I'm pretty sure St Peter will not be waiting at the Pearly Gates to collect copies 
of our children's result slips and CCA records and stuff, so why is it so hard to break free from this fixation on grades and scores? I must confess that it is so easy to drift from CA to SA to CA to SA with the mind focused more on marks than the unquantifiable things that will really count in the end, such as character, behaviour, attitude towards life, relationships with others, etc.
Some years ago, my work supervisor told me that her child missed the cut-off for a particular secondary school by 1 point and she told her child to learn a more important lesson from the experience: you don't want to stand before God and miss going to heaven by 1 point because there will be no appeals and no other heavens to apply to go to.
(By the way, please do not name any names or places if you recognise this story!)
It is something that I have to constantly make myself remember - that in the end, there is only one examination that really counts. Logically, then, our efforts should go towards that exam but I daresay many of us often pay more attention to other exams.
So I'm glad that occasionally, I am reminded to look at the bigger picture. A few days ago, the boy's classmate's mother said to me 'He (the boy) is such a caring boy!' To protect the identities of the innocent (and guilty, ha ha), I will just say that she was talking about something very sweet he did for her son and something else he has been doing for the 'oppressed' in his class. Boy, was I proud of him!
It also reminded me of another classmate's mum's praise 2 years ago, also along the lines of how he was the one who stood up for (some other) 'oppressed' classmates. It is great to hear this kind of thing about your child and it more than makes up for the (sometimes) not so great grades.
Bear Hugs often reminds me that there is a lot more to 'success' in life than good grades, which is true, of course. Hopefully, I will remember this more often as we work, in small steps, on the examination of life.
St Peter's pic from here.
of our children's result slips and CCA records and stuff, so why is it so hard to break free from this fixation on grades and scores? I must confess that it is so easy to drift from CA to SA to CA to SA with the mind focused more on marks than the unquantifiable things that will really count in the end, such as character, behaviour, attitude towards life, relationships with others, etc.Some years ago, my work supervisor told me that her child missed the cut-off for a particular secondary school by 1 point and she told her child to learn a more important lesson from the experience: you don't want to stand before God and miss going to heaven by 1 point because there will be no appeals and no other heavens to apply to go to.
(By the way, please do not name any names or places if you recognise this story!)
It is something that I have to constantly make myself remember - that in the end, there is only one examination that really counts. Logically, then, our efforts should go towards that exam but I daresay many of us often pay more attention to other exams.
So I'm glad that occasionally, I am reminded to look at the bigger picture. A few days ago, the boy's classmate's mother said to me 'He (the boy) is such a caring boy!' To protect the identities of the innocent (and guilty, ha ha), I will just say that she was talking about something very sweet he did for her son and something else he has been doing for the 'oppressed' in his class. Boy, was I proud of him!
It also reminded me of another classmate's mum's praise 2 years ago, also along the lines of how he was the one who stood up for (some other) 'oppressed' classmates. It is great to hear this kind of thing about your child and it more than makes up for the (sometimes) not so great grades.
Bear Hugs often reminds me that there is a lot more to 'success' in life than good grades, which is true, of course. Hopefully, I will remember this more often as we work, in small steps, on the examination of life.
St Peter's pic from here.
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