Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Results Are In

Monday's was a restless tossing and turning type of night for me. There aren't many things that get me nervous these days but I can tell you that I went to bed shitting some majorly large bricks.

Why?

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning was the day for A to get her GCSE results and I thought I'd take it calmly in my stride, being all que sera sera about it and mellow. Instead I spent the evening feeling more preoccupied than a Samurdhi officer turning up at Mervyn Silva's office for a meeting only to realise that I'd forgotten to light my mosquito coils the night before. I kept waking up in the night and thinking

"Oh shit it's A's results tomorrow"

A's a bright kid but far brighter in the realms of performance, drama and art than she is in the more academic lines of maths, English and the sciences. The education system here does baffle me somewhat in that she was trying to get into college to study drama and arts and things yet needed to get sufficient grades in the sciences and more academic fields in order to do that.

And she's not really one of those swotty kinds like Dinidu or The Auf, fellows who I can imagine never even needed to swot for an exam because they'd worked so hard during the course in the first place.

The parent teacher evenings I've been to for A in the last couple of years have mostly comprised of each teacher telling me very diplomatically how A is a great kid, full of life and always trying to be funny (can you imagine that??) but that she needs to concentrate more on the work to get the grade she should.

Strangely enough my reports at the same age were pretty similar.

My trepidation was because A never really seemed to knuckle down and work. Had there been an exam on Facebook or MSN or how to convert one sort of music file into an iTunes file I'm sure she'd have passed with flying colours. There wasn't, well apart from ICT, and I worried about the consequences, about A getting into college and that I might have to send her to work in a mine or sweeping chimneys in Dickensian times.

A was going to school yesterday morning and under strict instructions to call both her mother and myself. I was as anxious as could be, jittery and drunk with nerves and starting the most weirdly inane conversations with people as an excuse to just talk.

At about nine in the morning I called her to see what was happening, she sighed and told me that she was going to school in about forty five minutes. She promised to call me and I hung up, wondered what to do and decided to continue being nervous.

About an hour later I got a call.

"It's your daughter" said my person, you know, the one who put the call through.

"Hi A" I said.

She was crying, something all men are fundamentally afraid of, something that didn't bode well.

"You won't believe it Dad" she said and my heart broke a little bit.

"I got As and Bs. I've done really well, I've got the grades for college and everything" she said through the tears.

"Wow, seriously?" I asked, possibly not my most sensible of replies but it seemed to do the job. I was filled with a sense of relief and relaxation, like the Samurdhi officer who gets a call from his wife as he's going into the meeting to say that she lit the coils even though he forgot.

She read them all out again, I think for both of us to be sure.

I asked for the exact grades. She got two As, five Bs, two Cs and a couple of Ds. Then she said, still through the tears, that she had to go, to see what all her friends had got. I congratulated her and told her nice things.

I'm stunned, in the best possible way.

I'm so, so proud.

Just thought I'd tell you.

13 comments:

Charlene said...

Good news! Yaaaaaa.

Sach said...

Hey, that's awesome!
Happy for you man!

Lady divine said...

Congrats to both dad and daughter.:)

I rememeber the days I got my O/L results.. then A/Ls... my dad was so overjoyed that he bought me gifts and threw parties for family friends..:)

What really matters in moments like that is a parent's reaction...

I really wish my dad was around when I graduated from Uni and CIM... I really did..

So party and have fun!!:)

Angel said...

Yay for A!! I am so happy for you both... :) She is obviously a very bright kid!

PseudoRandom said...

Excellent news! Congratulations to A (even though she doesn't know about us). Now remind her that she's finished with the easy stuff and it only gets tougher from here ;-).

In defence of the education system, I believe the main purpose of GCSEs is to give the student the fundamental knowledge required to choose a career. It is what it is - a general certificate of secondary education. It's not an entrance exam for further study programmes (in the same way A/Ls are).

The other obvious benefit is that regardless of your eventual career, you'd (ideally) still be able to appreciate other subjects. In this respect I think GCSEs are a complete and utter failure, especially considering the perception of the public (who have all presumably sat for GCSEs) to all things scientific...but I'll leave that for a rant on my blog :-)

Hoot-a-Toot said...

Congrats to both A and you!

Jack Point said...

Congratulations!

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Thanks all, I wish I could take more credit!

Pseudo - I think that the educational system here is so much better than it was when I was a kid, the way in which kids are taught and stretched according to their specific intelligences is much more effective than when we were just pushed the "academic" areas, paying little regard to pupils who may have had strengths in other areas.

However, I still think there are some shortcomings and these could be addressed. Sadly, within the context of state education, a lot of things come down to the limitations of funding. Thanks for the comment, I look forward to your post.

OzCuz said...

Congrats to you and A!

Obviously the family's brilliance continues ;)

Unknown said...

Congratulations to both A and you! This shows that she is made of 'bright kid' material. Is she mischievous ? somehow the mischievous ones tend to be a tad bit more intelligent than the others - reflected in the generous results they get compared to the amount of work they put in! Liked the post RD! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Great stuff! Give her my best - too bad we couldn't meet this time you were here...

magerata said...

If Auf is correct, then I am really intelligent too! But seriously, great news. Brightness is a funny thing, it only visible when a light is shown on it.

But you, are just like my mother, she too was nervous about my high school results, the American ones, you know, where everyone graduates! :) Since I got into the college, she worries more about my girl friends!!
I am glad she get to study what she likes. Give my congrats to her.

Bee said...

Congratulations to A !!
I remember getting my O level results... umn.. actually I don't - it was oh so long ago.. (when it used to be GCE O/Ls)
I do remember my mum was upset that I nearly flunked Tamil (a subject I wanted to drop !) My dad was relieved that he didn't have to drive me all over Colombo for tuition classes & such..
Good times..