This teacher’s letter reassuring anxious parents (and their kids) went wildly viral

Poke Staff. Updated April 7th, 2021

People love this letter sent by a teacher to reassure anxious parents (and their children) before exam time.

Well, some people did.

‘Letter sent by A Singaporean Principal before exams,’ said Redditor Anukrit_Subedi

And while there were lots of people who thought it was entirely the right message, there were also many (probably more) who thought the ‘teacher’ had gone far too far the other way.

This response seems eminently sensible.

‘This drives me nuts every time it’s posted.

Let me first state that, as a teacher, I unequivocally believe that there is an appropriate amount of pressure to put on your child to work hard and anything beyond that amount is damaging. But chemistry matters to a musician. Artists need to understand math. Entrepreneurs need to understand history.

We don’t study these things to directly have an impact on our future careers. We study them to train our minds to think. We study them so that we understand the nature of the universe and our place in it. We study them so that we understand the mistakes of the past and can guard against repeating them.

This is ESPECIALLY important in a democracy. These things are important to EVERYONE, regardless of their eventual place in society.

‘Kids should be encouraged to do their best. They should be pressured to do better when they fail due to their lack of effort or motivation. And they should be shown that doing your absolute best is all that’s required and when that doesn’t result in a perfect score that’s totally ok.

‘But don’t diminish the effect of a well-rounded and deeply enriching education. It’s important.’
azmus29h

Source Reddit u/Anukrit_Subedi