What do you prioritize? What do you look for, subjects, teachers, location, activities etc.
And how do you motivate your kids / siblings to put extra efforts in studies? Help them set professional goals from an early age? Etc.
- Fit teachers
- Make sure you get the right gene combination.
The rest takes care of itself.
Re: Selecting school for your kids
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*Originally posted by sabah: *
What do you prioritize? What do you look for, subjects, teachers, location, activities etc.
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HI Sabah aunty. You have to choose the schools based on curriculum, area, teacher/pupil ratio and more importantly what kind of socio economic backgrounds do the classmates come from. If possible, sen dyou kids to schools where there is a higher concentration of Indian, Jewish, Chinese kids. That way you are a bit sure that quality of education and competition is there.
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*Originally posted by sabah: *And how do you motivate your kids / siblings to put extra efforts in studies? Help them set professional goals from an early age? Etc.
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Role models. Unless kids have role models, family, friends, other personalities...no amount of goal setting will work. Parents make the best one, if they have a career minded outlook.
Re: Selecting school for your kids
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*Originally posted by sabah: *
What do you prioritize? What do you look for, subjects, teachers, location, activities etc.
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Here we have school rankings available that help us decide which school is better. The rankings essentially are based on student scores, so it blends in other important factors like qualification of teachers and mix of students. The school we selected here has a high percentage of Asian students (orientals primarily) and that has resulted in very high test scores.
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*Originally posted by sabah: *
And how do you motivate your kids / siblings to put extra efforts in studies? Help them set professional goals from an early age? Etc.
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Its too early to set professional goals. My kids' professional goals change with every new cartoon. One week she wants to become an astronaut, the next a writer and the week after that she is going to be a world traveller. The best way to motivate them to complete their homework is to hold off dinner :o No, j/k :D Its a combination of child's own initiative and some kinda discipline in the house to say that this is the time to complete the school work and this is the time to play/internet/tv/etc. This is not a universal formula as each child is different. With our three kids, each of them is different on how they tackle the home work.
We regularly take our kids to visit universities as some of those around here are absolutely fantastic with beautiful campuses. My elder daughter is sold on Stanford and wants to go there. Now all I need is to figure out how the heck we are going to pay for that. :o
I think word of mouth is also one of the best ways to judge which schools and nurseries etc are the best for your children.
Haha Faisal, that's quite true, children do change their minds tons. I never thought I would be doing psychology!
As for choosing schools, my parents always chose really good private schools for us and me and my sister did really matha. And then we hit highschool and started going to normal public highschools and our grades rose and rose and rose and both me and my sister took advanced classes. Schools aren't a huge factor I think, it really depends on the children's initiative and yes teachers do have a hand in developing that but those teachers necessarily aren't always in good schools :) my dad had teachers like that in taat walay schools. and i think parents should also be motivating their children. but in the end, it's in the child himself and no matter wheer he is, he will flourish.
when i have kids and they're going to start school, I will be looking at the teachers and the neighbourhoods. like the neighbourhood should be safe with low crime/drug use etc and the teachers, doesnt matter if they have a phd or whatever, they should be enthusiastic and be able to motivate the child.
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*Originally posted by Sarah Splendor: *
Haha Faisal, that's quite true, children do change their minds tons. I never thought I would be doing psychology!
As for choosing schools, my parents always chose really good private schools for us and me and my sister did really matha. And then we hit highschool and started going to normal public highschools and our grades rose and rose and rose and both me and my sister took advanced classes. Schools aren't a huge factor I think, it really depends on the children's initiative and yes teachers do have a hand in developing that but those teachers necessarily aren't always in good schools :) my dad had teachers like that in taat walay schools. and i think parents should also be motivating their children. but in the end, it's in the child himself and no matter wheer he is, he will flourish.
when i have kids and they're going to start school, I will be looking at the teachers and the neighbourhoods. like the neighbourhood should be safe with low crime/drug use etc and the teachers, doesnt matter if they have a phd or whatever, they should be enthusiastic and be able to motivate the child.
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yep Sarah is right on the bulls eye, you cannot pour education down a kids ears, its you (parents) that can best understand your kid, get him/her to learn the way they grasp best, some kids understand live and some imaginative, you'll get the hang of it, as for schools, they should be a place where the kids really want to go, not run away from.
Word of mouth is good, some good teachers are found in average schools, while some highest ranking posh schools have airheads as teachers, while drugs and other dope headed stuff are the norm (Ive seen this first hand in Karachi)