On the methods of education, seeing children as the seeds, the parents and teachers, as the gardeners, translated…
There’s a German term, “abwarten”, which means “to wait”.
Last week on the parent-teacher conferences, the school asked the parents to bring the children along, to discuss the test results of the class. In the normal exams, the students were only given their own grades. But this time, the school told the parents of how their children scored, in accordances to the whole class, to the hole state too.
Before the parent-teacher conferences were over, my husband asked his questions like he normally would, one being “as parents, how do we help better our children’s scholastic performances?” The German teacher replied, “Abwarten! Einfach abwartern (wait! Just wait)!” So, nothing? We just, stand to the side, and wait, it’s, that easy?
what children are…
Recalling how when our child was going to school in Asia, as the teachers were asked this question, the standardized response were, “study more, review more, evaluate more, read more”, etc., etc., etc. There was a teacher, that by the third week, urged us to send our child into the cram schools, otherwise, he shall, fall behind.
In the Asian adults’ minds, the children seemed to never be good enough, needed the constant cramming sessions, to keep on working. The end result was, the kids worked very hard, improved, and we still believed, that “you can do better, you need to work even harder, don’t stop, keep running ahead”. And yet, this German instructor left this, “Wait, just you wait” for us, and I’d felt awed, “Wow, what sort of a self-confidence this German teacher must have, to say, ‘no problem, I will take care of it!’”
The schools are like a garden, the teachers are the gardeners, and the parents, gave the seeds to the gardeners to look after. The roses will always become roses, they won’t turn into daisies. And these gardeners know that, by giving these young seeds enough sun, enough water, each and every one of them will grow up to be strong, and be what and who they are meant to be. And, each of the parents who’d sent their young into the school systems already knew “the gardeners are no magicians, the gardeners, ARE the gardeners.” So I’m now, inclined to believe, that the key to how the children turn out, lies in the attitudes of the parents.
This is the views, of how children are seeds and the parents and teachers were merely keepers of the garden, and all they’re able to do, is to give these seeds the nutrients, the water, the spaces to grow up and strong, and, once parents figured that out (but you won’t, will you??? Of course not, ‘cuz ALL you parents out there, want your kids to become outstanding…), their children will flourish, it’s just, that this, IS a competitive world, and NOBODY wants to lose at the starting lines, so, that is why, you are pushing all of your young, to excel at everything from the very start, with a total DISREGARD of how you may be, damaging them for life!