The Straits Times: Dear daughter, sorry we were a bit negative about poly next year

One of my LinkedIn connections had liked a post that came across my feed. That article referred to an article titled “Dear daughter, sorry we were a bit negative about poly next year”  dated March 20, 2023 and written by Jill Lim. Fortunately, an image of the article was included in the LinkedIn article so I could read a slightly blurred version of the article.

Anyway, I wanted to share some perspective on this article because it deals with one of the transitions in education, plus I originally started the YCISL program with students from Singapore Polytechnic.

My 1-sentence summary of the article: This story is about an emotionally-driven change in perspective on the part of parents concerning an educational choice expressed by a daughter in a highly status-conscious society & culture.

Remark #1: There was EQ growth. One of the most common places we can learn and practice EQ is as a family, and such was the case in this instance where the connections in an EQ framework changed. There was the changed awareness about institutional as well as academic field of study options. There were management changes in how the parents perceived their daughter as well as adapted connection to the changed academic landscape in Singapore. A great family unit undergoes EQ growth.

Remark #2: Improve with Divergent-Convergent Thinking. Great parents are leaders who are adept at divergent-convergent thinking to go along with an EQ-based sense of timing and wording. There was an initial fixed mindset that took a little time to flip to a growth mindset. Hopefully, the growth mindset which uses the divergent-convergent method skillfully will become more engrained and a matter of preferred habit. As I like to say, there is a personal story and each is about a journey that can have all kinds of directions. Tie this together using the YCISL Your Personal Story approach, and it would make a lot more sense and be filled with positive hope and dreams instead of regret.

Remark #3: Think Transition. In YCISL terms, the “stage” is mid-Proof. There is no mention of a Proof element in the journey. A Proof element would help support the basis of this story. In GameStorming terms, we are in the Explore phase of the Proof Element where exploration allows for enlightenment in all directions. Eventually, she will reach the Close phase of this Proof element, and transition to the Open phase of the next element, Integration. As parents, making sure this transition goes well is of utmost importance to the “fulfilling education” mentioned in the article’s tagline.

I’ll wrap it up here by re-iterating that this is about a personal story and that the main character person is on a design thinking journey. The parents each have their own personal story. Their daughter has her own personal story too.