Studying? Education? No life?

A few days ago, I overheard a funny conversation. 

While the Mum was checking her messages, her son was reading her english SMS-es loudly. 

Mum turns to a chinese SMS, and asked, "这个怎样读?” 

Son: "我不会” 

Mum: "你华人不会读华语啊？” 

Son: "我哪里会！我才 primary 2 而已！你以为我是大人啊!" 

Mum: "Orh,我以为你会吗."

Before that, the boy was also blabbering away with the mother. He portrayed a certain kind of intelligence amongst his childishness (well, he is a small boy, so his childishness will come off as adorable to many). 

I have 5 nieces, eldest is turning 11, and the youngest turning 1. Each and everyone of them are intelligent and adorable in their very own unique way. Their parents are quite strict when it comes to their education, so their standards were most of the time (in fact all the time) on the high side. Whats more is that they are not just good with their books, they know things which are out of the books too. I was watching Frozen with my niece that day and there was this few seconds that zoomed into the sky showing the Aurora (Northern lights), and my primary 2 niece blurted it out. I think for some kids its just the sky with lights appearing. I was taken aback to hear that coming out of her mouth. My cousin ( her mum) later tells me that she learns these things from one of her enrichment classes. 

I'm not gonna talk about how good or how bad the education policy in Singapore is, but we all know one single fact. Being good in studies is important. Considering how meritocratic most of our society perceives it to be, of course it is important. However, education is much more important. My nieces' are good examples of what good education is. Likes my nieces', they have art classes, piano lessons, swimming lessons, enrichment classes, abacus classes and many other classes[Disclaimer: Everyone of them have different classes to suit to their needs and wants. Some of the classes are suggested by themselves]. They also have time to enjoy themselves too. They get to go overseas to enjoy themselves, they get to go to places of interests like the river safari every now and then, they get to go to friends' birthday parties, they get to watch movies like frozen and get to watch it over and over again, they get to sing and dance to "let it go" with elation too. S I know many other parents are doing the same too, and I think its very good for the development of the child. Nonetheless, one still has to bear in mind to do things moderately. Too much of anything is never good. Parents also have to bear in mind not to drown then in too many things and neglect about what their child wants/likes. I'm optimistic about the future of these kids, and I'm also optimistic about the future of Singapore.