Thinking of moving

Couldn't agree more. The military has made a positive change in many peoples lives, by teaching skills such as leadership, dedication and teamwork. Sports teach you much of the same. Question for the military guys...is sports a substitute for the military or visa versa? I'm just saying exercising the mind (even if not specific to ones end game) also plays an important role.

 

I must admit, I envy those that say they are moving to some place in the Philippines. The idea of it sounds really appealing to me on many levels. But, I'm not even close to being able to retire and no real savings to speak of. My kids are still young though (12 and 9), and even if I could, (with the blessing of my ex-wife) I think I would wait until my kids were out of high school before I would decide to try it. I don't think my kids, even being fil-am, would do well at this point.
It would be fun to bring them with me on one of my trips to Dumaguete so that they can go as guests to school with my fiancé's kids, (and they want to) but I think that anything beyond that wouldn't end well, (and I could be wrong) but language, and the whole thing not being what they are used to, would make for a difficult transition . I would be interested to know how it goes for you and your child though.

 

Sports is not a substitute for the Military but lays a foundation.
as JV High School Football is to Pro Football, Pro Football is to the Military.
or
Riding your Big Wheel around the neighborhood is to riding a motorcycle in Dumaguete.

Sports and the military both help form foundation skills but at different levels.

 

"I'm skeptical of negative reviews of the schools here as many people don't know what a good education really is. " I graduated with Honours in Science and taught in UK High Schools for 13 years, so I think I have some clue (perhaps) ... and so my opinion is that the educational system here is cr@p.

 

It depends on how academic she is, especially in science; the Science High School is pretty tough to get into and failure to maintain high grades will result in 'expulsion'. As for schools concentrating on sports... my daughter's school's 'sports' lessons consist of indoor board games, never has she been outside to play any game of any sort. I am also amazed that good grades can be obtained by carrying out craft work at home and having parents helping (or doing it!) but, anyway, the grades are meaningless; I assess (as an ex-teacher) that my daughter is at about 50% level (I am being generous) but she gets scores of 80 plus. The secret is she turns up and hands in her pointless home projects. But really she knows very little and has no real skills. I have been with her only 6 months and think in that time I have taught her more of lasting value than she gained in her 9 years at school. I am seriously thinking of home schooling her but am concerned at the desire here for pieces of paper (with ribbons!) and how this might affect her future opportunities (i.e. whether she works at StarOil or LeePlaza!)

 

It depends on how academic she is, especially in science; the Science High School is pretty tough to get into and failure to maintain high grades will result in 'expulsion'. As for schools concentrating on sports... my daughter's school's 'sports' lessons consist of indoor board games, never has she been outside to play any game of any sort. I am also amazed that good grades can be obtained by carrying out craft work at home and having parents helping (or doing it!) but, anyway, the grades are meaningless; I assess (as an ex-teacher) that my daughter is at about 50% level (I am being generous) but she gets scores of 80 plus. The secret is she turns up and hands in her pointless home projects. But really she knows very little and has no real skills. I have been with her only 6 months and think in that time I have taught her more of lasting value than she gained in her 9 years at school. I am seriously thinking of home schooling her but am concerned at the desire here for pieces of paper (with ribbons!) and how this might affect her future opportunities (i.e. whether she works at StarOil or LeePlaza!)

 

Year One she was 98% - Year Two dropped to low 90's - Year Three dropped high 80's and this year she is low 80's... I fear the trend will continue next term and the following term meaning Science High will be a dream... Hiring Tutors (Teachers) seems to be a waste of time as each one has only set out work in the form of writing/copying from books while they watch TV or chat with friends etc instead of sitting with her one on one like I expected.

Maybe I am kidding myself when most Burger Flippers in Oz have degrees and are unable to find employment, I honestly do not know, I just want the best for her so she does not have to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week for 100 php a day like her Mum had to do to support her before I moved here...

 

Children need a good home background and that is a tremendous help to make the most of what they have; your daughter clearly has that support. It is worrying what you wrote about using Tutors; perhaps they should be paid on the basis of how much one-to-one time they spend by setting out the requirement at the start. I am a scientist and hope to be home schooling my daughter; I realise that I will not have the equipment found in good schools to teach her science as efficiently as possible but at her present school she has nothing anyway. The ideal situation would be a group of parents with different subject skills and to share the teaching on a daily basis, but that sounds like it might be 'employment' and so threaten the Visas some of us have. I agree with some comments here and, in fact, have previously written out a set of projects for my daughter; she does them as she wishes and I will only 'obligate' her if I think she could have been doing some but has not shown willingness. The projects include knowledge of major wars and I am sure some would find this surprising, but I want her to know about suffering in the world so she grows up appreciating what she has. She now knows what is meant by WW1, WW2, The Korean War and various Philippine conflicts and the misery they inflicted upon the general population and, especially, certain groups of people. I think anything she is taught will help her thinking and create new neural networks as long as the bar is raised over time. I do NOT agree with solid subject boundaries but prefer to look at knowledge and skills as a pool from which bits can be selected within any teaching framework.

 

I have asked that she be taught 'out of her comfort zone' in that; teach her what she does not know, advanced, teach her what she has coming up in advance, so that come the time she will be more confident, but like many things here, it all seems to fall on deaf ears.

I am all for broadening general knowledge, in Australia we were taught a lot about other countries, events that happened etc so that we understood what was going on not only in our own country but abroad as well (although this may no longer be the case?) and it amazes me talking to other races just how little they know about the WORLD outside of their own country. I am trying to teach my daughter about 'other things' also and try to encourage her to watch educational channels on TV, learn how things are made, learn about animals, learn about history, I like to think I actually learnt more after my schooling by doing puzzles and having to research the answers, then came the internet which made that a lot easier instead of flicking through a variety of dictionaries, I hope she can also learn by thinking outside the square, time will tell. I WISH I had the smarts to teach my daughter at home but truth is since my accident I have a terrible time with trying to remember things and have lost the love of reading due to words 'disappearing' into the grey as I read, so I can only do so much and hope she finds the drive to strive harder to achieve.