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- Published on Wednesday, 23 November 2016 08:00
- Written by Hana Maher
In light of the recent UPSR results, statistics showed that only 1.11% of students managed to score straight A's; a worrying percentage for every parent, teacher and student.
The obsession with overemphasising the importance of grades has become synonymous to our culture. If you’re an 'A student', your future looks bright, otherwise, time to check for a vacancy at your nearest fast food joint.
But perhaps it’s high time we give society a wake-up call and tell them that: ‘Hey, bad grades are not something to be ashamed of – it’s not the end of the world if a child’s not a straight A student’.
A Parent’s Confession On Prioritising Grades
Mother of four, Sue, professed she stresses for her children to get better grades and even enlists the help of a private tutor to help her children with the subjects that they are (severely) poor at.
“When I say severely, that means require one-on-one coaching to help them understand the subject better and as for the rest of the subjects, I help polish their understanding by having discussions over dinner or have them share with me about today’s lesson,” she explained.
And although Sue admits that better grades mean better opportunities to get into a good university, she does believe that understanding in the lessons being taught in class triumphs over excellent grades.
“It defeats the purpose of going to school if my child only memorises the lessons for the sake of grades but fail to understand the lessons and apply it to real life situations,” she relayed.
“I believe that better grades equal to better opportunities, so that’s why I moderately emphasise on my children to obtain good grades.
“But this of course depends on my child’s interest and the career path that they will choose,” she said, adding that she tries her best to aid her children when they have academic difficulties rather than punish them.
Students Can Succeed In Life Even If They Do Not Score Straight A's
Mariah was not always a top student in school and was often compared by her relatives to her siblings who she dubbed the 'Michael Phelps of academics'.
“I was the best in my class when I was 13 and 14 years old,” but Mariah recalls an incident where a teacher said she “has no future in the real world.
“I think that was when I quit giving my best because I felt unappreciated and disappointed in my teacher.
“In Form Three, my grades began to deteriorate. I figured why put in the effort if the teacher’s going to belittle me either way,” she relayed.
She only managed to obtain 1A and 7Bs for PMR, and her relatives and teachers made sure she did not hear the last of it.
“It made me irritated that people focused more on my grades than my holistic intelligence, though what irked me most was the fact that they will also judge my parents for my shortcomings!,” Mariah strongly expressed.
She went on to obtain 4As and 5Bs for SPM and moved on to graduate with a First Class honours degree in Journalism and Broadcasting from one of the top universities in the United States − securing a permanent job there as well.
Mariah probably owes it to her parents who emphasises more on her doing her best, rather than her grades. “Whatever you do, do your best because grades cannot measure heart,” she recalled her father’s words.
Deena shared her personal experience whereby her three-year-old-self was humiliated by her kindergarten teacher as she was just a tad bit slower in completing a task compared to her four-year-old classmates.
“I was naturally slower because of my age and when I struggled in class, I got called to stand in front of the classroom by my teacher and was compared to with other classmates,” she shared, adding that her teacher deemed her a poor learner.
“She never did anything to nurture me, and my parents would ask me to buck up without understanding the real problem.”
History then repeated itself in primary school, when her teachers similarly humiliated her when she failed to understand certain things, and that demotivated her from learning in school.
“I guess teachers have favouritism going on and they tend to highlight their ‘glory’ students and make slower learners feel bad about themselves.
“Teachers should equally nurture all their students and instead of emphasising on grades, we should change our mindset and focus on what the students are really capable of and be realistic!,” Deena opined.
Like Mariah, despite not being an all A's student, Deena later went on to accomplish many other things in her journey beyond school, graduating with flying colours in her university – recognised by lecturers as a very good student in her Advertising course – securing a job placement at Leo Burnett, one of the world’s top advertising agencies.
Academically Weaker Students Should Be Nurtured, Not Neglected Or Belittled
A 54-year-old English teacher, Mun, confesses that teachers and schools have a track record of glorifying their best students or ‘students from the top classes’ and pay little attention to the developments and improvements of students from the lower classes.
“This habit comes with the school’s desire to be acknowledged as the best by the ministry and in order to do so, grades play an important role,” she added.
“During my younger days, I’ve been guilty of passing judgements and favouring students who shined brighter than their fellow peers because it made my job easier.
“But it’s not when one of my children were mistreated by his teachers because of his grades did I realise I’ve not lived up to the responsibilities entrusted upon me by parents and God,” she shared while emphasising that teachers are supposed to educate and nurture their students, regardless of their accomplishments.
