What did my mother do right in education?

This weekend, I’m taking my mother with me to Taichung to meet and exchange ideas with education practitioners from all over Taiwan.
She may not be a ‘professional’ but she is the person with the richest real experience I know.

1. Being the gentlest, and strongest, support

Support has to be strong enough to shield you
but gentle support uses flexibility and empathy to help you grow.

Since we were young, my siblings and I have always had countless things we wanted to try.
My mother’s job was simple:

1. Once she confirmed we were serious, she supported us with everything she had.
2. She never forced us to ‘stick with it no matter what.’ 😆

We always knew that if our direction changed or if we found a path that suited us better, she would support us wholeheartedly, again and again.

What does this do for a child?

Whenever we hit obstacles, wanted to quit, were unsure about quitting or moved past quitting and reconsidered…at every stage, we felt safe talking to her.

We never worried that making a wrong choice would trap us into continuing that wrong choice.

She opened a completely barrier-free communication channel between parent and child.

2. Her incredible learning ability

Soft skills: communication, expanding her social world, improving eating habits
Hard skills: accounting, insurance, computer tech, fixing things, cooking, dancing

Once my mother finds a starting point she feels comfortable with, she is willing to try new ideas and new skills, fully committed and ready to make real changes.

Because our lives kept evolving as we grew up, she kept up with our pace, constantly upgrading herself along the way.

She is the ‘model learner’ in our hearts.

3. No comparison mindset

Among the three of us siblings, one is competitive and one is go-with-the-flow.
But my mother never compared us with each other, let alone with other families’ children.

Parent-teacher meetings, volunteer groups, mum circles, relatives, neighbours…there’s a lot of pressure circulating among (Asian) parents and it easily spills into the home and onto the kids.

My mother never engaged in this.
She listened without judging.

All she cared about was doing her best, helping us learn well and walking with us down the path that fit us and made us happiest.

Thank you, Mum, for laying the foundation of our education.

Even though this trip is technically work and I could easily do a same-day round trip between Taipei and Taichung, I still want to take this chance, now that classes are cleared, to bring her along and let her enjoy the journey with me.