Rich kids do better
 

As alluded to by SMA chairman Dr Wong Chiang Yin in his ST article last year, rich kids tend to speak better and hence can perform better during interviews.

What interviews do kids or teens have to go to? Do they need to look for jobs at a young age?

They do, but it's not jobs they are after. They are vying for places in the medical school (NUS), law schools (NUS & SMU), and of course, the prestigious scholarships. All these require the young applicants to go through rigorous tests and interviews.

So why do richer kids have an edge?

First, they are likely to be raised in an English-speaking environment, not with aunties speaking Singaporean pidgin or Singlish to them, but with well educated people having proper English conversations with them, thus indirectly preparing them for the future.

Second, rich kids have more time and money to "explore" the world. Their poorer counterparts have to make do with spending time helping their parents at their hawker stalls or looking after younger siblings and aged grandparents. You get the picture.

Third, rich families can afford to send their kids to "high-value" enrichment classes - think speech & drama, ballet, and music - that inadvertently groom them to be the polished professionals of tomorrow. Poor kids go to the free RC tuition classes at the void deck.

In conclusion, poorer kids have to be luckier (e.g. be born with good brains) and work much harder to be on par with the rich kids.

Well, nobody says life's fair.

http://www.salary.sg/2007/rich-kids-do-better/

98
 

A similarly trained poor kid can also excel in interviews. Money isn't everything, as what you seems.

101
 

I agree with you, Robert. But my point is: all things equal, poor kids do not have as many opportunities to excel as rich kids.

381
 

the admin seems to have something against the rich kids of sg. haha.

how about the other side of the story? so many rich kids get so out of hand. with the money and family background, they are spoilt and at the same time, empowered to do whatever the heck they want. have you ever thought that they wouldnt have the discipline as a "poor" child to attain success in life?

do you think all the rich kid's parents in the world have so much time to educate their own children properly.

the child have to find his or her own way. be it poor or rich. they have to be so called "enlightened" and motivated to be where they want to be in life. Yes, being privilledged or unprivilleged plays a part. however, your heart is the one that will bring you eventual success.

385
 

nothing against rich kids. bree, your points are valid, but poor kids get out of hand too... yada yada :)

660
 

Many of the rich kids I know will grow up to have children who will never be rich or blow away their inheritance simply because of their background i.e. the spoilt pampered type!

1620
 

oh.. I didnt know that most of the rich family are English speaking family. maybe because I have yet to see one.

2150
 

rich kids may have head-start during their younger years but somehow poorer kids with proper home dicipline will excel and overtake these kids from primary 3!eg.kids from R.O.C. make top positions for PSLE!Its all about attitude and passion towards learning which our current education system is not designed for.

2407
 

Let's face it. Even without even the early advantage rich kids have, their parents can more or less buy them a "bright" future easily. e.g. sending them oversea if they fail in singapore, while those poor one has "to beg along the street" if he/she fail the local exam. And if excel is define how rich ones is, then i don't see what's wrong with saying the rich do better in both their inherited wealth and "inherited future".
As for interview, rich kids will always have the advantage; they have less stress to perform in a interview hence they are usually more confidence; they tend to see "more of the world" like most interviewer are poorer than them and the interviewer will never want to flame their parents' wrath. Imagine you are the interviewer, you saw a resume/student profile on your desk. Then a phone rang, your director/head/lead etc called telling you that you will be interviewing his son or my friend's son etc. I would guess the result is obivous

Maybe it’s more to do with the parents.
Poor parents do not know what is critical for a kid to excel in future. Rich parents do and they will groom their kids for the future.

So, poor kids have to rely more on themselves or mentors to guide them towards the right path. While rich kids have their parents to do it for them.

Nothing is fair. If all kids are equal, all will be given an equal chance of sending their kids to which ever primary schools they want under ballot system and there will be no prestigious primary schools like Nanyang Primary, Raffles girls or ACS where priorty admission are given to the rich who can afford houses within 1km from the school.

