Diversity of children in schools...

I noticed that there may come several occasions where we have to neglect some of these needs. Perhaps not neglect, but hold of for another time outside of curriculum. As I mentioned in my earlier post, some parents think that teachers are gods and that we are omnipotent. Well, we aren't.

It seems very necessary to engage the help of others, namely the parents. Especially when dealing with children who are not as quick in learning as others, we would need to seek the help of parents in coaching their children.

In the case of a child diagnosed with ADHD, compared to the average attention span of a child of 10 to 15 minutes, ADHD children probably sport a good 5 minutes. That would mean that they would only have absorbed a third of the lesson, or even less! Thus it would be wise to find strategies to cater to these children.

However, considering how children are being brought up these days, it would seem apparent that almost every child would eventually be diagnosed as having ADHD. The development of handheld entertainment devices and the way that parents are using them as a means of pacification, would just be catering to their lack of attention. Perhaps, to help us teachers, it might be necessary for the MOE and MOH to collaborate (once again) in targeting early childhood parenting. Just like how the two ministries are collaborating to curb child obesity, they could also help to curb ADHD.

The use of television as a means of entertainment these days is disgraceful. The methods producers use to capture a child's attention, selling their programmes as "educational". If anything, children only learnt to be impatient.

This may seem like a regressive mentality in an advancing world, but do we necessarily have to adopt advanced technology in order to progress? Why do we need to resort to showing cartoons in class just to gain the attention the children? Their brains would be too busy processing the colours they are seeing, instead of actually processing the lesson being taught. Like Singapore as a society, we are attempting to progress, but trying our very best to not lose our roots. We do not openly accept capitalism, else we end up like the EU and the US.

Thus concludes my reflection, catering to the different learning styles of children is one thing, but I honestly think more can be done in the home during a child's early years to reduce such problems.

the MOE and MOH can collaborate in so many areas just to aid in children's health.
- Having children early (before 35)
- Abstinence from drugs and alcohol during pregnancy and even attempting to conceive
- Reduce stress while pregnant
- Healthy eating habits (instead of packing processed food in children's lunch boxes)