The kindness of strangers

A mother taking her daughter to attend the gaokao, or national college entrance examination last week in Changsha, Hunan province, was involved in a traffic accident and had to go to hospital. Her daughter with the help of the police and passers-by chose to take her exam rather than accompany her mother to hospital. Some said it shows the gaokao is now even more important than one's mother. However, we should pay more attention to the kind-hearted people who helped the girl get to her exam, says an article in Beijing Times. Excerpt:

It is a fact that the daughter chose to attend the examination, rather than accompany her mother who was injured in the car accident. But the decision of the teenage girl is "rational" and with the help of the police and passers-by she minimized the damage caused by the accident. Instead of blaming the examination system, we should pay more attention to the people who helped the girl and her mother.

Moreover, no matter how the girl chose to act we should not question her choice.

We should not judge her action as valuing the examination more than her mother, that is unfair and too heavy a burden for a high school student to carry.

Nor should we neglect the support and help given by the police and passers-by to the mother and her daughter.

To some extent, the girl was lucky that the police drove her to the test location to attend the exam and she had many people comforting her. Because of the concern and love shown by these strangers she was able to complete her exam and pass a life test.

(China Daily 06/15/2012 page9)