There are 9 doctors in her family. She, her son, daughter, their respective partners and 4 of her grandchildren !
She suffers from memory loss and every time she calls, I have to repeat the same things and without fail each and every time she would ask ” Why did you do that? How would she be able to join medicine?”
The previous question is to my answer what Yaya is doing.
My grand aunt is very upset with me that I send Yaya to Spanish Immersion ( spanish medium). According to her, my job as a parent is to ensure that my child is given all the opportunities that would help her to get admission to do medicine. Learning all the subjects in Spanish is of no benefit especially because you need to have OP1 ( overall performance) as a minimum to get admission to do medicine.
My grandaunt is not alone in this kind of thinking.
This year 18 kids of my seniors joined medical college in various states of India.
N was my classmate. His father was a very famous surgeon. He surrendered his green card after learning about US govt linked radioactive experiments. most probably in St Louis. I can’t remember which incident..I also remember him talking about some studies in India among the slum children who were given ‘contaminated’ food. I have tried the last 20 years to find information. Never been lucky).
N didn’t want to do medicine. N wasn’t given a choice.
He fainted the first day of anatomy dissection. He never attended the dissection after that day. Everyone adored his father and hated N. How could he be such a jackass? Most importantly, how can the son of a famous surgeon faint in an anatomy class? What kind of a ninny was he? How could he bring so much of heartaches and shame to his father?
His father tried so hard to help his son to study anatomy. But N could never even enter the dissection hall.
The more the lecturers, professors and even the attendants tried to force N to attend the classes, the more he rebelled.
N wasn’t dumb student. He was incredibly smart. ( that is why he got admission to do medicine)
N died in a car accident 10 years ago ( drink driving). He never completed medicine.
Yaya is very much like me when it comes to her eidetic memory. With a brain like hers, she wouldn’t have to even work hard to get admission to do medicine.
But she hates science. I don’t know how anyone can hate science, for I find science really fascinating. She loves learning languages. She loves graphics and art, but not science. She wouldn’t even let me explain science theories to her.
Yes, it is true that my job as a parent is to provide my child with all the opportunities that would give her a head start in life.
But there is a small part that my aunt didn’t see.
My job also involves listening to my child.. to force a child to do something that they don’t want is the biggest disservice a parent can do to their child.
I read somewhere that a famous musician saying how thankful he is that his parents forced him to learn music..if they didn’t, he wouldn’t be where he is now!
Between the choice of forcing Yaya to study science the next 4 years, so she could do medicine or letting her study what she likes, I chose the latter. The world may have lost another great doctor..but that is a chance I am willing to take. The world doesn’t end just because one is really smart and chose not to do medicine.