My first son, Dhuha will be 6 this October. It's amazing how the time flies.. for all you know, this sweet little guy will be starting his primary school by year end. It's only like yesterday that we changed his nappies... Anyway, 2 weeks ago Dhuha was telling us that he will be sitting for his maiden mid-term exam. Even the class teacher reminded us to let Dhuha attend his kindy without fail during the period. Well, we were not so sure what to do, frankly, it was the 1st time handling our own child facing an exam and we thought it was too early for him though - he should be playing rather than worrying about exams at this age! So, in the end, I told him to relax, and he just need to try giving his best without worrying about others who can do better or finish up earlier than he can because each of us is different in our abilities & special in different ways. He just need to give the best he could within his means and let God do the rest. And so the exams went... The result for the whole bunch was plastered on the front door of his class last Friday. To our surprise, Dhuha claimed the 1st spot in his class! It turned out that he got 100% for his Malay language, 99% for his Maths & 98% for his English. Heheh.. That was cool Dhuha! Congratulations! Even mama & abah didn't get those kind of scores in Primary 1. Ermm.. I've got a mixed feeling about this though - yes, very happy and proud of course, yet there's a stint of pity for him. Honestly, I wasn't really fond of the idea of a mid-term & later a final exam purely on paper for a child attending a kindergarten. They should be playing more at this age rather than bringing homeworks & fretting about exams.. "Why bother to feel older than your age?" I would have thought.. But yes, I'm seeing his cousins strugling with exams at early age too. The curiculum for early education at kindies may need a revision. There's so much ado about measuring a child's achievement in liguistic & logics through standard book works. What about the rest of other portions of intelligence? Well, Howard Gardner said that there are at least 9 types of Intelligences associated with human - visual/spatial, linguistics, logics, kinesthetics, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalist & existantialist. So a child should be evaluated based on the various branches of skills. One may not do well in maths & languages exams, yet it's shallow to judge that he is not being smart enough.. do look further, he may be a genius in music or arts, or highy skillful in both interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. I wish the assesments at kindies are more holistic in nature, enabling the child to recognize his forte in different branches & appreciate them. To Dhuha & Ilhan, whether you're the first in class or not is not really important to mama & abah, though we will be happy if you deservingly earn it. It's important that you give the best you can in your own terms. Remember, it is never guaranteed that you may always be on top all the time by trying your best, but rest assured that if you keep on giving your best, you'll be satisfied & at peace knowing that you've tried and gave all that you can, the rest as we said, you leave it to God; Don't be afraid & don't worry sons! Remember, each of you are born special in your own ways with different inteligences and abilities in different areas; We hope we manage to give you fair chances to play in the parks, visits friends & relatives, create your own artwork & masterpieces, have short trips to granmas', zoos and beaches, sing your heart out, watch some cartoons, understand your muqaddam & read your favourite story books. Life is definetly not all about scoring A's on paper, it's a lot more than that!
