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Mother-son Can mum tutor her own son? Nobody teaches you how to be a parent. When you have a son who is at the bottom of the standard, nobody teaches you how to tuition him. This 11-year old boy has a very short attention span. "Why do you rush and just give an answer so as to show that you have completed several pages of the assessment book?. And making careless mistakes." The more shouting there is, the more antagonistic look Mum got from her son. He had done his work and there he was, on a Sunday afternoon, being chided for doing work hurriedly. The assessment book was not marked by anybody as he did not have an English tuition teacher. The answers at the back of the assessment book could be wrong and this does occur. There are hundreds of assessment books and many have mistakes too. Mum would not stand for such arguments. The boy was 4 months away from the big Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) and here, his vocabulary was very poor. "What is someone who helps the poor?" Who cares? He is a philantropist. How do you spell that. "Why don't you read your English book on synonyms?" The book is for Primary 5 not Primary 6. But the PSLE tests you from Primary 4 onwards or so it seems. How do you manage a child? Is it the same way as how you manage staff? The father dared not say that her method was wrong. This child cannot learn by scolding. Can any child learn this way? "Why not mark all his work done instead of the first 2 lessons" said Dad. It is a chore. There are better things to do on a Sunday afternoon, for an adult. It is a responsibility too. Going through the several pages of work done, there were more mistakes. Sometimes, they were hilarious ones. "Infalliable" means you will not fall down, said the boy. It was not the correct meaning but it was funny. Much laughter came when Mum did not go onto the attack mode. The next half an hour was fun. Hopefully, the boy learnt a bit. When asked what "infalliable" means, later before he sleeps, he has no clue. It is not that easy to learn English synonyms. But you have to try as you can't be spending money engaging English tutors in addition to the Chinese tutors. There is still the Maths tutor. It costs around $300 per month to get a tutor. It seems that the education system favours the motivated, smart or the rich who will be able to afford tutors. Unless the parent takes an active role, the not so rich families will just go down to the bottom of the education pool no matter how smart the parents are. No doubt about that. It is the leveling of the society. Humour may be the only way to educate a non-motivated child. There seems to be no other way. 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
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