Kids and their ties

John's a Vice Head Prefect in school this year. Tessa's been offered the post of Vice President of her student council but she has 'turned it down'.

My kids are not straight A students. Yes, they sometimes score As but only in some subjects. They are very ordinary, sometimes naughty, sometimes good and always cheeky kids. So I try to look for other yardstick measurements to judge how well they are performing as....kids.

Both having been selected as Prefects shows us something. It'd be nice if Tessa would accept the post of Vice President. What are the chances of both kids being vice heads in the same year? (Yes, yes I am aware that second place sucks. Trying to be positive here ok?). Thing is, the similarity which might be taking place is not that of them both being Vice Heads this year.... the similarity which is making Mama Bear turn blue, is having both their ties 'stripped off'.

See, the girl is bent on quitting Student Council. I think what really 'rocked her boat' was when she had cut her long bangs (fringe) to above her eyebrows, only to be told by her school that as a student councillor, she still had to clip up what was left of her bangs. She really looked ridiculous the first few weeks of school. I mean, the clip or clips rather, could hardly hold up the short wisps of hair! It's grown into a longer fringe now but still, her non-student councillor friends are enjoying life with their 'cool', long bangs blowing into their eyes!

Her duties as a student councillor are heavy. Much much heavier than I can remember of our prefect duties back then. She comes back from school exhausted everyday and I think she's ready to go back to being an ordinary student. Mike and I have told her to rethink her decision. We think she's making a rash decision (although the choice will ultimately be hers). We do have one complaint.....we have to buy her ordinary white shirts all over again!!! You see, student councillors have to wear rolled up long sleeved shirts with hard collars (to accommodate the ties) whilst ordinary students do not!
Yes, your hair is everything when you are 15. So, there's a likelihood Tessa might quit student council soon.

Then there's the boy. He dropped a bombshell on us the other day while studying for his CA. "Any prefect who fails two subjects will get his tie stripped off."
Our jaws really dropped.
He's not quite there with Chinese as his Mother Tongue. In fact, our desperate PSLE preparation strategy is for him to score better for English, Math and Science because we are already prepared for the eventuality of him not doing well in Mother Tongue. So, all he needs to do is to accidentally fail another subject (which could always happen with a subject like Math when you aren't that good at Heuristics in the first place)!

Today's the last day of his CA. I haven't actually sat down to coach him in his school work at all all these years. The boy has always told us he had his homework under control. Yes, some control he's got going on there!
I only started accompanying him in the evenings in January of this year. We sit from around 8 pm till midnight or past it. He doesn't write fast, that's for sure.
It's only been weeks (and my eyebags are showing extra extra heavily) of Mama Bear sitting with him. So, this CA will be an indication to me, if any, of any improvements he has made. So for John, we are holding our breath.

It's really sad. My kids don't have straight As to show for (in this cat eat cat, dog eat dog, grades are everything world) and sometimes, little things like being selected as student leaders act as boosters to their self-esteem. It'd be a shame if circumstances lead them to lose even their ties.