But the good thing is at least all the kids still sit for the same PSLE and O level and the less well to do kids can still do well and study in a prestigious secondary school or college if he/she is smarter or luckier or more hardworking than the richer kids who already has an edge by given the opportunity to study in the top primary school.

The converse is also true: rich kids who fail are doubly less smart and doubly less hardworking than poor ones who fail. They're given all the opportunities to succeed, and yet they fail. But then again, their rich parents will argue that their rich kids had it too easy, and should have been made to go through the hardships that poorer kids go through. :D

admin, I feel for you. Everybody here seems to be somehow missing your point :) But then again, somehow a lot of people have a tendency to miss the point when it comes to discussions like this.

What some of you guys are saying here is like: in a race between Ferrari Enzo and Ford Pinto, if the Ferrari owner never bother to step on the gas and never maintain the car properly, the Ford Pinto driver who maintains it in excellent shape and step on the gas can win. Which is true! But don't you see how blardy-missing-the-point the argument is?

Somehow if people talk about how coming from a rich family gives you an advantage, or being good looking gives you an advantage, people JUST! CAN'T! STOP! spewing exactly this kind of arguments.

LoL... It comes in various forms... Part of my job involves informing people about the risks of smoking and helping them to quit. Every other smoker I counsel will tell me, "Eh, you say smoking increases the risks of cancer and blah blah... I know of ONE uncle who smoke two packs a day and live to 90!"

To which I will reply... I know of one fellow who never bothers to look before he cross the roads... somehow he is still alive... celebrating his 50th birthday next week... Does that somehow encourage you to cross the road blindfolded from now on??? :p

On a related note... I was just talking to my girlfriend about the subjects that we used to take in school last time.

She lamented that she never had a good science teacher who knew how to pepper the lessons with interesting real life examples of applications but instead made them memorise formulas and definitions... That killed off whatever little interests in science tat she had...

Then I remembered facing the same situation with literature and languages...

Oh well. Our conclusion was that... if you were rich and could afford to find a good tutor... it would have made a hell lot of difference... Unfortunately I was an orphan and and prospective father in law just another HDB heartlander...

Agree. Poor kids will need some luck to get good teachers or good classmates who can inspire them and spur them on to great heights. I had the good fortune of having some great teachers and classmates when I was in school. Otherwise I would have been just another mediocre student. But I did have a small share of bad luck - my bad chemistry teacher killed my interest in Sec 3/4 and I had to give up my dream (at that time) of becoming a doctor.

Hahaha... nowadays to get into NUS Medicine no need triple science liao... Also there's the Duke Graduate Medical School, you can still fulfill your doctor dream... lol

I didn't do well in lower sec, got a lousy subject combi in upper sec and couldn't qualify for triple science in JC... back then, no triple science in JC = no admission to NUS Medicine. ended up as a Pharmacist in the end. But after working in hospital for a year, watching how the doctors slog their life away, I am pretty glad I am not one...

actually everyone is aware of this statement "Rich kids do better". that's the reason why everyone here is looking for higher leaving value for youself or the future generation.

we will never like to see our future generation to grow up at similar or worse condition compare to us, as we gone through the process that with limited $ things are limited, resource are limited, without $, equipment & tools limited ; thinking let your child to be like Tiger Woods but can't afford golf set for him!!!

talented children need outer factors to assist them to build up however economy is one of the factor, but it is not the most influence factor. guidance and education is the counter part of it. spoiled children from rich family failed to balanced those factors which parents need to know the way out of it.... remember each different children need different formula from these factors as each individual is different. some can excel with very limited economy back ground, but some need extreme $$.

however the society now days change most of the nature of kids to very pro with $$ factor, the good way to counter it is - try to let your children know that "money is very hard to earn" (although may be for some of us here seems easy). " teach the children to appreciate on what they have"

tell you it works