“On a bus?” I thought.

Then I heard his mom start to scold his son for not understanding his mathematics . . . → Read More: A bus journey]]>

I was taking a bus yesterday and saw a mother and her son. They were seated and the son was holding on to a workbook and looked like he was doing his homework.

“On a bus?” I thought.

Then I heard his mom start to scold his son for not understanding his mathematics homework and making mistakes.

Some of the words I heard her use were:

You are so careless
It is so easy
I can see whether you are trying or just doing blindly
This is so simple
You are taking so long
Stupid

I felt really uneasy when I heard all this and honestly, I pitied the boy, who looked the age of ten to eleven. He merely continued staring at his homework with a blank look on his face.

At this time, some of the other passengers on the bus began to look at them as the mother’s voice were pretty audible. Still, she continued.

I alighted when the bus reached my stop.

But my mind continued to ponder on her words.

I am not condemning her teaching her son but I am puzzled at why she had to use such disempowering words. To me, it may not help his learning at all. And I personally think that we should use more encouraging words to help the young ones learn instead. Nevertheless, I am in no position to comment on her actions.

My mind also brought me back to a local movie I watched entitled “I Not Stupid”.

I recalled that the movie mentioned that as parents, we give our children all the praises we can give when they are young. When they took their first steps, when they said their first words, we were always there to offer praises. “Well Done!” we said. “Good Job!”

But as our children grow older, such praises slowly turned into scoldings. We reprimand them for not paying attention, we punish them for not doing their job well, we no longer praise them, even if they did something that deserves our recognition.

I could not agree more. Because this was exactly what I saw on the bus.

And I questioned myself if I would be like this when it’s my turn to parent my growing daughter at a later stage. And I pondered and pondered.

I can only say I hope not.

I will do my best to empower her journey to be a positive one. To learn that life can be hopeful and academic study is merely one of the ways to move to the next stage of life.

Because to me, life is not all academic. There are many important things to learn and have fun with. There are many things to appreciate in life, while we have the chance.