 1
Girls nite out at a cafe. One of your girlfriend is wearing a new dress that doesn't do her justice. Worst still the dress makes her look fat. After a cup of coffee, she asked around flaunting her new dress "eh what do u think of my outfit? Lawa tak..I got this on sale u know..its Zara"
Im sure the answers from her girlfriends would be...
hmm, it looks good, I noticed it since u masuk cafe tadi...
Oh..Zara ye, mesti la cantik...baju mahal!
while smiling and belek belek baju dia dgn bersungguh sungguh....


scenario 2
Your friend invited you to have dinner at her house. The chicken curry unfortunately was quite tasteless. She smiles at you and asked anxiously; how do you like the curry? Its my mom's recipe u know..people just luv it. Most probably you will smoothly say; uuhh I luv it,..memang sedap betul, sama macam curry kat Pelita, maybe even better!"

Best of all while lying,you dun even fidget an inch! In fact you gives her an thumb up sign!

Well, I think in general women lie becoz they are too NICE. They have GOOD intentions. They do not want to hurt their friends and their love ones feelings. They love them too much.

As for men, they may choose to just say aaahhh,uuuhhh when you asked them "do I look fat in this dress" while quickly tuning up the volume of the TV and pretending to be engrossed in the documentary.

Conclusion: men and women 2x5 je!!!! It's just that men chose to use a few syllabus while women makes sentences.

What say you?