Upon this realisation, Mun promptly changed her teaching style – rather than focusing mainly on what’s on paper, she now focuses on ensuring that her students understand the lessons by making them relatable and fun, especially for those with poor grades.
“I can see my students are more confident and are not afraid to converse in English. Perhaps I will not be a factor as to why this school is the best in the district, but knowing that my students are enjoying my class and seeing (and hearing) visible improvements – that’s enough for me,” Mun confessed.
“I don’t know what the best or right way to educate children is but as a teacher and parent, I believe finding balance between meaningful and fun learning is possible and once that balance is achieved, perhaps only then will students achieve better results because they understand the lessons, rather than treating it like a memory game,” she added.
Mun relayed that only seven out of approximately 280 students in the school that she teaches managed to obtain straight A's for this year’s UPSR exam, and the revelation was enough to send waves of worry amongst both teachers and students in regards to the perplexing education system.
“Surprisingly, both teachers and parents are questioning the ministry regarding the new format and for us teachers, it just shows that we need to change our teaching style to accommodate both the new format and finding a teaching style that suits the students.”
Know A Child’s Strength And Recognise Their Learning Ability
Consultant Psychologist, Dr Caroline Anetta Gomez, acknowledges that societal pressure and culture has helped shaped parents’ mindset towards focusing solely on their children’s grades. She however states parents’ setting unrealistic expectations can have a detrimental effect on a child’s well-being.
“What's important is that children become well-balanced, wholesome and grounded individuals. But sometimes when parents just focus on solely academic development and getting good grades, they forget about developing their children's other important skills needed for later life such as thinking skills, problem solving skills, empathy and emotional literacy.
“Because parents put their children under immense pressure to perform academically in schools, creativity, sports and leisure activities are side-lined,” she said, adding that it will bring negative psychological and emotional effects on children.
“This will lead to children studying tirelessly in order to produce results to appease their significant others – especially parents. Parents push their children to do their best because they mean well, but at the expense of their children’s leisure time and other aspects of their overall development,” she stressed.
But perhaps teachers practicing favouritism has a much more immense effect as children will most likely feel demotivated, become disinterested in learning and think they’re not good enough and subconsciously label themselves as failures.
“Teachers’ negative perception towards underachievers will affect their self-esteem and children will end up not willing to try and will eventually give up.
“They’ll start to feel frustrated as others are getting all the attention – all children need attention – and they will isolate themselves.
“When a teacher believes that a student cannot succeed, research shows that students will believe it and live up to that expectation. This is why teachers’ perception of students is very crucial as they tend to live up to the expectations set by them,” the doctor emphasised.
She noted that favouritism is a universal phenomenon. In class, teachers have certain aspects or behaviours they wish their students to conform to and when students are able to fulfil those criteria – such as obedience, polite, very attentive – these students are going to be deemed as the best in class.
“And then there are those who fail to meet the criteria. Subconsciously, teachers will label them and will past judgments to these students.
These children will live up to that kind of negative behaviour,” she asserted.
Dr Gomez concluded that teachers are more likely to be more accepting, give more opportunities and positive reinforcement and praise to the 'teacher pleasers' as opposed to the disruptive and challenging students.
Meanwhile, commenting on the recently shocking UPSR results due to the HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) questions this time around, she voiced, “Malaysian students are not trained to think through a problem – they have not been taught thinking skills and problem solving skills at school as thus far the emphasis has been on rote learning and mugging of factual knowledge.”
“We also need to teach our children how to study, how to plan, how to prioritise their time, how to set goals, how to generalise, how to transfer knowledge learnt to novel situations, to real life situations to better equip them for the future,” while reminding that parents and teachers must also focus on a child’s strength – instead of focusing on their weaknesses.
“Look at what they’re good at,” she emphasised, “and give them opportunities to shine in the area they’re good at and their self-esteem will have a boost. And when they feel good about themselves, they will be more motivated to learn.”
“Children can have various intelligences such as linguistic, mathematical, interpersonal, naturalistic and so on. Some may be gifted and talented with the ability to sing, dance, act, draw, to make models, work with their hands and all these abilities to need recognition,” she said, reminding parents and teachers to look at a child’s preferred method of learning.
At the end of the day, parents and teachers should make learning an experience to be enjoyed for a child. And while a ticket to university is always an issue, we should prioritise helping a child grow to value learning for the sake of learning, rather than for the sake of getting good grades.
- Malaysian Digest
