And, well so far it was crap. Better than expected. Actually you know what - maybe for a nine year old, it's quite good. He's polite but extremely hyperactive - so it seems that more than half of what I say to him goes out the other ear. What I mean by hyperactive: throwing basketballs, blowing air with his basketball pump, playing with his sportsband - you love basketball - I get it!
Right now, I am teaching him English, Maths and General studies. Wow! I must say kids these days learn a lot of things! Too much too soon, in fact. For example, in general studies, he already learns about annular solar eclipses and refraction of light! And in maths - manipulation (addition/multiplication all of that) of decimals and fractions? That's what we did in secondary school - not in primary?!
My rule of thumb: Less is MORE.
So yeah, he's not doing very well - and I can understand why. Duh? How can he absorb all that information. There must be something wrong with the syllabus. And the teaching at school too. He says (let's call him David from now on) that he must follow exactly what the textbook (word for word) says or else the teacher will mark him wrong. What kind of learning is that? Copy and paste? Okay, you might be smarter than most people your age (compared to say, the ones in international school - he goes to a local school) in terms of lots of knowledge - but as soon as I change the wording of a question (from the textbook) he would be like "Huh? I don't know! It's not even in the textbook!" And by the way, I am not blaming the students - I am blaming the teachers and education board in general.
Maybe I am expecting too much. But maybe I'm not. Education nowadays is getting worse, and creativity and thinking-out-of-the-box are deminishing. A lot.
No wonder why most children nowadays don't want to go to school.
Well, I guess this is where I come in. We'll see how things go.
