My almost 8-year old came home from school today and gladly announced that her position is the 5th in class. To add icing to the cake, she also told me that she, together with a few of her classmates will be going to the top class next year! When I heard that, I had mixed feelings. While I am happy that she is selected as the cream of the crop, I am starting to get worried and stressed up. When we met up with her teacher to collect her report card in June this year, her teacher had told us that Alycia can make it to the top class if she works harder. But in my heart, I was actually praying and hoping that she will not be placed in the top class. How will my baby be able to compete with the rest of the smarties? I do not want her as well as myself to get stressed up all the time because of fierce competition. I do not want to get disappointed if her class position drops. That will also make her very upset if her class position deteriorates as she will be in a race with stronger competitors. I want her to enjoy her childhood. I want her childhood to be filled with many happy memories and not one that is filled with stress, disappointments, competitions, tuitions and extra curricular classes that she does not enjoy but joins them due to peer pressure.
My precious baby will be eight in less than a month’s time. I still remember very vividly that the hubs and I were even contemplating low cost IVF when we had several failed attempts in fertility treatments and one which ended in a painful miscarriage. Alycia will always be my precious baby (a term by doctors on hard-to-get babies) and will always have a special place in my heart.
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I didn’t realize that schools are still doing the rather medieval system of A, B, C etc classes. Yes, I was brought up in that system, and let me say I have hooked up with high school friends and several of them in the “lesser” classes are doing very well indeed. Let Alicia know you are glad she is in whatever class, but don’t force the issue and like what u said, tell her it is more important to learn(different from “study”) and be a good person and be helpful to people around her. Let her know it doesn ‘t matter what class she is in as long as she enjoys school and does her best.
Kudos to Alycia!
well done alycia! to think that she is the baby in the class being a december baby and to come out top 5 is very good. well done to mummy too!
I can imagine how stressful it would be, too clever, scared, not clever enough, also scared. Sigh.. My daughter going to standard one in 2 years, my turn to be scared, really scared… 🙁