| Relationships:
Father-daughter Networked games are addictive. I remember Saturday May 13, the eve of Mother's Day. All downtown restaurants had been fully booked. Except for the ones at the suburban Jalan Leban. After dinner my family visited a close friend. The dad was into golf and there was a beautiful golf book with many photos and few words. The Secondary 3 daughter asked Dad to sign something. It was the right timing. Red marks for Additional Maths, Elementary Maths and Physics. Dad would never scold her in front of guests. "Everyone failed Physics," said the daughter. I would not believe it. My son from another school made the same statement. Well, there were some who passed because they had tuition from their parents and others, she conceded. The young lady then said that the relief teacher was not interested in teaching Physics but kept telling stories. Why not asked Dad? You were sleeping. Her dad works till 10 p.m almost every day and would not be available. He did teach the older daughter one hour a day to prepare her for her "O-level" examination. That was really surprising news to me as it needed lots of patience. Can children nowadays not learn on their own? My sons said the same about incompetent relief teachers who covered the duties of the sick teacher or one going on courses. It seems that there are many relief teachers in the schools. This may be true. Also that a large percentage of students failed certain subjects at the Secondary level. What is the solution to this problem? Is there any solution? The young lady would not agree that she was engaged in playing computer network games with friends even during the examination period. The scourge of network games and television take away time for reading and learning. How do parents control such addiction in a teenager? Reasoning is no use. What is there to motivate a middle-class family's teenager? There is no fire in the belly and no shortage of funds to buy books. Restriction of privileges? Not allowed to watch TV or play network games unless the results are excellent. You can wait till the cows come home. Let them fail more. No problem for the teenagers. Failure is the mother of success? The impact would be that their learning foundation becomes so weak that they cannot pass at the "O"-level examinations. Get them tuition teachers? The money is usually wasted on such teenagers and it can be costly as there are 10 subjects to be studied at the secondary level. Ensure they sleep at 9 p.m daily so that they have sufficient rest. This is provided that your spouse supports you as television is another alternative. Be a role model of hard work? Does the teenaged child care two hoots? Spend an hour per day tutoring your own child? Are you that patient or good at Additional Maths and Physics? In conclusion, such teenagers are doomed to fail the academic examinations and will not go to the university. Well, they could be entrepreneurs from the Polytechnic. You hope so. But the success rate is so insignificant. For every successful entrepreneur in the news, there are several hundred thousand failures no journalist bother to write about. Let the teenagers live in the illusion of network games, conquering terrorists. As they grow into adults, they will find that their skills at network games are of not much use. They are consumers, not inventors of games. They just spend money. As they grow up, they just become "unemployable", living at home with the parents and drifting from job to job. Maybe, the parents can afford to indulge them. There is always the choice of marrying into wealth and be a house-wife or house-husband. How can the parent or parents guide their non-motivated teenaged children to be motivated towards academic excellence? There is no answer. 12 - 16 years of age are impressionable years and middle-clased teenagers drift here and there knowing how to enjoy life and an air conditioned home to go back to. The leveling of the society where the hungry ones replace the complacent middle class in getting excellent jobs and opportunities is part of the Darwin's survival of the fittest theory. The sad aspect is the the fittest is not our middle-classed teenaged children hooked onto the addiction of the electronic highs or RPG (role playing games) and network gaming and many more to come. They will not survive as the red marks in their report cards every term lead to relegation to the bottom class where teachers are not motivated to teach well. Who wants to teach such students whose thoughts are on Fantasy 7 or the Red Devil in the small screen. Who really cares about their future, if not themselves? "You are digging your own funeral," my primary school teacher used to say to the Primary Six Class children who had poor academic results. That was 38 years ago and I doubt such teachers are present in Singapore nowadays. Teachers are so harassed that it is a wonder anybody wants to teach. When you see them, they talk to you about time management and that your child should know how to manage their time. This is easier said than done when teachers start increasing the project and extra curricular activity load leaving not much time to manage. Family Relationships is sponsored by http://www.asiahomes.com Owners & Realtors: You may save over $1,000 with one internet ad to contact prospects direct, at asiahomes.com. Email your ad to judy@asiahomes.com now or check out http://www.asiahomes.com/singapore_classified for details. Send mail to [] with questions or comments about this
web site. Copyright © 1999 []
|
| Owners & Realtors: You may save a few thousand dollars in agency commissions if you can get direct contact from the prospective tenant or buyer via one affordable $13.50 internet ad at asiahomes.com. Details at Asiahomes Internet |