It is important to score an 'A'. Or is it?
This happens at a cafe I visit often for lunch and dinner. Some of the staff are elderly. When the crowd starts to build up, there are some who will argue with these elderly staff who have hearing challenges, asking why they can't get their instructions right the first time.
Some of these customers bring in food from the outside. Like pork (because it's a halal cafe). An elderly man who is a staff responsible for clearing the plates will sternly remind them to bring their food to another place.
Most keep their food. Then, secretly take a bite or two when the elderly man is not watching. The stubborn ones will keep eating even when he reminds them sternly several times that this is a halal cafe.
One customer uses her child's hunger as an excuse to bring food from the outside and eat. One wonders what values the parent is teaching the child.
We will all grow old, frail, hard of hearing and losing our sight. Reading a page may even be a painful experience.
How we treat the elderly, less fortunate, and physically-challenged is how we want others to treat us when we are old. Or when our peers are not doing things as fast as us.
For our adult or elderly peers, we treat them like factory machines, expecting the fastest, cheapest and best outputs from them.
Not a word of thanks for these peers of ours even when they are the fastest, cheapest and the best. Only finger-pointing when things go wrong.
Empathy is not only about acknowledging emotions and paraphrasing.
It is also understanding what others are seeing from their lenses.
Similarly, children all learn at different pace and ability levels.
It is important to score an 'A'.
IT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO GIVE THEM TIME AND SPACE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE LEARNING. These conditions will guarantee to boost your child's understanding. It's a matter of time.
The joke is we are willing to give our children time and space to understand.
Math is like empathy. English is like empathy. Physics. Chemistry. Literature.
For these subjects are platforms for you and your child to practice empathy
