Parental love for children is noble, but parents should be warned that changing the "macro environment" may not solve the problems troubling them at the moment. It may be just a way to replace all hammers with all screwdrivers. Every country, including developed countries like the United States, has its own set of problems in education. And the funny thing is that in the US, I also hear educators using the good examples of Chinese schools to make a point. I have sat through long speeches focusing on why Americans are failing in education compared to their Chinese counterparts.
To relieve our anxiety about education, we need to see beyond the change of merely the external environment. It is better to reflect on what learning actually is, and how to develop a child into a healthy, happy and contributing person.
Chinese education, as I see it, is excessively focused on the study of domain knowledge. Little attention is paid to the more sustainable qualities a person ought to have, for instance, the ability to imagine and innovate, to communicate and collaborate, to resolve conflicts and to relate to others.
Also, parents should try to think of themselves as part of the "macro-environment" they are trying to flee from. They should learn how to diagnose their children's needs and interests, and how to help them fulfill their potentials. Without doing this, parents risk changing the environment only to get more of the same results.
I see most overseas Chinese parents create cocoons around themselves. They gather together and apply the same pushing and forcing methods to make their children learn whatever a fellow Chinese parent is boasting about, in absolute disregard of their real needs and totally oblivious of the rich resources the new environment has to offer. Why bother to move out of China then? I wonder.
Quadruplet sisters and their family
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