Ye Youxue has encountered problems in educating his only son, Ye Zi, since the boy entered primary school last September. “I adopted a hands-off approach to my son’s preschool education, without forcing him to attend prep classes of Chinese or English like many of his peers,” said Ye, adding that he had not expected that policy to backfire.
　　In Zi’s class, most children had attended classes, including Pinyin (the phonetic system for transcribing Chinese characters) and reading, while they were in kindergarten to prepare them for work in primary school. He didn’t.
　　After the midterm exam, Zi’s family was thrilled by the scores the boy got--96 in Chinese and 97 in mathematics--and rewarded him with a one-day spree at the Beijing Zoo.
　　However, at the parent-teacher conference the next day, Ye was shocked to learn that the average score was 98. And he was even more surprised and a little embarrassed when the teacher asked him to stay late for a private conversation, during which the teacher urged, “Please be more concerned about the academic performance of your son. I don’t want him to be the one who drags the average score down the next time.”
　　Ye had to abandon his “natural development” theory of parenting, which he had always believed in.
　　To make sure his son is given the opportunity to catch up to his classmates, Ye sends the boy to after-school classes. The goal is simple: high marks in exams over the next dozen or so years, and most importantly, on the college entrance exam.
　　“This is the only right thing to do for the future of my son,” Ye said. He added that Zi has recently developed nearsightedness due to the long hours of study.
　　In China, millions of parents can tell a similar story. Fierce competition in the job market has stirred the quest among children for an edge in getting into a “key” school with better teaching staff and facilities, which exerts increasing pressure on them to achieve excellence in school entrance exams.
　　
　　‘Little emperors’
　　
　　One noteworthy thing is that the majority of these children are the only child in the family. Due to China’s family planning policy implemented over 20 years ago, these single children grow up as “l(fā)ittle emperors” who enjoy the love and care of the six “subordinates”--their parents and four grandparents. Under such a family structure, all the seniors of the family are dedicated to paving the way for the child, who is entrusted with the honor and expectations of the whole family.
　　The Chinese family tradition of attaching importance to the education of children has been exaggerated in the new generation of single children. And the social climate glorifying the pursuit of fame and fortune adds fuel to the fire. Therefore, most young parents are pressing their children to be “Renaissance children,” accomplished in many different fields, and geniuses among their peers. That explains the popularity and boom of early childhood education, starting even before the child is born.
　　Schools regard students’ admission rate to higher institutions as the only standard by which to measure educational quality. This forces teachers and schools to abandon their adherence to educational principles and instead put students through a large number of simulated exams and tons of homework just to acquaint them with all possible areas of knowledge. Since the teachers of every course adopt the same strategy, the result is a mounting academic burden, which is about to crash on the students.
　　This phenomenon has attracted attention at the highest levels. The Ministry of Education held a conference to address the excessive burden on students in January 2000. Officials claimed that primary and middle school students faced the burden of excessive textbooks, courses, homework, exams, after-school classes and academic contests. The ministry soon issued regulations on alleviating the academic burden on primary school students. Then, similar regulations on middle school education were released and a supervisory and reporting mechanism was put in place to enforce the regulations.
　　Yet six years after the landmark conference, the actual effects of the campaign are quite symbolic. Most students and parents say they don’t feel the burden is any lighter than it was before.
　　The headmaster of a middle school in Haidian District of Beijing said the campaign only had a nominal effect, which ends at reporting “progress” to education authorities. He said the teachers at his school are repeating the old approach: sticking students with voluminous homework, organizing countless exams and quizzes, and ranking all students according to scores.
　　Shi Gang is the father of a fourth-year student in primary school. He pointed out that although education authorities have stressed on different occasions that schools are forbidden to have classes in any form during the summer and winter vacations, it is common for students to be asked to come back to school several days before the vacations end.
　　
　　Burden eased?
　　
　　To gauge the real effects of the burden alleviation campaign, Lin Chongde, a professor in the Developmental Psychology Institute at Beijing Normal University, and his students conducted a survey. They found out that as the burden from school dwindles, families impose more activities to make up for it, such as hiring tutors, sending children to after-school classes and buying them books that supplement their textbooks.
　　There has been mounting criticism of the defects of the college entrance exam in recent years. Nonetheless, in the eyes of many educators and parents, the exam will exist for a long time to come because of its comparative openness and fairness. The real worry from the public is that education is being misdirected by the exam.
　　“It is usually the malfunctioning educational system that is to blame for a person’s personality defects,” said Yan Xia, mother of a first-year pupil. She believes that education holds the key to the development of a person’s social self and therefore one model should not be formulated to apply to all students.
　　Yan said she opposes the idea of filling children’s brains with facts and figures, and admires the educational purpose of inspiring children’s potential and letting children realize the necessity of learning and enjoy learning. “As a sprinting horse belongs to the grassland and an eagle spreading its swings belongs to the sky, we should let children enjoy real education rather than simply memorizing knowledge from the textbooks,” she noted.
　　Against the backdrop of an admission rate-oriented system, some educators have begun to put forward the concept of quality-oriented education, featuring a person’s comprehensive development in knowledge, creativity and high moral standards. The new movement has earned more and more praise and support from the public since its initiation.
　　But the intention of the quality-oriented education has been misunderstood by some parents, who see it essentially as a way to get additional points on admission exams. Some even go to extremes. In order to enable their children to stand out as Renaissance children, ambitious parents usually enroll their children in a dizzying number of extracurricular classes to study music, art and other skills. Children just mechanically attend various classes simply to fulfill their parents’ fantasies. Without motivation, the children’s creativity is wasted.
　　Many educational findings pinpoint the importance of children’s unstructured play, which many Chinese children are deprived of since their lives are dominated by adult-organized activities. Such play can help children develop their interests, express their unique qualities and learn to manage their time.
　　“They [overscheduled children] have no time to call on their own resources and be creative.省略.
　　As a matter of fact, the guidelines and methods of parenting determine a child’s development to a large extent. The trap that many Chinese parents fall into of paying no attention to the learning process and focusing exclusively on the result may eventually harm the children’s psychological and mental health.
　　

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