Being a girl isn't always easy. Especially if you're studying in a school for girls. The competition for the top 10% in academic achievement is tough. Keeping up with being cool is as constant as virus updates. You can never be sure if your best friend today will suddenly switch alliance and become your enemy tomorrow. Meanwhile, Mother gets increasingly annoying ever since that day she snooped around your iPhone and found some boy by the name of Jason in your WhatsApp group chat.
That's what my student Agatha, or "Aggie" to us, used to complain to me.
Aggie was my Science student when she was eleven. Typical of girls her age, she hated the subject and declared it on the very first day that we met. Not surprisingly, she had also been getting C grades in Science. I asked her why.
"I just don't get it. I read and read and still I don't get it," she frowned, " I guess I'm just bad in Science."
Sounds familiar? Pausing for a moment, I closed the textbook and said, "Tell you what, let's forget about learning Science; let's feel Science." So, for the next few weeks, feeling Science was exactly what we did. Until now, she had been learning Science the same way she had done with Language – memorising everything that was printed on the books. After a few weeks, she had realised that Science is a unique subject that is best learned experientially.
When I asked Aggie again how she felt about Science, she admitted that she no longer hated it. Then, I asked her, "So, besides how you feel about it, what else has changed, Aggie?" She couldn't find an answer. I prompted further, "Has the subject changed? Or was it your brain?" She shook her head. Then, with a sudden widening of her eyes and a beam on her face, she shouted, "Nothing! Except how I saw it!"
"Then," I asked, "is getting to the top 10% the only way to be recognised in school? Who are you pleasing when you worked so hard at staying cool? Or do you think your mother was being angry or anxious when she found out about Jason and why is that so?"
Very often we get caught up in a problem or situation that left us frustrated and drained. Sometimes, all it takes is to take a step back and either look at it in a different light or try to find the positive from the negative and you begin to appreciate life and its mysteries in a whole new dimension.
Thank you, Agatha, for giving me the lesson on Perspective. I've always wanted to make the perfect diffuser blend to help you in your studies but have so far failed miserably. Now, I believe I may have finally done it. So, here's my gift to you for scoring A in your PSLE Science subject last year.
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