China rethinking ‘tiger parent’ approach

Traditional Chinese parenting and teaching style — with its emphasis on high expectations and strict discipline — is facing a backlash at home.

WANG ZHAO / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Students read before taking the national postgraduate entrance exam in Beijing. China’s uber-competitive college admissions process continues to place overwhelming weight on entrance exam scores.

By: Yiqin Fu Foreign Policy magazine, Published on Tue Feb 18 2014

Just as more North Americans begin to look approvingly at China’s educational model, the traditional Chinese parenting and teaching style — with its emphasis on high expectations and strict discipline — is facing a backlash at home.

With a Confucian tradition that puts heavy emphasis on filial obedience and academic achievement, the stereotype of strict Chinese parents wringing the best out of their children through harsh techniques certainly has its basis in truth. Now, there are signs some Chinese have had enough.

Read more on thestar.com:

‘Tiger Mother’ admits regrets — but not about writing book

Should Canada’s schools become more like China’s?

The 7 things you can’t talk about in China

On the popular Chinese social network Douban, a group calling itself “Anti-Parents” has more than 77,000 members, where users share stories of childhoods spent under the thumbs of controlling parents.

And some of China’s would-be tiger parents are now opting to purr rather than roar. So-called appreciation education, which encourages adults to celebrate children’s successes instead of focusing on their failures, is now in vogue.

Some elementary and middle schools have already revamped their curricula around this philosophy. Jishui Number 1 High School in central Henan province linked teachers’ bonuses to their ability to embrace these new methods, while Xilin High School in Shanghai designated every Monday “appreciation day,” when teachers must compliment at least 20 students in class.

Wealthier Chinese parents, meanwhile, are sending their children overseas to study — not only to improve their English and give them an international outlook, but also to benefit from a more holistic approach to education.

It’s all part of a “rising tide” of Chinese parents “who care more about their child’s well-being than his or her test score,” Jiang Xueqin, deputy principal of Tsinghua University High School, one of China’s top secondary schools, wrote in December.

But that shift has yet to show in China’s uber-competitive college admissions process, which continues to place overwhelming weight on entrance exam scores. That means anxious parents feel they have little choice but to steer them, sometimes with heavy-handed scolding or prodding, toward exam preparation, to the exclusion of their hobbies and other interests.

Chinese education authorities have plans to lighten the workload for schoolchildren with measures that include mandating less homework and scrapping the entrance examination to middle schools in major cities. But reforms to the school system will take time to materialize, and the cultures of overwork they have created will not go gently.

For Chinese children currently in the state-run school system, a break from the grind — much less appreciation — may still be a long way off.