October 9, 2006, 12:08am

Just want to write down my reflections on this news report before I begin my physical therapy exercises.

http://hk.news.yahoo.com/061008/12/1ua0j.html

1. I've seen far too many similar studies to ask adolescents etc about what their parents have done. Is there any study on parents and ask them what they have done and why they do what they do on their kids?

2. I think I have more dramatic quotations about demeaning kids. "If you don't do your homework, I will give you dog shit to eat," "If you don't study hard, you go push the cart and sell roast pork buns."

These creative words came from my mom. Well, I was too small to think of any stigma associated with selling roast pork buns or dim sum in general. I still don't think it's anything stigmatizing or unrespectable to sell food. Anywaysl, I think I didn't want to eat dog shit.

The sick part was, I was already working on my homework. Why all these nonsense yelling? I just do my homework. I just do it on my own. I don't need to be reminded about doing homework. I don't have any tutorial help. Yet, I had to "parent" her and asked her several times before she would sign on my handbook.

Another sick part was, the teacher scolded students for not having the parent's signature on the handbook. Come on, stupid heads, go scold the parents. I was not authorized to sign. If I was the one required to sign on the handbook, I would have signed already. It's the parents who are supposed to do their job. Why scold the kids? Suckheads. All these adults I met when I was small, all sucked.

Then, I got achievements in school. I have learnt self-learn, maybe this is the most valuable skill I learnt through adversity. Then there's more adversity to come to be "successful" in school.

"You go to the university. You are snobbish," "You know nothing else. You only read books. You are stupid."

So, what's the point to scold me about working hard? There're at least two reasons why she had no point. First, in operant conditioning studies, I suppose scolding is a form of positive punishment. Supposingly, I got to reduce the targeted behaviors to reduce the undesirable stimulus, i.e. scolding. Punishment may work to reduce behaviors, not increase behaviors. If she really wanted me to work hard, to increase the behaviors related to studying hard, reinforcements should be introduced.

Second, I suppose I finally got the rewards for working hard in school. I got into the university etc. I have the options not to push the cart and sell roast pork buns. So, why is she still yelling? Yelling wouldn't stop me from getting what I have already got. I got into university, that's a fact, the past. It's not an act of behavior that I could reduce or increase my frequency of performing the act. Yelling simply won't change the past.

So, my conclusion is, she is crazy. Got to talk to my counselor this week.