Chinese students preparing for exams. Picture: CapitalWatch
Growing up in China can be hard. I grew up with a typical Chinese education. I spent most of time my time either studying or having class, and during weekends, I usually went to some training centers to study a little more. This may seem like a lot, but at least at that time, we still had a little bit of time to be kids, but nowadays, even primary school kids face more pressure than I can even comprehend. This pressure comes from everywhere, not only from parents, but from teachers and other students. The competitive and high stress environment can make you feel like there’s no way out.
A recent viral video caught the attention of many across Chinese social media in recent months to show the depth of how bad this can be on kids. In the video, a young girl who just graduated from kindergarten cries “I can’t be happy anymore” when asked about her life in school, showing the reality of how stressful Chinese education is for even the youngest children.
Growing up in China can be hard. I grew up with a typical Chinese education. I spent most of time my time either studying or having class, and during weekends, I usually went to some training centers to study a little more. This may seem like a lot, but at least at that time, we still had a little bit of time to be kids, but nowadays, even primary school kids face more pressure than I can even comprehend. This pressure comes from everywhere, not only from parents, but from teachers and other students. The competitive and high stress environment can make you feel like there’s no way out.
A recent viral video caught the attention of many across Chinese social media in recent months to show the depth of how bad this can be on kids. In the video, a young girl who just graduated from kindergarten cries “I can’t be happy anymore” when asked about her life in school, showing the reality of how stressful Chinese education is for even the youngest children.
Perhaps this is the problem: Chinese education has become so competitive and test-based, that kids aren’t allowed to have ANY fun anymore. I don’t even remember the last time I saw kids happily playing outside with their friends, what’s far more common is seeing kids behind a mountain of workbooks and repetitive practice tests. When I look into their eyes, I don’t see imagination or curiosity, I just see a mindless robot preparing for the next exam. Kirkpatrick and Zang identify scores as the key gatekeeper and key problem in Chinese education, stating that: “In China, scores, not people, define worth. Chinese parents and teachers consider scores to be the only evaluating criteria for the students. Therefore, high scorers garner praise whereas low and mediocre scores lead to punishment. This violates the foundational education policy objective of equal opportunities for all merit standards”. In a system where numbers are all that matter, it’s easy to see why children believe that they can’t have fun anymore.
Video: Weibo, Chinese social media.
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回复删除This is a very powerful topic and one I'm eager to see you develop. I already learned a lot about it from your compare & contrast essay, but the video you featured really hammered it in. No one should be brought up to be a drone whose sole purpose in life is acing every test and making it into college. Happiness is a basic human right we are all entitled to, and we deserve to pursue what makes us happy in some way. It's great to hear the people of China are aware of this and want to encourage being creative and making learning fun.
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