アラタの時は、強制的に準備させたもんだ。それで、どうにか、満点ではなくても常に1,2問の間違いで澄んでいた。
すっかり気が緩んだ私は、タカラは小学校に上がって以来、一緒にスペリングの勉強をすることが「一度も」なかった。結果と言えば・・・第一回目は、なにをやってるかもわからない状態。
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| Takara didn't even know what he was supposed to do. 何をすればよいのかもわからない状態だった。 |
しばらくすると、１～１０までは番号が振ってあるが終わっていない。10問中1問できればいいところ。
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| After awhile, he started to realise what to do but 1 or 2 out of 10... しばらく経つとようやく１，２問は正解に。 |
私もJasonもそれでも、全く気にかけていなかったので、2学期が終わった時点では、せいぜい半分できればいいというところ。親のヘルプがなければ当然だろう。
ところが、3学期からタカラ、自分でやりだした。自分で「スペリングの練習するから問題出して」と言う。ああ、そいうえば、一度もやってあげてなかったわ～と、読み上げると、満点になるまで、何度も繰り返してやってという。やる気のおかげで今学期は満点続き。頑張ってるね～！
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| Takara is doing very well this term. 今学期は好調です。 |
アラタだって放っておけば、やる気になったのに、無駄なプレッシャーをかけていたのかもしれないとも思うし、タカラほど負けず嫌いではないから、やらせておいてよかったのか。今となってはわからない。
ただ、やっぱり、こういうことが、俗に言う、勉強のプレッシャーなんだろうなと思う。
先日セントでスペリングコンテストがあった。各学年、上位3人に選ばれた子供達は、ネイティブスピーカーの英米奥人ではなく、ほとんどがマレーシア人やアジア人。セントに送るノンネィテイブ家庭は教育熱心だから、家庭教師をつけていたり、塾に行かせてたりするから当然だの結果だ。それが子供にとっていいのかどうかは別として。常に期待に応えなければならない子供にとってはプレッシャーだろうなと思う。
At SCIPS, kids have a spelling test once a week. They are given 10 words at the beginning of the week, and on Friday, they are tested.
When Arata joined the school, I would sit with him and help his study. Of course, he did quite well from the beginning.
However, neither Jason and I had never helped Takara...
In the beginning, Takara didn't even know what he was supposed to do. Gradually he realised the system, but he never got more than 5 out of 10. But we still didn't help him at all! How bad we are!
In the beginning of this term, Takara decided to work hard. On one Thursday, he said, "Can you help my spelling practice, mummy?" I read out the words. Takara didn't get them all and asked me to repeat them. He did it till he remembered every single word. Since then, he's got nearly all full marks.
I wonder whether I put too much pressure on Arata. He might have started to feel he had to study even if we didn't force him to do that. Or it might have never happened to him as he is less comptetitive than Takara. We don't know. But what we caused to Arata is apparently a pressure of study.
A few weeks ago, SCIPS had a spelling contest. The top 3 children in each year were more or less all no-native (non- British, American, Australian..) speakers, such as Malaysian or Asian. Most of the non-native children, including Japanese, have extra tuitions after school as their parents tend to push their children hard. So, the results were not surprising. But at the same time, I felt sorry for these kids. They would feel very bad if they couldn't keep the position, which is already a great pressure for them...
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