Students also need to learn social skills

In spite of the controversy she created in the US, the majority of Chinese commentators dismiss or disapprove of the methods of "Tiger mom", Yale University professor Amy Chua who wrote Battle Hymns of the Tiger Mom. After all, Chinese kids are already heavily burdened, how much more can tiger moms or dads really push?

More importantly, most Chinese people know that there is something wrong with the Chinese method of education, which places greater emphasis on "main subjects" such as Chinese, Math and English, while marginalizing subjects not tested in the College Entrance Exam.

So as families become more affluent, parents search for suzhi jiaoyu, a well-rounded education, for their kids and take them to extracurricular lessons, with the reasoning that such skills as playing the piano will make their kids better than their neighbor's kids who may only be good at taking tests.

However, the conventional wisdom of good music making good persons was challenged when Yao Jiaxin, a 21-year-old music student at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music, was convicted and then sentenced to death for stabbing and killing Zhang Miao, mother of a two-year-old boy after an attempted hit-and-run accident. This case caused a widespread public outcry and no small amount of confusion: how can a lover of Beethoven stab a young mother eight times?

Language challenges provide a glimpse into the problems with the Chinese education system. Chinese youths spend years studying English, but many do not become skilled users of the language. In China, English is often perceived as a "tool", or a "brick to open the door". Encouraged by snake-oil language trainers who cut corners to get students to "pass" language tests, many students do not develop an appreciation of the language and how it works.

This approach to learning English is also apparent in many other areas. Graduate students are focused on employment rather than knowledge. It's tragic that many Chinese students fail to pursue their dreams and interests as their only ambition is to get a job. With the focus on tests before college and employment during college, many Chinese students grow psychologically old before they grow up.

At the same time, younger Chinese students lack maturity, discipline, or even "survival skills" to cope with parental pressure, roommate relationships, group work, and relationship with other ethnic groups on and off campus. Problems such as binge drinking and bullying are also emerging.

In its search for well-rounded education, China can learn from character education programs in the United States, which help students develop interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, such as conflict resolution, stress management, cross-cultural collaboration and time management, skills that are rarely touched upon in China, where academic aptitude and artistic cultivation receive greater attention and better resources, even though social skills and character development are more difficult to attain and harder to change when people get older.

The author is an instructional designer and literary translator and columnist writing on cross-cultural issues. Deborah Hefferon of Washington DC also contributed to this article.

(China Daily 08/26/2011 page8)