Parents and children remote learning during the COVID-19 pandenic - 2

Posted to Facebook on 17/7/2020 5:51 PM
Commenting on “Parents and student children remote learning"

I have pointed out many times that far too many parents rely on others to raise their children, or outsource their child raising responsibility to childcare centre or after school carerers, school teachers or nannies.

When their children are bullied in cyberspace, the parents do not seek advice or coaching to help their children to deal with the problem. How difficult is it to turn off the computer or modem when the children are faced with cyber bullying?

It is most amazing that many educated parents can't help their children with their school work. Did the parents passed their primary or junior college (in the US)? A parents can follow the teaching concurrently with he child. If an adult can't follow the lesson, how can we expect the children to follow or learn?

Online learning or remote learning by the students without the presence of a teacher is definitely NOT on. The effective way is online teaching or remote teaching, where the students are to attend the cyberspace class with the teacher present as the host.

I am not a teacher but only a volunteer. Before the lockdown, I used to assist teachers to coach or deal with students who require more attention. At present, I am not able to help the school because of health risk, privacy and security reasons.

A good teacher can command the attention of the students either face-to-face in a real environment or in cyberspace.

Parents are the most important teachers in a child’s life

Reposted to Facebook on 9/5/2020 10:37 AM Posted to Empty Vessel (1/4/2016) on 3 April 2016 at 9:16 AM Commenting on “A Letter to Singapore Parents” https://iantan.org/2016/04/a-letter-to-singapore-parents/

It is a norm that most people want more things and more throughput but not prepare to supply more input. Every new generation, new replaces the old, whether it is technology, fashion, concept, management style, food, parenting method, education, etc.

Instead of just making ends meet, many choose to climb much higher in the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs ladder at the expense of the fundamental need of parental love and care for the children; I do mean substitution of love by materialistic items.

As a spherical thinking educator, I am in favour of old style “teaching” including spelling, dictation, and “repeat after me” reading, plus practical logical and cognitive learning

Parents are the most important teachers in a child’s life the moment the child comes to the world. Parents attend school to learn English, maths, cooking, public relation, finance, and all sorts of subjects trying to achieve a brighter and better future, but they forget they have already brought the future to the world, their child. Parents do not “attend” classes on how to cope with and prepare the child, because parenting classes are hard to find. They blame their forebear for making their generation rebellious or what they have become, but never question what sort of a child they will bring up.

The difficulties faced by previous generation were that most chores were done manually and information was at a premium. They did not have the opportunity and luxury to “learn”. Unfortunately, parents of today are too lazy to learn despite the advancement in technology, and therefore they have no idea how to communicate with their children.

There is no one size fits all education system. It is evitable that the students of today have to learn more, some old but mainly new subjects. The society is getting more complex and speed of progress is getting faster. Parents can stay at the bus stop, drive in slow speed lane or the take the highway. The means and therefore the end result will be entirely different.

Apathy is the cause of all down fall. Contribute and voice your positive ideas; don’t just knock others’ without giving a good counter reason.

Worried parents ask principals to take their kids

Posted to Facebook on 16/4/2020 10:29 PM
Posted to The Age (16/4/2020) on 16/4/2020
Commenting on “Worried parents ask principals to take their kids”
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/we-can-t-do-this-worried-parents-ask-principals-to-take-their-kids-20200416-p54kk1.html

If parents can’t help their children in home schooling and home work, does it mean that many parents have low level of literacy and numeracy? It’s time some of these parents should re-enrol in a primary school.

Far too often, parents point fingers at teachers for not doing their job educating the children. It is time that the society must realise schools are the best and cheapest childcare centres around.

Respect the teachers, support the teachers.

Thank you for reading.

Worried parents ask principals to take their kids

Silence is NOT golden

Posted to Facebook on 22/1/2020 at 12:13 PM
Is silence golden? Not necessary so

I never understood what this poster was about, until many years later. I saw a poster on a tram in 1970. I had no idea what it meant, who advertised it and for whom.

