It\’s not that I don\’t want to reduce the burden on my child, but that there is no way out for him in life.

Regarding educating children, the practices of two celebrities may be closer to what people often call quality education. One is Gao Xiaosong, a talented scholar from Tsinghua University and a famous musician. Someone asked Gao Xiaosong whether he would force his children to learn the piano. He replied that he did not necessarily need to learn the piano, but he must learn more and do more useless things. Gao Xiaosong believes that the most important difference between humans and animals is that everything animals do is useful, for survival and reproduction. People have to do many useless things, such as playing chess, calligraphy and painting, and loving and waiting. But if a child is taught that he can only learn courses that are useful for further education, that he can only do things that are useful for employment in college, and that he can only buy a car or a house after working, wouldn’t it be a waste to be born as a human being? Therefore, Gao Xiaosong\’s daughter learned many skills that seemed \”useless\” for improving her grades: dancing, playing the guzheng, and riding horses… Gao Xiaosong said that in addition to listening to music and watching movies, her biggest hobby is running around the world. , \”If I only have enough money to travel or buy a house, then I will travel.\” Gao Xiaosong\’s mother is still wandering, backpacking around the world alone. The same is true for his sister. Although she earns much more money than Gao Xiaosong, she does not buy a house. She rides a motorcycle across Africa and drinks with the chieftains… Such a family, such an educational concept, and such a lifestyle are really impressive. People are envious and fascinated. But I checked Gao Xiaosong\’s family background and immediately put away my fascination. Gao Xiaosong\’s grandfather is the first president of Shenzhen University, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a foreign academician of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences; his grandmother is one of the founders of Beihang University and the only Chinese doctorate of Professor Prandtl, the world\’s authority in fluid mechanics; his father is Professor at Tsinghua University; his mother graduated from Tsinghua University and studied under Liang Sicheng, a famous architect and architectural educator in China; his younger sister also graduated from Tsinghua University and now lives in Germany. Gao Xiaosong described his mother: \”My mother was born in Germany, grew up in China, and now lives in the United States. She reads, paints, and inspects ancient buildings. She is quite like Lin Huiyin, a talented woman from the Republic of China.\” Such a family, such a background, such a talent, No wonder we have a liberal education philosophy, no wonder we don’t have to “buy a car or a house”. Because buying a car or a house is really just the lowest level of demand for them. But we ordinary people really can’t learn this kind of lifestyle and parenting style because we are not strong enough. The other is Zheng Yuanjie, the \”Fairy Tale King\”. After his son Zheng Yaqi graduated from primary school, Zheng Yuanjie, who hated the mainland education method, decided to educate him himself. Moreover, Zheng Yuanjie made an agreement with her son: \”I will give you whatever you want before you are 18 years old, and I will not give you anything again when you are 18 years old.\” And Zheng Yaqi did not disappoint his father. Zheng Yaqi made his first fortune by writing game guides online when he was 11 years old. He learned how to make web pages when he was 12 years old. At the age of 13, he started forming a team with Peking University students and earned more than 300,000 yuan by making web pages… Of course, in Zheng Yaqi Behind his success is that in 1992, when he was 9 years old, his father spent more than 10,000 yuan to buy a computer. What was the concept of more than 10,000 yuan at that time? I remember my high school teacher told us that the salary was about more than one hundred yuan. In 1995, when Zheng Yaqi came into contact with the webAt that time, there were no more than 5 or 6 Chinese web pages. When he started making money by creating web pages the following year, the price of a web page was 10,000 yuan. Until 1997, there were only 250,000 dial-up Internet users nationwide. Thinking about many children the same age as Zheng Yaqi, they may not even know what the Internet is at that time. It has to be said that not everyone has the ability and financial resources like Zheng Yuanjie, who allows his children to leave school and enjoy a better education than in school. He has always been at the forefront of social development. In recent years, quality education and burden reduction have become the hottest topics. But when everyone is calling for burden reduction, they seem to have overlooked one of the most critical issues: families are different, and not every family\’s children are suitable for burden reduction. For example, primary school ends at 3:30 in the afternoon. Some parents applaud this, but for many office workers who are busy with work, this is a disaster. They do not have time to pick up their children so early. Their children have to be cared for after school or spend money to enter care institutions, which increases the financial burden and the learning effect is no better than in school. This year\’s winter vacation, some high schools in Hengshui started school early and were forced to start school on the 16th day of the first lunar month due to reports from students. But in fact, most middle schools across the country opened early, but no one complained or the media didn\’t report it. In fact, the children who signed the report do not understand that the school provides them with free tutoring (even the fees are very low), which really reduces the burden on their families. I am afraid that this is also the reason why many parents support starting schools early. I remember reading an article introducing Western-style relaxed education. It said that Chinese education uses explicit test-taking to divide student groups. Western education actually secretly completes social stratification through a relaxed process. In the United States, public schools only provide limited basic education. If you want to become an elite, you must buy it from the market. Those who cannot afford it will naturally be eliminated. The author found that after American primary schools ended at 3 p.m., only the children of black neighbors ran and jumped home. Most of the white and Chinese children went to various tutoring classes carrying schoolbags and musical instruments. It’s really worrying whether the result of our burden reduction will be like this, further exacerbating social stratification. Formally, we are now making life easier for children and giving them more free time. But those free hours can become a watershed moment for children. In the same way, some children get poetry and distant places, while some children get the fields that they can never leave the village for the rest of their lives. You know, school also ends at 3:30, and the gap between children who learn guzheng from famous teachers and children who play mobile phones without supervision will only widen. For Gao Xiaosong\’s children and Zheng Yuanjie\’s children, there is really no need for them to do three years of college entrance examination and five years of simulation every day. Their children can learn more knowledge beyond textbooks and have more options besides taking 985 and 211 exams. But for many children from ordinary families, they have no other way out except the college entrance examination. Apart from solving questions, it is difficult to learn other skills. At this time, you let them reduce the burden, what is the point of letting them do less questions and more time to play? We are not Gao Xiaosong, and we are not Zheng Yuanjie. Our children are destined not to be as free and relaxed as their children. If we can choose, between sleeping more and playing more may lead to a lifetime of humility, sleeping less and playing less may elevate our life to a higher level, we can only choose the latter. Really, it’s not that I don’t want to reduce my child’s burden, but that there is no way out for him in life. You let your child reduce the burden, I want my child to be full of stress. Because there is pressure, you will have motivation, the passion for struggle, and the hope of catching up on the road of life.