How did you do it?
This question has been asked by many of my friends and colleagues when they found out about my children. We had initially thought that what we went through is typical. But as we talked to more and more people, it is only then we realized that the journey is not so common after all.
Singapore has been ranked amongst the top countries in the world by PISA, short for the Program for International Student Assessment that is under the OECD umbrella. In some years, it is actually ranked number 1. In other words, to be able to get through the Singapore education system is difficult enough as it is.
The Journey to College
By the grace of God, both my kids did well in the system by being selected into the Gifted Education Program (GEP) - for the top 1% of students - and then getting into Raffles Institution (supposedly the number 1 school in Singapore), and achieving straight As in the Singapore-GCE Cambridge "A" levels, and then receiving offers from a few of the top-ranking colleges in the world.
It is easy to classify this simply as "being lucky" or "born genius". I will be the first person to tell you that none of the labels apply. Maybe there is a little luck, but this is probably just 1% - the other 99% is perspiration. As for the other comment that they are prodigies, well, this is not true either. It is said that children are the result of the genes of their parents. If their parents (err...me) have just mediocre results in school and goes to an average school, then the highest likelihood is that their children will be average (or slightly above) and go to an above-average school.
Best Practices
Rather than keeping the knowledge to ourselves, I will try to pen down some of the things we did so that other parents will know and perhaps do even better.
- Nature or Nurture
- To be continued...
Introducing "Infancy to IC"
Good news: after getting multiple feedback when I was conducting my project management classes, I have finally decided to pen my thoughts of how I utlized my project management skills in bringing upo my 2 children. There is no good reason to keep this knowledge hidden.
I also enlarged the scope to start the journey from infancy and going through pre-school to primary to secondary school. Bonuses will be the Recommended Reading List (for children) as well a chapter on GRIT and interviews (yes, as kids).
Do check out the site: Infancy to IC
Also availabel at Amazon and Barnes & Noble plus many other places where parenting books are sold.