Sleepless Child

My lady's cousin is in K2. Remember when you were in K2 and how you used to throw mini birthday parties and offer little cute packets of candies to your classmates. Well I'm not sure if they still do that now and that isn't what I'm going to talk about anyway. Something shocked me the other day when my lady said her cousin was going for tuition. Yes tuition for a 5 year old child.

Tuitions.... Well I remembered when I first had tuition. I was in primary 4 then and was doing pretty well in school. But somehow or rather my mum decided that it was best that I received some form of extra practice. Boy was it a total waste of money. I didn't learn anything extra from it, in fact! I had no problems solving any problems in the so called assignment books. I'm not saying I'm some kind of child prodigy, and neither am I some sort of genius. What I am saying is, I had no problems with the work I was given and taught in school.

Now fast forward 13 years later, in the living room of my lady. "TUITION?!" for a K2 student? I gave her the you’re-kidding-me look. She just stare me back with you-stupid-mountain-tortoise eyes and said yeah, a lot of K2s are doing tuition. I just shook my head and thought about what the education system had become.

Singapore’s education system is good and I said that with no sarcasms. But in our pursuit for creating an educated workforce, we had sacrifices our children’s childhood. Increasing I’ve been disturbed by crazy parents who failed to keep their child safe but succeeded in educating them well. More and more I hear friends’ baby cousins sleeping at 1am, 2am, some even 3am. More and more I see little toddlers with heavy eye bags. For goodness, children are not supposed to have eye bags. Education is important but isn’t it a parent’s priority to keep their baby safe. Are they so worked up in the rush for good grades to forget good health?

Our brain cells are precious. They only grow when we are a baby and will never regenerate again after our puberty. So how much you grow from young till puberty is how much that will stay with you for the rest of your life. When an adult is deprived of sleep, more brain cells die. When a kid is deprived of sleep, you do the math yourself.

Putting myself in the parents shoes, I can see why they chose the path. Imagine a scene on New Year’s day. A sensible mum sits among a group of crazy women.

Crazy Women A : You didn’t give your ah girl tuition ah?!?!
Beautiful Sensible Mum : No, she’s only in K2.
CW B : NO NO! K2 must start liao! My ah boy nursery already got tuition already!
CW C : YA, must have (tuition) one. Otherwise your ah girl lose out in primay 1 leh!
CW B : Ya! You see my ah boy, now primary 1 can do primary 2 math liao.
CW A : YA! You see ah. Everyone ah boy ah girl all also got tuition. You don’t give your ah girl tution next time she fail how? Next time she grow up ask you why never give her tuition HOW?! How you explain to her?
Beautiful Sensible Mum : But I wish for my daughter to have a beautiful childhood. I know education is important but I believe a good and beautiful childhood is just as important. Besides she is picking up really fast.
CW B : No cannot like that say one. My ah boy morning go school, come back tuition. Then he go piano class. When he come back I let him do everything he want! I don’t stop one! Because children cannot work work work one. He want to sleep at 1am I let him sleep at 1 am, because I know children must also play and have memory.

Well that’s if he still have the brain cells to remember his childhood. As you can see, it’s a vicious cycle. Each parent tries to out do the other and thus the easiest method is to start their child’s tuition plan earlier than the others. Our sensible mum, even though smart, intelligent and beautiful, would pick some truth from the bunch of crazy women. Yes what if my child blames me for her late start in life. Yes what if she doesn’t do well in school and maybe in later life because of my silly beliefs? Well better safe than sorry.

My sense in this tuition nonsense is nothing more than money. Tuitions are easy money. As an undergrad I can easily cash up 500 dollars from 2 students with just 16 hours a month. If I tutor full time, I can cash up 7.5K a month, easy. There are smart people who capitalize on the fact that there are many fearful and ignorant parents around and a ready supply of “tutors”. They make tuition so readily and easily available. Providing “qualified” NIE teachers, ex-teachers, ex-principles of sap schools, ex-teachers from sap schools, the list goes on…. My earliest memory is my mum holding my hand with a pencil, teaching me the ABCs on our coffee table. Years later at the same coffee table, my dad helped me with my mini composition of “My Pet Fish” when I was in primary 1. I can even remember that these 2 events happened at night and they tugged me to bed after they help me (I never stayed up after 9pm until I was in primary 4). Up to this day, I remembered and love them for what they’ve done during those nights. Maybe today’s parents should take some time off their busy schedule, turn off the television, set their child in their laps and take some time to bond. Trust me, your child will remember.