Mediocre.

Yesterday I met a mallu guy at Uni and as usual the first topic of discussion was about children.

You know the drill. What are they doing? Where are they studying etc and the topic of IB came up.

he said ” I am a smart father, I told my daughter, to get in to UQ ( university of Queensland) you need a bit of maths and a bit of physics , so take those two and do other subjects that doesn’t require you to do any work ( PE/ Music etc).. All you need is just enough marks to get in to UQ”

Getting admisdion in UQ with least possible effort was the smart plan.

What about their knowledge, life skills, learning to strive for a better results?

I am not sure how to take the notion that as a parent you encourage your children to be mediocre. Is that what parenting all about?

8 thoughts on “Mediocre.

  1. I know someone who is doing really well in his career, has a PhD in econometrics, excellent in stats, and he has similar views, study math and science and forget about everything else. It is a very myopic view. Even if you do not plan to pursue any career outside of math and science, still all other subjects are important. But then again it is only a point of view.

    • MS: I feel sad that a parent thinks getting in to Uni with bare minimum effort will set your child for her future.. I see youngsters totally not ready to enter workforce, can’t adapt with their coworkers and demands..if you don’t teach your children life skills, which involves in them learning to get out of their comfort zone, you are just not helping your kids.

  2. There’s nothing wrong about being medicrore and not getting the best results, although striving to do your best and maximum ability should always be encouraged. I only say that because it makes you competitive to a point where you just cannot learn to accept anything less than ‘perfect’ and you can’t be always be perfect. As long as the guy’s kid is happy, no matter how mediocre she is, or what her ability is, it’s all that matters. Some people even they just try their best are just considered mediocre. They put in the effort at least. That’s all.

    • J1289: as a parent, you need to teach your children resilience.. They learn that by pushing beyond expectations. If you keep the bar too low, then all you are teaching your children is ‘ I do not have faith in your abilities, you can’t do this’
      I do not know why you think competition is bad. I am extremely competitive. It often means that, I put in more hours to do my project than most and I am happy doing it. How is that a bad trait? I know you can’t win all the time, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try.

      • Competition is not bad as long as it’s done in a healthy manner, and what I mean by that as long as kids are not heavily pressured and are allowed to go according to their flow. I agree it’s good to encourage them to go beyond further, but it’s sufficient enough where it does not impact them, it should be ok.

  3. Missing for a week and back.
    That is not parenting. What is the aim of a parent? To make the child reach the pinnacle. How you reach becomes totally unimportant and irrelavant. If the child is allowed to develop according to his abilities,the natural way, that helps the child a lot, but the aim of pushing to the top will remain as a distant dream.

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