Amazon Holiday Deals

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

I SAY: Pressure-cooker Babies

From TODAY, Voices

Monday December 15, 2008

 

By Melvin Tang

 

THE other day, after putting my son to bed, I entered my bedroom to find it a scene of desolate despair, hopelessness and surrender. Ok, I exaggerate, but essentially, it was the look on my wife’s face.

 

She had recently tried to enrol our 2-year-old in daycare. However, during her “chat” with one of the “Einstein-producing-factories” — admittedly one of the more popular schools — a member of the staff didn’t even bother to hide her laugh/scoff/you-must-live-in-a-cave-in- Pulau-Unknown disdain, as she explained to my wife that my son needed pre-nursery “education”. Unfortunately they were fully booked until the next Ice Age and had a waiting list of 200 eager toddlers.

 

We soon found out we were late and some “schools” are booked just as the baby’s head is crowning.

 

This got me thinking, what’s with the pre-everything?

 

My colleagues tell me their kids are taught to read and write at four, in both English and Chinese, and that’s because the school encourages (read: demands) such early learning to prepare the child for what’s expected of him or her at the next level.

 

And so, by Primary 1, he’s expected to be writing proper sentences, reading books and conversing eloquently in two languages. I looked up “Primary” in the dictionary and discovered it is defined as “ elementary: Of or being the essential or basic part”; and as far as I know, 1 is the first number after 0. So what Primary 1 really means, in my interpretation, is the first basic essential education your child requires.

 

PRE- IS FOR PRE-SSURE

But what about pre-primary? Well that’s just preparing for Primary, which is the first basic essential education your child requires. And Nursery? Well, that’s just preparing for pre-primary. So in fact, it’s pre-pre-primary. But when does this stop and is there an evolutionary chart that plots the emergence of pre-primary and pre- pre-primary?

 

What should I be expecting next? Pre-natal education?

 

It’s incredible that even before babies can learn to be toddlers, they are being prepared for the pressures of the year ahead because that in itself is insufficient preparation for the year ahead of that.

 

Just last night, as I read my son his favourite bed-time storybook, I looked at the pure innocence and amazement he expressed as I turned each page, and wonder if I should be reading him books meant for 3-4 year olds instead, just so by the time he gets there, he can start on his 10-year series.

 

I chose instead to pick up his favourite toy car and “vroomed” around the room with him until he fell asleep on my chest, still gripping the winning car from a race he will always win.

 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Rigorous Training Helps You Grow Taller
We have learned that various sleeping patterns and eating habits can greatly affect our growth. If you are hoping to gain a few more inches, it is necessary to have some discipline. If you miss out on something, everything else will be useless. Regular exercise is also needed to grow taller. Regularity in maintaining the prescribed methods must be employed; else you will not achieve your desired height.
Research has shown that regular exercise helps in the increase in the production of growth hormone, which is necessary to gain some height. To be able to proceed with any exercise, it is important that a person be conscious and aware that dismissing exercises may prove his other efforts futile. If you are determined to grow taller, you must be as passionate as you are in the beginning through the end. This means you won’t skip any exercise that has been dictated to you in your growth enhancing program. Visit here for more, http://www.growth-flex.com/ .
Several exercises are needed to be done at a specific time of the day. This means if you start your first day of exercise at six in the morning, you should do the same for the following days. Exercising regularly doesn’t only dictate the kind of exercise, the number of counts and repetitions, but also the time at which you do the exercise. This way, your body can adjust properly.
To further enhance your growing potential, you should also make use of growth enhancement products. A lot of them are available in the market; some are being distributed in the growth enhancement program that you joined. If you have none yet, you should try Growth Flex V Pro System. To know details about this, go there at http://www.growth-flex.com/ .
-------------------
peterson