I overheard this phone’s conversation between a mum and the child in the office. I made up the child’s part, assuming her answers from the mum’s words.

Mum : Why did you get so low in your exam? 80 only? (The highest mark is 100)
Child : But, one of my friend get 80 also. Some of them even lower.
Mum : Your friend gets 80, you also wanna be the same la? You should get higher mark mah.

I believe this is a very common thing in our society. Parents never satisfy with the child’s exam results. Instead of seeing the improvement and praise the child, they scold him/her for not getting 100, the highest mark. Whatever mark beside 100 is nothing to them. When the kids get 100, the parents will asked them to gain more.

And, what does all that for? In the parents’ mouth, it is said for the child goodness and getting 100 means the child is smart. But I say, behind that it is actually for their own ego. So they can boost to their friends, relatives, colleagues, if possible to the whole world that their child is so smart always get 100 in the exams and number 1 in the class. Then people will say something like ‘Oh you are so blessed with such a smart child unlike mine.’ or ‘Oh you guys really know how to teach your child. How did you do that?’

Oh my.. It’s 21st century already. How could some people still see numbers as the bench mark of someone’s cleverness? I was once the slave of this numbers too back in the school time. Now I think back, it’s all meaningless. So what with getting 100 in exam if we don’t store the learning in the brain and just learn passively? So what with getting the 1st rank in the class if we don’t do good in our career later on?

As a matter of fact, the boyfriend who didn’t do well in the school time is more logical and has more knowledge (from science to social thing) compare to me who do well in the school time and could memorized the exams’ notes exactly the same. How could that not smack my ego? -__-”

On top of that, someone who score 100 or straight As’ in the school doesn’t mean he/she has a very good attitude towards people. More often they are egoistical with only win or lose in their dictionary, and not win-win.

I do really hope that parents nowadays will change the way they teach their children and their perception towards study and smart. Let’s not let the past experiences happen again. Numbers is just a number. What more important is the quality, whether the child really get the learning or not.