Saturday 26 September 2009

Kids from HDB and private housing fare differently at school

Former teacher says HDB-dwelling students seem to have a lower threshold for stress

1 comment:

Guanyu said...

Kids from HDB and private housing fare differently at school

Former teacher says HDB-dwelling students seem to have a lower threshold for stress

The Straits Times
25 September 2009

Mr. Visakan Veerasamy highlighted in ‘Better performers’ last Saturday the statistical edge children in private housing have over the average HDB dweller.

As a former school teacher, enrichment programme founder, tuition centre owner and creator of problemsums.com, I would like to present another point of view - parents’ aspirations for their children.

First, the stress threshold. Academic stress is inevitable in modern society. However, HDB-dwelling students seem to have a lower threshold.

I used to think the academic lapse of lower-income students stemmed from lack of access to quality academic programmes. Hence my tuition, enrichment and website enrolment were at special concession (or even free) for the financially challenged.

After years of dealing with students and parents from different social strata, a sad fact dawned on me. More often than not, the determinant to academic support lies not in financial capability, but in the stress threshold of students, which is set by parents.

‘Too much school work’, ‘My child is too tired’, ‘I don’t want too much pressure for my child’ are, by and large, voices from lower-income parents. Also, most parents who prefer their children to ‘rest after exams’ are HDB dwellers, while parents in private housing believe in regular practice, even during school holidays.

From my experience, lower-income parents seem to set a lower stress threshold for their children, compared to parents in private housing.

Second, this stress threshold is closely related to parents’ aspirations for their children, which is generally linked to their own profession.

Doctors, lawyers and engineers have higher aspirations for their offspring than hawkers and cleaners.

A convenient view of ‘doctor parents producing doctor children’ is that it is genetically linked.

As an educator, I believe academic achievement, at the primary school level at least, is largely driven by nurture rather than nature. If the aspiration patterns of parents do not change, doctors will continue to produce doctor children.

Our education system is fair. Should one day the income disparity broaden and elitism breed, don’t blame the system.

Ken Tai