As the new year rolls into the third week, our thoughts begin to focus on where our children will go for their studies especially if this is the first time they will be joining school. This brings to mind the first time I went for a parent teacher consultation for my nephew who had just started kindergarten at that time. As the teacher started to explain how he was faring in the class I begun to become anxious at what she was about to say. Was he struggling, unable to learn as quickly as his other peers? Would he catch up? I was greatly agitated. You can imagine the relief I felt when the teacher assured me that he was holding his own and had no issues with grasping concepts.
That rich experience set me thinking about who is responsible for the intelligence genes for the children produced. Teachers have a first hand experience of teaching the same topic, to the same group of students at precisely the same time but the difference in the result can be very generous.