Generally, culture is the characteristics of a particular group of
people that comprises of signs and symbols, language, visual and meanings, and
belief norms and rituals (Wadham, 2007). Culture plays a huge role of
people’s identity and is a major determinant of their actions and behaviour (Phillips,
2006 p. 5).
In today’s society, parents are putting too much
pressure on their kids to perform academically well due to traditions and
social stigma. They are naive, lack the knowledge and don’t understand the
negative psychological effects of their actions, as they were not brought up
the same way.
During the HSC, my parents had put a lot of pressure
on me due to the high values they placed on education. They didn’t and still don't understand
how hard it is to get a 99 ATAR. They believe in tough love and they were my
biggest critics. Although I attended a public school, they have spent money on
outside tuition fees ever since I was in year 3 until year 12 for several
subjects. That’s thousands and thousands of dollars altogether. I do not come
from a wealthy family; hence just thinking about the amount of money they’ve
spent on me gets me overwhelmed.
My cousins performed academically well and are very
successful. I often get compared against them. In one perspective, my
family gets looked down because my sister is a ‘nurse’ and not a ‘doctor’, and
my other sister is a ‘book keeper’ and not an ‘accountant’. Given the
traditional Asian focus on education, a child’s school achievement is seen as
evidence of good parenting, as well as the harbinger of a bright future.”
Therefore, if I were to achieve good marks, it will better our family
reputation.
I constantly didn’t meet my parents’ expectations. Due
to this, I became depressed, suffered from anxiety, sleepless nights and had
very low self-esteem. The pressure from home caused me to become a stress head.
Stressed over the most little things. I was never satisfied with my results
although I knew a lot of people would be over the moon if they received it. My
mental health was suffering. I didn’t feel comfortable talking about it to
anyone, especially my parents. They don’t understand what the illness is and would
probably think that I’m crazy and jump to conclusions. They don't understand
the consequences. Till this very day, my parents don’t know what I went
through. However, I was able to overcome this through the support services my
school provided.
I believe ‘too much academic pressure from home’ is a
big issue in the Chinese/Vietnamese families and that there should be more
awareness in the parenting community.
Reference
Phillips, A. (2006). What is culture? In Arneil, Barbara and Deveaux, Monique and Dhamoon, Rita and Eisenberg, Avigail, (eds.) Sexual justice / cultural justice. London, UK : Routledge, 2006, pp. 15-29.
Wadham, B. Pudsey, J. & Boyd, R. (2007). Culture
and education. Sydney: Pearson Education. Chapter 1: What is culture?
No comments:
Post a Comment