I used to hear about it every year for almost my whole life because my mom was a Primary School teacher ...all my life.
She would come home with stories about parents standing in line, balloting, crying because they missed the 1-KM radius by a wall separating their homes and their neighbor's home from the school of choice...
She would also come home with stories about parents begging and lying about their residential address.
Of course I would tell myself that this was a whole world away from me and I think because of this, I have become very detached from the idea.
I have basically blocked it out from my system. Eyeball rolling everytime I hear about it..
I also heard about how parents buy homes just to live close to a school so that they can have a better chance of enrolling their child in the school of their choice.
Phase, 2, Phase 3, Phase 2A, Phase 2B... shoot me now.
I used to brush it off and think...Pffttt! Buy a HOUSE? just to be near a school?
well well well... Guess what?
And then one day, I had no choice but to grow up and have a kid... maybe in the other order of things.
But just like that, with a blink of an eye, I became a parent and my kid is suddenly 6-years old.
When children turn 7, its compulsory to send your child to school (for those of you who don't live in Singapore and if you live within a 1KM radius of the school, you get priority... if it's over subscribed, you end up balloting for the slot).
So I ended up becoming one of those parents who bought a home, but only because we needed to move out at some point but the greatest consideration was where we wanted nate to school at, and well, everything worked in terms of location for work, lifestyle etc. (but still i found myself becoming one of those parents). I'm proud to say that I've been pretty realistic about my son's abilities and his strengths which made choosing a school pretty easy (at this point) - almost to the point where I wonder if i'd been lazy. I had just one major requirement. To enroll him in a mission catholic school or one which had the foundations of a Christian school.. Unlike some parents, they volunteer at schools to secure a place, they donate money to the school as insurance and they stalk forums and study the school history and results through the years. - not judging them in fact i admire their abilities to do their homework...I confess I haven't done any of that. In fact, i've been so detatched from this that I had to look up the opening hours on my mobile phone that same morning for registration. I hope this is not going to bite me in my behind.
Then, yesterday, I found myself in a Phase 2C category, going to a school and filling up a form.
Now, i'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I don't become a crying parent desparate because I haven't researched other schools. I'm also telling myself.. hey, everyone is going to that super duper high flying school down the other road, so hopefully we will have a space in this school of my choice.
The feeling was surreal as I sat in the chair in a classroom, with a flippy table thing, in an AVA room, trying to get the spelling of all our names right, as I felt like I was undergoing some sort of examination myself. It's been a long time since i've sat in a classroom.
Now i'm just going to have to wait for the results on Friday and hope that it all works out.
Biggest lesson learnt here from "school" is Never say Never because we can't avoid certain routes that life takes us down.
Whatever the outcome and whatever the school, I know that i'm still going to have to do my best to give nate a strong family life, help him with his studies to the best of his abilities and if he does really well in something, sure great! We will nurture it. If not, no drama, life goes on. Try another method...
Let's see what happens on Friday.
GULP!!!
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