There and Back Again

Recently, my son had his first experience with an "official" tool of punishment - detention. Of course he had been scolded verbally by teachers, for minor offences like talking in class and so on. Many of us were similarly punished before, so I did not blog about it. It was nothing worthy of writing about. However, detention was something very different. Of course, detention in primary school is slightly different from the secondary school. In secondary school, the students stay back in school and cannot even participate in CCAs. This mode of punishment is of course not suitable for primary school children as they are unable to go home on their own. In Catholic High, detention means going to a classroom and reading a book till the last ten minutes or so. Then they are allowed to eat food in the classroom. In other words, the parents need to ensure they have some food to eat. This of course means home-cooked food. Now back to what happened. Actually I think it w...

Boys Adrift by Dr. Leonard Sax. I listened to the book during my drives You must be wondering why a blog on my son and his educational journey is featuring a book review. It is very simple - I read the book because of my son. Boys Adrift is about the rise of the slacker culture in America. According to the author, Dr Leonard Sax, there is a growing number of boys who end up not doing well in school. Many of them end up as video games addicts that stay with their mothers, cannot get girlfriends and do not contribute at home. I must admit, I was a bit worried about my son. He was after all, an avid gamer. Even though we always set limits on his tablet time, at the back of my head, I was always worried if the limits set were not enough. Before giving a review of the book and how it relates to my son, let me give you a gist of the book. of how the author believes the boys drift away from being functional members of society. The book describes five factors that contribute to this ...

Storm in a teacup A couple of weeks ago, a commotion appeared in the What'sApp chat created for the parents of my son's class. Apparently, one of the mothers accidentally made her son wear the wrong attire. The form teacher of the class then proceeded to call the boy 'blind' for paying scant attention to the notices sent out. The word 'blind' made the mother very upset. Some parents immediately jumped on the bandwagon and said that they will complain about the teacher. A few of us did try to ask our sons if any of them heard the form teacher call him 'blind'. Only one boy actually said that he heard it while the rest said that they did not. Despite the lack of overwhelming evidence, one parent even said that the principal must be notified! I was quite disturbed by this exchange. I even switched off my phone for a while. One of the lessons I have learnt as a teacher is never to believe totally what your child says. It is not because your child is ...