A's for nothing

Rejection is a painful topic and my heart sinks for her. ( http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/14/nation/21240224&sec=nation)

I was having a discussion with my hubby the other day of whether we should consider chinese vernacular school for Adrian to be enrolled in ( I know it's a little bit too early those talks).
Although I admired these schools for thier strict diciplines and their attentiveness in the pupils education, I must admit that sometimes they are way overboard with the diciplines and homework. I was told the teachers in these school give a lot of homework to the pupils, and I was also told that some of these children were not able to cope with the pressure of homework and that they were to stay way past their bedtime just to finish their homework. Do we need to put our children through the mental torture. Are we really being measure by how many A's we have? Not to mention other strict diciplines regimes (eg hair (for boys) must be of the army style) and I pity those children piling their backs with kilogramms of school books.

I won't want Adrian to go through such torture, just to prove that he is brilliant. I wan him to grow on his own paced and, not being peered at. I want him to enjoy his childhood. Strings of A's doesn't mean anything nowadays. You can't even be selected for the "preferential elite". Well, if our education system is going to be like that, I would prefer Adrian not to go through the torture. I would want him to explore his potentioal whether in terms of skillfulness or academically. And I woild like to tell him, A's is not a big deal for me!!!!