The Pain of Growing Up

 
A very exhausted student in deep slumber in the bus.

I caught bus 174 at Farrer just after I had shown my client's condominium.
The bus was quite crowded and I was relieved to find a seat next to a lady. I also could not help noticing a young Indian girl in school uniform slumbering away in the bus as it made its way along Holland Road towards Orchard Road.

Throughout the journey the young student did not stir even for a second. Poor girl! She must be utterly exhausted.

My heart goes out to today's students. Today, life is so different for youngsters.
Parents who are scared to lose out to other parents make sure that their children take up music lessons, tuition in not one but three subjects, taekwando, dancing classes, etc. I think these extra lessons are alright if the children enjoy them or even excel in them. However, it is no laughing matter if they have all these shoved down their throats. Childhood and adolescence should be periods of fun, play, learning and discovering. Let the youngsters find out things for themselves instead of making them learn things by rote. This is why for my English lessons, I tried to make them fun and interesting for the students. I encouraged my students to read, analyse and contemplate for themsleves by giving them projects and creative writing.

This is such a far cry from the time when I was in my teens. Papa never forced us to learn what we did not fancy. Even though he was a self taught musician, he did what he could to give us music education, but he never compelled us to excel in music. Papa recognised my interest in books and writing, and he encouraged me by buying me story books, and participating in essay competitions, etc. Papa knew that the one who could carve a music career would be my eldest brother, Kee Yong, and he encouraged him to excel. Papa was happy enough, that as a family, we could make music together when my siblings and I played the piano, violin, cello, clarinet, guitar and saxophone when we gave "little concerts" at our home in Penang. Neighbours would sometimes come over to listen to our performance.

I feel so sorry when I see young children lugging huge and heavy bags to school. Due to the heavy schedules that many of these children have, many have little time to read. This is made worse with the advent of computers. However, I am glad to note that some children manage to learn a lot from websites. They can get a lot of information from the internet.

I hope that all parents will let their children grow up naturally. Do not rush the kids to mature beyond their years so that they will enjoy and discover new things for themsleves. The pain of growing up is great; let us help to alleviate the pain by our understanding and acceptance,