Overheard at a cafe:
The trouble with international schools is that they are full of children, whose parents have earned a lot of money, very fast. These children have the notion that money can buy anything and that money can substitute for love.
Children who go to these schools thus tend to end up with the wrong set of values, unless the parents are really careful.
Never thought of it like this but its quite true, isn't it?
NB
"International" school is term used in Sri Lanka to describe fee levying schools that teach in English. They operate outside the normal educational system, come in all shapes and sizes. A few are known to offer a good education, many are abysmal.
12 comments:
Well yes, kinda true. But doesn't apply to everyone!!! :-( Like me...
:)
The way some of them look at like and their lifestyles are quite different. But then again, I think values thought at home and they way they're brought up go a long way..
I think that's a gross generalisation, isn't it? I don't think different school that sort of an influence on children. I know people my age who are from local and international schools and they can't be categorised like that...
Well the same can be said about Local/Govt Schools. So many kids from these schools with rich or well off parents have also strayed away.
Its difficult to generalize and I agree with LD that values taught at home go along way.
I went to a "local" school and found the same type of kids there whose parents thought sending them to a non international would make them "mingle" with all walks of life.
They just ended up more brattish thinking they were superior than everyone else.
I disagree. I went to an International School and so do my kids. I think the values you learn come from home, the parents. Quoting LD.
The number of kids coming from homes with single parents are so many in both types of schools. you cant really blame the kids but they are spoilt with money.
Well, non international schools, and even universities have this kind of "cohort"! I used to be ashamed when I saw students roll up in their family mercs and collect the paltry "mahapola" scholarship...
What parents need to do is sensitize kids that money does not grow on trees... but maybe that's wishful thinking...
I think it is much more complex than that. A number of people I know who have sent their kids to international schools did so because they could not get their children in to a so called "respectable" school.
However I think the better international schools actually provide a more competitive and comprehensive education versus the local schools. I know most children's results are a blend of tuition and school but they are the unfortunate metric we judge and this clearly lays in favour of the international schools in terms of producing students to high calibre foreign universities.
There is also the issue that local schools seem to ignore or respond at snails speed to the changing environment/global nature of education/ competition. There is still a belief that going to the right school will ensure you with a career. This is so NOT true any more. Beyond this is a need for the country/society at large to have well educated citizens able to compete and think on a global scale and I find local schools so lacking in this. Their oyster remains the confines of the country.
As one well-respected economist once said to me: "these kids going abroad will come back with crazy ideas that will change this country for the good and the bad".
The down-side of international schools though is the lack of linkage to those that do not grow up without aplenty. These children seem to lack traditional Sri Lankan values - whatever they may be (both good and bad) and this irks many( as in the case of the overheard conversation).
Interesting comments, thanks. I have no particular experience of international schools, so was intrigued by the comment.
The school in question was CIS so perhaps those comments were more applicable there?
I do get rather worried when I see names like "Giggles International" of Negombo, "Scrumptious College" of Maradana, "School of the British Abbey" at Bambalapitiya and "Oxford College International".
Having been a failure of the school system in Sri Lanka I am very sceptical of the system in general.
I am not sure of facts or stats, but personally speaking, I prefer smaller, more down to earth school compared to these swanky international ones.
My thoughts exactly, Pepper.
From my little knowledge of CIS there was a time that the quality of their education was top class with many students getting into international universities of repute. Of course they also had a number of students whose values were not exactly great, but then they could be in government schools also, and not restricted to the INT SCHOOLS.
On a tangent, those new rich parents spoil their kids, as a form of love, as parenting seems to allude them. How do we as a society tackle this universal problem common to most countries?
eh...another international school bashing...International schools produce children that are modern and able to think originally...not sit down obediently and memorise stuff...
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