The Game of Confidence

About two weeks ago, I learnt from M the interesting titles held by the children in class. There are Maths Captains, Class Captains, Green Captains, Thinkers Captains etc...  

He wasn't sure of the full responsibilities of each role, but I reckon this must be part of the school's effort to train character, instill a sense of responsibility and leadership skills.  

After his form teacher selected a few children for the various roles, M told her, in front of the class, that he thinks he can be a great Maths Captain too. He proceeded to inform her of his ability to do plenty of difficult problem sums, additions, subtractions and that he knows his timetables very well and can do mental sums etc...  

I almost fell off my chair!!  I know my kiddo has more than an ounce of confidence in himself, but I have not imagined him self-promoting himself just yet. 

Of course I couldn't wait to hear the teacher's response. 

'Oh she said it is not good enough. I also must not be blur.'  That came out in a matter-of-fact tone and he didn't seem the least bit affected by the teacher's response. Nor was he curious enough to question her on the use of the term 'blur'. 

Hahaha!

I complimented him for having the confidence to speak his mind and pursue what he wanted, i.e. to be a Maths Captain. 

But he later told me that on second thought, he would like to be the Thinkers Captain, a role which was still unassigned. Perhaps that is a sign of optimism on his part. :> 

I couldn't stop thinking about the level of confidence M has in himself. I admire his assertiveness, a quality that I wish I had more of during my growing up years. 

When E heard this story the same evening, the first thing that he picked up was the implied message in the teacher's response that his boy is blur. Could it be? Nah, no way could his boy be described as 'blur'. 

As a very typical born-and-bred-in-the-West parent, E places tremendous value on the self-esteem of the child (not that I don't). For the rest of the evening, he made sure the kid hasn't suffered a dent in morale. :>

Ironically, the boy was fine. He even started making little jokes and calling himself Baby Blur. 

But I think the adults (E and I) are the ones who are left with some self-doubts as we speculated on the causes for the teacher's assessment. 

Perhaps he didn't listen to instructions in class, though M assured us that he is always listening and following instructions. 

Or maybe the teacher has judged based on one incident. He did come home one day wearing someone else's shoes which are identical to his. But this was totally my fault really as I forgot to label his shoes. That said, I won't be surprised if there are teachers who will label the child after a stand-alone incident. We all know they exist. 

In the grand scheme of things, this incident is really no big deal. The class roles are assigned to different kids every term anyway, from what I've heard. To me, this is just part of the learning process. 

As far as I'm concerned, my kid has learnt two lessons well: (1) don't be afraid to speak up and go for what you want (2) the teacher called him 'blur', which means there is room for improvement. 

 

This is good enough!