malcontent wrote: ↑Sat, 30 Jul 2022 5:40 pm
NYY1 wrote: ↑Sat, 30 Jul 2022 12:10 pm
FWIW, the kids I see that are happy in secondary school/JC have very distinct interests in non-academic activities. Could be CCA, leadership/community service, Art Elective Programme, or third lang (treated as hobby, not a class). Some of these kids score perfect, some score near-perfect, and some are middle of the pack but well above the promotion criteria. None are overly worried about precisely where they stand or what their GPA/MSG is in any given term/year. They are literally too busy and too happy doing other things in addition to academics.
Many of them face setbacks but they move on very quickly. And no, they aren't stress free all year long. But they are far from feeling excess stress constantly and hating it.
My guess? These kids find others just like them and everyone enjoys their time together. No doubt an environment may help to breed more or less of a certain kind. But there is always a choice.
Honestly, my daughter would probably fit what you describe above for the most part. She doesn’t hate school, she doesn’t hate her classes and if you met her, you’d probably be convinced that she is just another happy kid in Sec/JC who seems to be doing near perfect in all of her subjects.
But what you wouldn’t see is the enormity of time she spends studying, more than 90% of her waking hours outside of school are spent studying (she is doing that right now), and this is fully 7 days a week. She insists that she needs to do this. Is it perfectionism? She claims not, and she did get one B on her mid-terms; it didn’t bother her at all.
Gotcha. I guess the second part is what I don't always see. My close sample with kids ranging from S1 to JC2 has a fair number (not all) that seem to have more time to do other things. If I had to generalize, I think knowing how the kids/parents handled primary school (which one, tuition or not, pressure to hit certain COPs, etc) is highly correlated to how the kids manage themselves and feel in secondary/JC.
It does seem like all of the kids that switch over to the "local international" schools in Secondary like it a lot. They still have a IB score they need to produce in Year 6 and are looking at the same unis. But for whatever reason the atmosphere seems to be much more relaxed (parallel to SAS comments).
I'm not sure where your girl went to primary (and I doubt you pushed her excessively) but perhaps the peer environment upped the ante in Sec 1.
I also believe there is a range of attitudes across the different IP schools (generalizing). Of course, there will be some of each type in every school, but I also think the mix and attitudes vary.