edu resource uneven distribution

We know that educational resources are never evenly distributed. Everyone wants to get into the better schools.

Singapore’s resource allocation is supposed to be more merit-based whereas other countries often have more wealth-based allocation. Singapore also features many international schools, but I’m putting them aside.

In either merit-based or wealth-based systems, you are always performance-ranked, as I said years ago. If you are a musician you may want to ignore the ranking and focus on your music. I happen to have a UChicago and NUS under my belt.

— various edu resources:
I feel the most important education resource is not school but the extended family. One of the greatest resources is a home-maker mom, to keep the kids under control.

A very economical and popular resource is private tuition. My son likes center-based rather than home-based.

— Exclub .. When you think of the wealth-based, you confront the exclub-wealth. Actually we are relatively OK in terms of exclub-wealth, but we would need to cut spending on other things such as overseas trips. Luckily, I have prepared myself for years to deal with and hopefully overcome the waves of cultural shocks related to top schools, stratification, stigma, branding.

 

##encouraging teachers #boy/yoga

• yoga teachers: Compared to the SG teachers, Bayonne teacher Ankur is more encourating on a weaker student
• math teachers: Christine is more encouraging on a weaker student
• piano teachers: The Filippino teacher is more lenient on a weaker student

I wonder if Ashish’s attitude on workout fits into the picture.

[17]who takes credit/blame4boy’s academic performance #to update

• Math and English — teacher 30% boy 69%. Dad and private tutor 1% — help a bit in P1.

Effort required is lower in Math than English.

• Chinese verbal — teacher 20% family members 70% boy 10%

Effort required is low

• Chinese reading — teacher 40% boy 40% Dad 20%.

I feel boy cares a lot more about school requirement than daddy’s requirement or tutor’s requirement.

• Chinese writing — teacher 50% boy 25% tutor 5% Mom 20%

parent spinning wheels ^ tutor gaining traction

I do have some solid spare time available like an hour a day (and many on weekends). I wish half of the time I spend with boy can gain traction, but in reality, 90% of the time I spend with him is wheelspin — I push hard but with poor result.

As I result, I feel extremely frustrated with the time I spent with him. So far, I can hardly recall any time I spend with him at an acceptable efficiency.

• daddy’s char list
• get him to read a page or a paragraph with pinyin
• piano at home

In contrast, the tutors (piano, Chinese, swim) have better “traction”.

private tuition:三毛 ^ playboy

In [[wandering of Sanmao]], the poor orphan Sanmao was keen to study in a school, whereas the rich kid of his age was reluctant to study.

Now suppose there’s private tuition given to each. Sanmao would be the only one to benefit.

I feel for my son the tuition isn’t necessary.

parenting Chat with Cindy Lin @Chinese

Fundamentally, I believe Yixin has talent and potential to take up Chinese beyond speaking, esp. when he becomes interested in reading Chinese. Until then it would take a huge amount of effort from me. I think it would be worthwhile.

I have two distinct concerns — 1) Chinese proficiency esp. renzi, and 2) exams/streaming. I said many times that I don’t want to be affected by exam pressure.

Subconsciously I’d rather see my son being average in an average school, then moving to US, rather than everyone pushing under pressure, and getting into a top school. I feel the price to pay is too high, but Cindy probably disagrees.

At P3, Cindy realized his younger son’s Chinese was weak (I guess she meant exam-wise). She felt it was a little bit too late.

For the Risk #1, Cindy gave an example of a China P1 student (her nephew) relocating from China to US. The boy’s mother even brought to US their Chinese textbooks. Now basically he can’t read Chinese.

A 3rd Risk – risk of losing the small amount of interest he has in Chinese. Rebuilding that interest will be uphill battle.

Cindy knows she has too high expectations for her son’s Chinese, so home-coaching impacts the relationship. Therefore, she stopped home-coaching. I can imagine it must be tough situation for her, but she worked out alternatives. Luckily, I still can help my son.

Sugg: Look for the type of Chinese books he enjoys, such as [[三毛流浪记]]

Sugg: One-on-one tuition didn’t work for Cindy’s son. Cindy felt a tuition centre (like 百乐果) has resources that are more系统性. I think she meant for school syllabus. There’s more interaction among fellow students. Learning from each other. Tuition centres are probably more exam focused. I guess having success at Chinese exams can boost his confidence.

Sugg: engage school teacher. (Cindy worked closely with her P5 Chinese teacher.) Teacher can give individual assignment. (Parent can suggest.) Kids probably obey teacher more than parents. Teacher has special authority that parents don’t have.

outside tutor or self-teach like in U.S.

Many parents in western countries, and some in Singapore, tutor their own children without outside help. Some statistics even show that some US children don’t go to school but study with their parents and do better on average.

We need to be careful, objective and critical with these reports.

First off, Singapore primary school standard is higher, perhaps among the highest in Asia, and therefore in the world. East Asian countries tend to be the most demanding and rigorous in primary+secondary education. What works in the west may completely fail in Singapore.

Compared to Beijing, Singapore schools place less emphasis on deeper, understanding and more on drilling, practice, speed + accuracy. My math and science class at JC level show me Singapore is more about pattern recognition. This translates to heavy homework and more practice needed for exams.

Secondly, some kids at some age are willing to work with parents. Dabao is not there yet. He loves novelty and visitors. When I was a JC student I had outside tutors. No, a tutor is NOT a servant, but I felt well taken care of, treated like a little prince, catered for with full attention. I knew it was only 1 or 2 hours, so I concentrated very easily.

Is it possible to create the same conducive learning environment between parent and kid? Not impossible. Perhaps turn on A/C, shut out meimei, limit to half an hour each session. We could try but at this stage, my answer is – at his age, helping Dabao with studies is too inefficient and frustrating.

Dabao is good at sabotage. He drags his feet and acts stupid and waits for you to give up.

3rdly, I’m a different dad than other dads. I need constant study; I need to upgrade myself constantly; I invested so much in the U Chicago program I need to put in real effort; I am a heavy blogger; I spent hours each week on personal investment; I am more serious about regular exercise. In short, I have less free time than other fathers. Therefore, I’m willing to sacrifice something to gain a bit more time. With Jason’s help, I feel I save 3 to 5 hours each week.

I feel for piano practice we could hire a tutor to speed up his progress.