The motivating role of parents.

I know of a family in which the parents took great consistent interest in their daughters' progress.

Due to their interest in their children, their three children did very well in their studies. As far as I know, the two elder daughters got scholarships to study at Petronas University. The first daughter was awarded the scholarship after her five years of secondary education in a residential science school where she achieved excellent results. The second daughter received a scholarship to study in a prestigious private school in Malacca after her primary school education. Although I had not the opportunity to follow the progress of the third daughter, I understand that she had done exceedingly well too.

As an English tutor, I noticed that the students who seek my assistance to improve themselves in preparation for the examination as well as the interview for the Asian Scholarship in Singapore come from homes where the parents are very concern and take great interest in their children's educational progress.

These children impressed me as children who are willing to go the extra mile. As a result, they study consistently, ever willing to improve themselves further. Of course, the end result are children with better academic progress than most other children.

How is that so? As the proud parent of two sons who have progressed much academically, I have to admit the parent or a guardian has an important motivating role in their progress. The bond, the love, the constant encouragement and praise give the child the security, the self-esteem and the confidence to take on every academic challenge thrown at them. Thus, even though they may not be the very best, they are near enough to be one of the best.

In life, a person need not be a genius to be excellent. Look around you. Look into the background of most of the bright, very successful people around us. Almost everyone of them are ordinary people with average intelligence who managed to learn, know and understand better than others.