Honestly speaking I had a pretty easy ride in school and college. Thinking back now I know I did the ICSE board till 7th... came back during the Gulf War, and continued my education in State Board. What was most difficult in all this was studying Kannada from scratch and answering board exams in three months flat and actually passing. Right through college was a straight A student and overall achiever (not boasting, but just a background) and so when it came to my daughter I didn't really think too hard...
I know scores of mothers who ransack the net and bombard "senior" parents with questions on which board is good - state, CBSE, ICSE, IB and what not. We managed to get the little one into Sacred Hearts which even now we are told is a really good school. We didn't struggle at all to do that. I knew it was ICSE, but didn't really think much of it, till I managed to let the other moms psyche me out on how difficult ICSE is "multiplication and computers in UKG", "exam stress", "things are cool till 4th and then you had it" and the like.. it started worrying me a bit. My junior is quite the happy go lucky and I didn't want to bog her down in any way and so I too started scouring the net for info on how to work things out. Finally realized the only info around is mock question papers 6th standard onwards. But what about the little things - like how do you deal with kids writing alphabets in mirror images, or explaining to them why the phonetics of "v" and"w" sound the same but are used differently and why in the world 23 comes before 24.
And so I thought I would chronicle my adventures with ICSE board as I am going through. I have no clue what's in store and how its going to pan out... but here is my two-bit on all that I am facing and how I am handling it.
Basic facts that I have accumulated first
Why ICSE is good
- The subject range may be vast going forward, but it gives you a better grounding as your proceed
- A lot of importance is given to practicals than theory
- Encouragement is given to understanding and learning as far as possible. You can't escape rote no matter what
- If you or somewhere along the line junior plans to go abroad for graduation, ICSE stands a better chance since it is believed to be on par with foreign curriculums.
- though it did not help much in answering competitive exams in India till now, it is slowly getting there.
As for the bad - every stream has its bad point, and now that I am in this line, am not going down that road!
