"There are no permanent friends, only permanent interests."Comment.

I do not agree with this statement. Friendship is made not because for one's interest. We make friends because we want to find a person to share happiness with us or to talk to whenever we have any sorrows. We make friends to reflect upon ourselves, to find the real soul in us.

I disagree that there are no permanent friends in our life. Though friends may be just passer-bys in our life route, they are the ones who have great impacts on us. They bring us joy and laughter, sorrows and sadness, most, in our everday's life. Have you ever been teased by your friends?Or have your friends ever told you a joke that made you laugh till you face went red? Whether the answer is yes or no, it does not make a difference because whatever memories we have with them will forever be etched in our minds. They will thus be our 'permanent' friends. There are still certain cases where there are really permanent friends that walk one along the life. Our parents and siblings, are life examples. They have been with us since our births.Usually we will say out or tell our troubles to our kin ones and they will always be the ones there to support us. Furthermore, with their guidance we can at all times reflect upon our actions. From the above examples, our kin ones can already be seen as friends to us.

I, myself, have one example. I am still in contact with my primary school friends and teachers. They have since been one of my support holding me on till now. Whatever great or sad things I have, I will tell them and ask for opinions and suggestions, vice versa. I would rather say that they are my permanent friends, friends that are worthy of, than to say that our friendship is due to each other's permanent interest that we are able to earn from.

I have no doubts that some people make friends for one's permanent interest. They use friends to gain votes for sympathy, or even their friends' innocence to sabotage others. However, how long can one make friends for permanent gains? Friends pass by and go every now and then. No matter how many friends one makes, will one be able to gain any permanent interests from each friend? Perhaps, permanent interests in this lifetime, yes. But when these friends know that one is using them for interest sake while they treated him as a true friend, he will then get neither permanent interests nor permanent friends in his lifetime. Therefore, in such cases, I feel that these people will get either temporary interests or no interest.

Amazingly, in other cases, these so-called friends made use of each other to gain interests. However they can still be friends for life. Though they can attain both permanent friends and interests, their friendship may be fake.

Friendship is pure when we treat each other truefully and think nothing about interests. Though I feel that friendship should not be made for one's interest, there are still people in the world who think that friends should be made use of. What I can say is when one is trueful to another friend, one is then worthy enough to be another's friend. Don't you think so?

Should the education system allow exceptionally bright students to skip grades?

I refer to DR Lee Siew Peng's letter, 'Bringing Up Child Pridogies Good reasons not to allow grade-skipping' (ST, SEPT 25).

I agree most with what DR Lee said. I feel that students or children should be given the freedom to develop laterally rather than accelerate through the grades. If the student has potential, it is important to groom him. However, being just a child, wouldn't it be too cruel to deprive him of his childhood or teenagehood, by skipping grades and answering tougher questions than what suits his age, when other students are enjoying themselves at his age? Would you confirm that he will get a good job or excel extremely well in future? Moreover, though the child has high IQ, he may be weaker in certain aspects, like for example, social skills, which DR Lee's child lacks, as mentioned in the letter.

Therefore it is important to engage the child in an all-rounded development. Though we should allow those high IQ students progress at their own pace, I feel that these students should be held back from skipping grades and continue retaining at the level of education that suits their age. In this way, I think it may be better as parents will have little chance in pressurising their children too much in academic area. By mixing with other students of different IQ levels, these students will learn how to care and share for their peers rather than just thinking of competing with other high IQ students. They are able to be exposed to different environments instead of mainly the academic area. For example, someone of lower IQ may be better than this higher IQ child in swimming. This may be able to inspire and motivate the higher IQ child to excel well in sports too, hence diversifying the interests of the child. In this way he can be all-rounded and better-developed in both the academic and sports areas in the normal education system, instead of just focusing on academic area in the 'grade-skipping' system.

Some very high IQ children may be weaker in certian aspects or skills. Those skills which the child lacks should instead be polished up during their growing period. By skipping grades, it means that these children may have to leave these skills unattended or unpolished until when they step into the society later on, as they have to focus on their studies most of the time (childhood & teenagehood). Not learning these skills will be a disadvantage to them. So what if they are brilliant but have no sense of social ettiqutte? They will still be looked down upon. It is usually easier to teach the correct manner and lead one into the correct direction when one is young. By allowing one's child to skip grades, it may just show that the parents are more concern over results than moral values. These students may one day be influenced by their parents, thinking that achieving good results is the most important thing, compared to other subjects like moral values, in life. No doubt that some very high IQ students are more mature as mentioned in MDM Lee Ee Sa's letter, 'Yes, let precocious kids proceed at faster pace' (ST, SEPT 25). But will all very high IQ kids be as sensible or also have very high EQ?

I agree that in the past, students were allowed to skip grades. During my primary school period, one of my classmates was allowed to skip grade or change stream to go into the Gifted Elective Programme (GEP). However she rejected both and stayed on with us. In the end she still got 4A* in PSLE and all 'A's in 'O' levels. Moreover she excels well in sports and arts too. This shows that one does not need to skip grades to accelerate well in grades and other arenas. in rebutt to Mr Thomas Anthony (ST, SEPT 25).

In short it is better to let them develop on their own instead of developing these high IQ students through skipping grades. If the parents really think their children are highly intellectual, more advanced than their peers and can do it, perhaps the extreme I think they can go is to send them to the Gifted Elective Programme (GEP) where the children will still be able to work on challenging questions that can intrigue them.