It was a drawing of a rather sad expressive face of a very young child, and the background was lemon yellow. I can still remember the words vividly, “Tell them you still love them”.

A lot of times, we assume everyone thinks the same, and reacts the same way. However, this is not the case.

When we live in Australia, there are certain accepted expectations for new comers to behave to be part of this country. No, I do not think these expectations are unrealistic. One of such expectations is "silence is NOT golden".

Generally speaking, most baby boomers’ childhood whether they were brought up in an Asian country or in Australia, many parents were very strict, and not expressive to show their love towards their children. There were some kind of unwritten rules that children should understand.

Unfortunately, many children might misunderstand that their parents did not love them because they never get any kisses or hugs. The parents would console and defend themselves by saying “we have given you everything, we sacrifice everything for you!”

What the children wanted was an expression of love, a simple sentence of “we love you!”

What do parents expect from children in return?

I was at JB Hifi. I child wanted to ”show off” to his mum that he could write on an iPad. He wrote, “I love you Mum”.

His mother told the child, “I am here. You don’t have to write it. It will mean more if you say it to me”

In my next blog, I shall discuss about the magic words, “Thank You”.

Thank you for reading.

Can an education system from a country be transferred and adopted by another country?

Posted to Facebook on 9/7/2019 at 12:32 PM
Can an education system from a country be transferred and adopted by another country?

I read a post about Finland is ready to assist Malaysia with their education system.

What is important is NOT just the education system. The parenting of the children, the societal influence, the cultural acceptance, employment prospect, are important to the definition of success of any education system.

In many Asian societies, parents are Tiger parents or Helicopter parents, and what the children study and how the children behave are dictated by the parents

Then the racial and religious issues create big barrier, whether religious study forms part of curriculum, or students need to attend prayers at certain time on certain day.

The welfare system also entwined in the system. There is a big wealth gap in many Asian societies, and can the government afford to fund childcare, daycare and after school care

The crux of the matter is what factors cause the failure of the current system, and whether there are remedies.

While the article is more about Malaysia, we also need to have a closer look at our (Australian) education system.

There is no one size fits all. Foreign systems bring new problems, especially in a multicultural country.

Thank you for reading.

Parents are the most important teachers in a child’s life

Posted to Empty Vessel (1/4/2016) on 3 April 2016 at 9:16 AM Commenting on “A Letter to Singapore Parents” https://iantan.org/2016/04/a-letter-to-singapore-parents/

It is a norm that most people want more things and more throughput but not prepare to supply more input. Every new generation, new replaces the old, whether it is technology, fashion, concept, management style, food, parenting method, education, etc.

Instead of just making ends meet, many choose to climb much higher in the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs ladder at the expense of the fundamental need of parental love and care for the children; I do mean substitution of love by materialistic items.

As a spherical thinking educator, I am in favour of old style “teaching” including spelling, dictation, and “repeat after me” reading, plus practical logical and cognitive learning

Parents are the most important teachers in a child’s life the moment the child comes to the world. Parents attend school to learn English, maths, cooking, public relation, finance, and all sorts of subjects trying to achieve a brighter and better future, but they forget they have already brought the future to the world, their child. Parents do not “attend” classes on how to cope with and prepare the child, because parenting classes are hard to find. They blame their forebear for making their generation rebellious or what they have become, but never question what sort of a child they will bring up.

The difficulties faced by previous generation were that most chores were done manually and information was at a premium. They did not have the opportunity and luxury to “learn”. Unfortunately, parents of today are too lazy to learn despite the advancement in technology, and therefore they have no idea how to communicate with their children.

There is no one size fits all education system. It is evitable that the students of today have to learn more, some old but mainly new subjects. The society is getting more complex and speed of progress is getting faster. Parents can stay at the bus stop, drive in slow speed lane or the take the highway. The means and therefore the end result will be entirely different.

Apathy is the cause of all down fall. Contribute and voice your positive ideas; don’t just knock others’ without giving a good counter reason.