Every now and then, we need to reflect on why we are in the business so we don’t get lost in the daily grind.
Someone asked me the other day: Your classes are all about fun and games, aren’t they?
I have to admit, unfortunately, while we have games and experiments, we still need to focus on the academics too.
Our goal is to make sure the students enjoy the lessons and want to come for them. This is even more important as we are having upper secondary and JC lessons now. (You can’t force teenagers to attend lessons. They must be willing parties.)
That said, we have to strike a balance. It can be fun for the primary school students, but at the same time, we have to achieve our goals. Some parents send their children to us just so that the child is interested in learning. Others want to see an improvement in grades. Of course, we have to align as much as possible. For the older students, we know they are busy and have other places they would rather be at (the cinemas watching Spiderman: Far from Home or chasing BTS) so we have to make sure our classes are always value-adding to them and challenging them.
As we go through classes after classes, week after week, it’s always good to have someone keeping us in check. Had a meal with one of our teachers a couple of days ago and she started sharing observations about her students and highlighted ways to make the class more interesting, and how to improve the dynamics of the class. Through the passion in her eyes, it reminded us why we decided to pursue our own school, our own way of teaching against industry norms and work such long hours daily.
Besides making a living, we also wanted to pay it forward.
This second half of the year, this cannot be further from the truth. We have quite a lot of new students who joined us after SA1. Some came to us for help in the last lap before PSLE or O Levels, others for some inspiration in learning.
Whatever the reason is, we are gearing up for the challenges ahead. Thanks for letting us be part of your life!