School Again

Today, I went to register Lucas in a new school for next year, Oct 2010. I was being kiasu and decided to register him before the empty slots are filled up. The reason we selected this future school is because it is very convenient, just 5 mins drive from the house, as opposed to the current school which is 20 mins drive away. Dominic intends to cycle Lucas to the future school. Well, he can just do so. I will take the car when it is my turn to send him to school. Then, the never ending debate on which school to send Lucas to for primary is still never ending.

The future school is a full school, that is from nursery to Form 5. There is an option to do local curriculum or British curriculum from Standard 1 onwards. The British curriculum fee is of course almost double that of the local curriculum. The nursery has only 1 curriculum.

One of Lucas' classmate just started the nursery in this school. The mother was commenting that the school rules are very strict and not so personal. Parents are not allowed to stay with the child in the classroom, not even on the first day of school. Mind you, these kids are only 3+ years old. The teachers did not even allowed parents to peep thru the windows from outside. If parents has any query for the teacher, the parents are to write on the 'diary' which the kid carry to school everyday. Likewise, if the teacher wish to tell the parents any news, it will be written on the diary as well. Not very personal, isn't it? But the mother said her son enjoyed it. Well, that is all that matter. The strictness is also reflected in the newsletter. One of the paragraph on the newsletter is really funny, or rather sadist - 'Swimming is one of the compulsory physical education. There is no excuse for exemption except on doctor's advice. If your child is fit enough to attend school, then your child is fit enough to swim' Dominic and myself were laughing when we read this.

As for Lucas' formal education, we are still deciding should he goes to Chinese school or private school. We would prefer something in between but of course there is no such option. We don't think Lucas will fare well in Chinese school. He asks too many questions and has his arguments and thoughts for everything, and he wants us to listen and answer him. Don't think the teacher in Chinese school has time for these as there are 40-50 students in a class. Imagine if all the 40-50 students are like Lucas ..... teacher will go crazy. The easiest way for the teacher to do is ask the student to be quiet or get punished. I can imagine Lucas will either stop asking or get punish everyday. We don't think it is good idea to stop children from asking questions. They are young and curious, and their curiosity need to be addressed properly. That's part of learning process.
On the other hand, private school is good as it emphasized on physical activities, music and arts and being a well rounder. But hey, we pay a lot of money for tax every year. Why should I pay again for private education when my tax money should cover that!

Oh well....we still have 2 years to decide!