1/12/2006

sports school, what do you think you are doing?

or maybe i should rephrase that and ask, 'parents, do you know what you are doing?' the singapore sports school is facing some dropping outs of students and coaches. that should be normal and expected in all schools and systems. what i find it hilarious, yes hilarious, is that the reasons given include things like the school or parents expecting the academic standards to be as good as a normal school. and complaints of too tough or not enough time to do sports training and academic training as sports training is taking too much time and too stressful. unbelievable! if our sports talents, or the world's sports talents are so gifted that they are so good academically as well as in sports, then they would be the perfect human beings. can it be possible? spending more than twice the normal school hours in sports training and wanted to do just as well academically? supertalents, better than all the talents in the best colleges? one has to choose either one to excel and spend more time in it. there is no way to excel in both. maybe one in a million. the purpose of the sports school is primarily to train sports talents. not academic talents. doing both or trying to do both is pure folly. if this fundamental concept cannot be grasped by the school and parents, then indeed all the education is wasted. just tell the parents plainly that their children are to be trained first in sports. any academic training is at best rudimentary. if they cannot accept that, better not to enlist them in the school. and the school not should try to sell the idea that the students will also do well academically.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This remind me of our government position on the IR Project; want the casino to bring in the crowd and money but not the social illness that comes with it.

Life is always full of irony.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

hi anonymous,

a case of wanting to do everything and refusing to accept that sportsmen and A students are created differently and gifted differently.

for the ah so and uncles to think that their children can be good in both is acceptable. for those who are specialists in teaching or training students to think in same wavelength is unacceptable.

Speedwing said...

Good Morning all,

Asian society traditionally places academic excellence far high than anything else. The belief, especially in money-minded Singaporean, is that sportsmen/sportsladies will not earn as much as lawyers, bankers or doctors. Parents should realise and accept that their child may not be banker/lawyer/doctor materials and if the child is good in the sport arena, then that should be encouraged and who knows, Singapore might just produce a future Tiger Wood, Yau Ming.....

Most Singaporean parents I suspect are trying to live their lives through their children. They want their children to become what they could not achieve in their own lives. In Singapore money is the most important deciding factor for selection of careers for children, whether or not the chosen career path is suitable for the child in question.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

hi speed,

what you said i very typical of parents. the problem here is that many parents cannot accept if their children did not do well academically and did not go to a branded school despite the different talent or skill they are endowed with.

somehow there is a lot of shame, and many fail to realise that the entrepreneurs and successful business leaders are academically not that excellent. the straight As students invariably ended up as employees.