NCEA assessments<\/a>, often for home-schooled students.<\/p>\n\u201cI wanted to sort of give him a bit of structure with his learning, because otherwise, he diversifies quite a bit, kind of say, \u2018okay, let\u2019s focus on your basics \u2013 reading, writing, and math\u2019, and \u2018well, there\u2019s some tests that you can do, and I\u2019m sure you could do that, so let\u2019s use that as an objective\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teachers were hesitant about moving Raymond up a year, citing his introversion in class as one reason. Yet they also noticed how animated he was around close friends, Michael says. When he mentions Raymond\u2019s cheeky, teenage-style comebacks, the boy buries his face in his hands, laughing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not mixing up with teenagers as such, but he\u2019s sometimes got himself into a bit of a teenager mind and then doesn\u2019t want to go to bed too early.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Raymond]()
Raymond Hsu stands among the teenagers, ready to take his NCEA exams. Photo \/ Michael Hsu<\/p>\n
The school ultimately recommended Raymond stay in Year 6 this year, concerned about the influence of older peers \u2013 their foremost focus on wellbeing. There is the potential of negative influences, Michael acknowledges, just as there would be anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess one of the reasons we read other people\u2019s stories, read about nature, read about society \u2013 I would hope to embed the kind of concept of what is appropriate sort of environment for him, and he will be able to tell positive ones from the negative ones and adopt his own sort of attitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve sort of been standing on the sideline, been giving my ideas about what is right and what is wrong, but I sort of leave it for him to determine. I will say I\u2019ve been assisting him to minimise the negative influences.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Raymond]()
Raymond Hsu writes about economics in preparation for his exams. Photo \/ Michael Hsu<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the burden of stereotype \u2013 those that view him as an \u201cAsian maths genius\u201d. In fact, literature is his favourite subject, and he found Level 2 maths challenging. When asked how long he studied for the exams, he shrugs but nods in agreement that it was hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy personal experience is you kind of run into those kind of stereotypes,\u201d Michael says. \u201cBut it just means I had to sort of communicate properly [what Raymond\u2019s interests are].\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his achievements, Raymond doesn\u2019t boast. He didn\u2019t seem to have plans to tell his friends about his exam results. When he\u2019s with peers his own age, Michael says, studying rarely comes up.<\/p>\n
![\"Raymond]()
Raymond playing around at home after finishing his exams. Photo \/ Michael Hsu<\/p>\n
For Michael, the journey of learning and embracing mistakes matters more than the grades. One Cambridge maths exam came back ungraded, prompting a review of the answers. Raymond also earned a passing E in a Cambridge English literature paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I guess E is not showing a failure, Raymond, right? If anything, it shows that you have deep understanding of this 16-, 17-year-old literature and English kind of material.\u201d<\/p>\n
Learning, meanwhile, has become a bonding exercise between father and son, Michael says. At one point mid-talk, he turns to Raymond: \u201cWhat\u2019s the word \u2013 It\u2019s not labourous \u2013 what is the adjective for labour?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLaborious,\u201d his son quietly responds.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll right, thank you,\u201d Michael smiles. \u201cHe\u2019s going to teach me one day, not just his sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for what the future holds, Raymond is \u201cnot thinking about anything\u201d right now, but his father says he\u2019s indicated some interest in politics papers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day,\u201d he says to his son. \u201cI hope you\u2019re going to write a book about \u2018how I was navigating it through as a migrant\u2019s child in New Zealand growing up in public school\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Still, he\u2019ll tell you his favourite books are children\u2019s classics by Roald Dahl. Despite the academic headlines, Michael…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[52085,95,16659,9632,141931,78,141930,36089,111,43,139,69,29462,3502],"class_list":["post-241364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-10yearold","tag-and","tag-cambridge","tag-celebrates","tag-emhail","tag-in","tag-israa","tag-ncea","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-porirua","tag-success"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}