Finally, the week that was the first periodical exams is over. The verdict is in. Kurt managed to scrape … drum roll, please … top 1! No surprises there, really. Somehow, I already knew.
A tale of two brothers
Even back then, at a very young age of two years, Kurt had been demonstrating a gift for learning. He was good at remembering stuff and better at memorizing lines.
Now at six, he reads and writes faster than an average six-year old or his much older classmates, for that matter. His comprehension skills are, I would say, above ordinary. At home, he diligently does his homework right after his after-school snack and asks questions about things he doesn’t quite understand.
Image courtesy of Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
And my eight-year old? Can we get that drum rolling again, please? Top 9! Quite a long walk from 1 to 9, yes. But hey, that’s still an accomplishment, and yes, I sort of saw that coming, too.
My eight-year old is no doubt a good kid. I’m not saying this because I’m his mother. Apart from my constant assurances that it’s okay not to be an A-1 student, that it’s enough to simply give his studies his best shot, I’m saying this because I want him to know – if by some quirk of fate, he stumbles upon this blog of mine in the future – that I certainly appreciate him and what he manages to bring to the table.
Just like Kurt, he diligently – or maybe not so diligently sometimes – does his homework, but he is nowhere good at remembering things. A number of times in the past, when asked to buy something from the sari-sari store, he would come back and say, “Mama, what was it you were asking me to buy again?”
And this you might have guessed already, he has loads of trouble memorizing the multiplication table.
Future game developer?
There’s one thing I noticed though. He is good at jigsaw puzzles and computer games. When it comes to Nintendo games or Yahoo! games or other online games for kids, not even his big sister, now in high school, can beat him to the punch.
I even jokingly told him one day, “When you grow up, you probably are going to become a darn good game developer.”
I don’t know about you, but I just have this wild idea that before they became developers, these guys behind Plants vs. Zombies or Angry Birds or Bejeweled or Zuma were good gamers, just like writers being voracious readers before venturing into writing their own stuff.
Now that remark might have come out as a joke, but deep inside this heart of mine, I was dead serious. I wanted him to nurture what’s innately brilliant in him. I wouldn’t want to force him to be good at something he probably would end up being lousy at because he simply didn’t have the predisposition to it.
What does this tell me?
Not much, really, except that even if my boys are of basically the same genetic make-up, exposed to the same environment, eat the same food, sleep on the same bed, they are still individuals – very unique and distinct from each other.
And that, as parents, is I think one of the basic concepts we should be able to recognize early on.
Comparing one child from another is not going to help, probably even worsen the situation, and might even make one of them feel inadequate, which he/she might bring with him/her to adulthood, stunting the genius that is yet to be discovered in him/her.
The real reason for this post
What prompted me to write this post is a news story I read on Yahoo! India where a student jumped to her death from one of her school’s upper floors. Although it was also mentioned that the student had been depressed and probably on anti-depressants prior to her death, it wasn’t clear if the depression was caused by her not-so-brilliant performance in school.
It was evident though that prior to her grades plummeting down, the student did exceptionally well.
Still, it remains that parents, especially the working ones, are not the only ones who deal with constant pressure. Children and young adults are not immune to stress.
There’s peer pressure, bullying, school projects, relationships with fellow youngsters and a lot of other stuff weighing their minds down. And it would really help if the home became a haven of peace, of belongingness, of respite after a hectic and perhaps tumultuous day, not just for ourselves but for our children as well.
Well said, Mommy Gel! I also believe that those creators of PVZ or Angry Birds games are not just programmers but, also they are certified Gamers as well! Kurt might take up any computer relates course once he grows up. Who knows? He might be the next Bill Gates or something, hehehe! Tnx for sharing! =)
You’re right about this:
“Still, it remains that parents, especially the working ones, are not the only ones who deal with constant pressure.”
Very nice!
@ JM and Marvs … hey, you, too, thanks for dropping by. Yes, somehow, I just had to write something along these lines. I really got bothered when I read that news on Yahoo!.