"You only do experiments, not theory" — our answer

Over the past few years, well-meaning parents have passed along how other classrooms describe us. One line in particular is worth answering properly.

There's a tutoring centre whose main business is prepping students for gifted-class admissions. When parents mentioned that their child studies with us, or asked how we differ, the answer that came back was: "They only do experiments — they don't teach theory."

Honestly, it left us somewhere between amused and baffled. As one parent shot back on the spot: "If they can do the experiments, how could they not know the theory?" The two were never separable to begin with.

Experiment and theory were never an either-or

Ask any child in our advanced classes — or any camper from our winter and summer programmes — and they'll all tell you the same thing: at our lab, there are far more notes to write than anywhere else.

We don't teach from slides, and our workbooks aren't padded out with pre-printed theory. Because the part that matters most is the part the child has to write down themselves — we've always believed that understanding only truly settles through the act of writing. Even for a one-week camp, even for a single day's class, we don't go easy on them.

An experiment isn't a substitute for theory; it's the way in. A child does it with their own hands and sees it with their own eyes first, and only then turns back to understand the principle behind it — and at that point the theory takes root in them, rather than sitting memorised on a page.

How we choose to respond

We're well aware that a tall tree catches the wind. When people ask how we differ from some other centre, we usually just say: "We haven't sat in on their classes, so we couldn't tell you." Every centre has its own vision for how education should be done, and we've no wish to sit in judgement of it.

And if a parent tells us one day that their child is moving to another classroom, all we offer is our best wishes. Different children suit different courses; there's nothing there to sneer at, and certainly no reason to pressure a parent.

We've long held to one idea: to judge a person, don't listen to what they say — watch what they do. People genuinely absorbed in their goals don't have much time left over for bickering.

So our answer to a remark like that isn't a rebuttal. It's to carry on teaching well and taking our experiments deeper. We've never boxed ourselves into the definition of "a tutoring centre"; just when others assume we've reached our ceiling, we set ourselves the next peak to climb. Rather than turn back to contest who's ahead today, we'd sooner save our energy for the next slope up.