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I am tempted to respond to you as I have gone through the same thinking process, at least twice. In fact, I have just rejected an offer from an IS.
1. Local education is very competitive.
It all depends on your attitude. If you think this is a waste of time in preparing profile, etc, which I agreed, then don't do it. My daughter is now in P1 in a private school. Not much homework, small class, a real Christian school, treat each kid as an individual and care about their feelings. The teachers are able to tell your kid's characters, help her on her weaknesses and explore her strengths. Students are mentally healthy, cheerful, enjoy learning and proactive. Good academic. So the choice is not only between traditional or IS. There are good local schools in HK. The problem is, most parents think that if their kids cannot go to DBS, DGS, St Paul co ed, or those with 'one dragon' schools, then there is no choice but IS. This is not true.
2. English is very important.
Strongly agreed. But English is not everything. We should also focus on moral and discipline. No one want another Edison, right? He speaks like a native and he has good social skills. But did he use these skills correctly and morally? In addition, it is important for your kids to master Chinese unless your kids will never work in a Chinese society. Personally, I cannot bear with a Chinese who cannot read or write Chinese well (by the way, Chinese is much more difficult to learn than Eng!). On the other hand, I do not think foreigners expect we Chinese to speak as fluent/native as they did! Instead, my daughter has a weekly Eng class which she enjoys very much (native eng teacher, no homeowork, theme topics). I also read a lot of eng books for her. So I can say that her eng is really not bad and she is brave enough to speak out in eng. She has just got an award in the inter school speech festival (eng solo verse).
3. International Exposure
True. Local schools may not be as 'free' or 'creative' as a IS. What I did is that I will not choose any government schools as they have to strictly follow the syllabus set by the stupid government officials. Instead, I chose a well established private and real-Christian school for my daughter. She enjoys studying there. I do not need to struggle with her on homework (she finishes most of her homework at school) and no need to take leave to study with her for exam. However, I read many books for her (esp english books) so as to build up her imagination and creativity. If the kids are not over-protected by their parents and stay with a good local school, I think they can still acquire the necessary social skills. If the parents are creative and proactive, their kids will be able to acuqire these characters. I am also working in a large organisation. Our top management are both Chinese and foreigners. I do not think foreigners have absolute advantage. We have local graduates who are high fliers in their career path. Of course, I agree large multi-national organisations like investment banks may prefer overseas graduates.
4. Lost confidence to the local education
Please do not misundertand me that I think IS are not good. I like them too. If not, I will not apply for my son. But I agreed with my husband that there are more important things like value, chinese culture, etc. than Eng. Once you send your kids to IS at such a young age, you basically give up such important things which are very difficult to re-establish later. Some parents told me that they could teach their kids moral and values at home. I do not believe in this as kids are highly affected by peers. At least I will not take risk on this. In fact, I also plan to send my kids (my son is K2 now) abroad but only at university level when I think they have established a correct and strong moral value and have sufficient family bond. The purpose is to open their eyes, let them work with people of different nationality, and exposed to different cultures, thinkings, talents, etc. I may also consider sending them to IS at secondary level, but definitely not at primary level.
My questions are
1. My girl is K2 with 5 years old. Can I get a seat in some good IS? What is mean by good? it's hard to get a seat, as I have heard from my friends because many local parents are pusing their kids to IS. Even some foreigners cannot get a seat, as i have heard from my workplace. My son is somehow too lucky that he is able to get a seat in ESF. But after balancing all factors, we still prefer to keep him in my daughter's local primary school. You can always send the kids to eng class and read more books for them if you want to boost up their eng. As my daughter likes drama, I also let her attend drama classes (Cantonese) to build up her confidence, presentation skill, creativity, and social skills. So far she enjoys learning, teachers commented her as 'popular, excellent conduct, helpful, good language skills esp english, proactive'. As a parent, I think it's already good enough.
2. How can I apply and be prepared for good IS?
ESF's interview is quite informal. Teachers play with kids and observe them and talk to them to assess. I have no preparation and practice for my son. I have only told him to speak in Eng throughout the play section. I trust my son speaks eng well despite he is in a local kindergarten. I guess my reading and his eng class work well.
So IS is not the solution to all problems. I do not want my son or daughter to tell me one day that they think smoking is fine, marriage is stupid and living together is a good option, gay is fine as it does not hurt other people, chasing for expensive brand names is cool, etc... These values are unacceptable to us as a Christian family and I will not risk my kids on these. Certain level of discipline is necessary to build up the basic core values. Being too flexible is not a good thing especially in building kids' core values.
I must stress that the above are only my perosnal opinion, experience and struggle for your reference. No offense to other IS parents who of course could have very different views.
[ 本文章最後由 readers 於 08-3-27 11:28 編輯 ] |
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發表於 07-8-14 16:17
