The 15-page resume of a 5-year-old boy in Shanghai recently went viral online and provoked mixed reactions from people. The resume gives an elaborate overview of his personal hobbies and extracurricular activities (hip-hop, piano, soccer), as well as his special talents (literature and history, science and math, arts, sports).

According to a timetable in the resume, the boy's weekly schedule is composed of meticulously-planned daily studies and activities, including "writing three English diaries a week." The resume also includes a graphic of places he's been (Bali, Tokyo), a list of books he claims he has read this year (400-500 books), and numerous certificates he has earned.

The boy actually surpasses many adults with his resume. But more importantly, the parents of the boy's peers have certainly grown more anxious about their own children lagging behind. However, most people believe it's just another way of institutions conning parents into sending their children to their preschool cram schools, noting that forward education will do more harm than good.

Cooling preschool anxiety

Chu Zhaohui (www.edushi.com): Some schools conduct tests on kindergarteners who are preparing to enter primary schools. Only when their performance in expression, logical thinking and oral English meets certain levels are the children admitted. This is the major reason that drives parents to all kinds of cram schools. After entering primary school, there are more tests and if their children can't pass them, parents get worried and anxious.

Parents should be farsighted when it comes to their children's development. Generally speaking, those who are focused on learning knowledge in kindergarten will lag behind those who indulge themselves in games. Through playing all kinds of games, children's nature is fully tapped into and developed. These children are usually more capable of learning and more vigorous. They also tend to have better learning habits and stronger motivation for learning. Parents should give children some space to pursue their own interests, so as to nurture their capabilities.

Parents and children with no preschool experience may feel less confident than others. So how do we ease their anxiety? It's important for primary schools to play down the importance of tests and exams. During primary school, students should have at least 40-percent free time so that they can explore whatever they like. Otherwise, they will gradually become very passive about doing many things, including learning.

Xiong Bingqi (Guangming Daily): The news about the 5-year-old boy's resume may compel more parents to try to make their own child into a "super child." It often happens that when forward education is in the media, a lot of parents use it as another excuse to pressure their own children more. This is also part of the Chinese-style of early education, which is not only a competition among children but also among their parents.

Meanwhile, some social media platforms work with training institutions to fuel parents' anxiety about their children's education.

Regarding preschool education, the government issued a ban on conducting primary school education in kindergartens and preschool education institutions. However, a large number of parents still choose to force their children to take forward education, lest they fall behind at the starting line. By so doing, parents are neglecting their children's long-term development as they continue to worry until their children graduate from college. However, these children, who grow up under the shadow of their parents' anxiety, tend to become bewildered after graduating from college and have a hard time figuring out what to do with themselves. No one wins from this kind of education.

Parents must keep a clear head and not be fooled into forward education for their children by training organizations that try to instill panic in them. For example, the gap between schools in different areas has continued to narrow in the past decades, so why are parents growing increasingly anxious about finding a good school? To a large extent, this kind of anxiety is stoked by certain interest groups. Even the resume of this child is suspected of being a trick to provoke anxiety among parents.

Undeniably, a lot of parents are anxious that their children will not get into a good primary school if they are outshone by other children. The correct way to remove this anxiety is to help parents choose suitable schools for the current stage in their children's development based on their abilities. However, in reality, many training organizations are stressing that if children are surpassed by others and can't enter a good primary school, they are doomed to failure for life. Spurred by this anxiety, parents become slaves to preschool education. Here is where parents need to stay calm and learn to analyze the hype produced by training organizations. It's important not to be enslaved by these profit-driven entities.

Personality dependent

Bazhahei (www.southcn.com): Anxiety usually stems from comparison. When social values and structures are undergoing dramatic changes, differences in jobs, wealth and so on will easily trigger anxiety in a certain group.

Some people are impressed by the amount of reading and drawing done by the 5-year-old boy, but they have neglected to examine the content and method of the reading. This negligence can easily lead to a wrong conclusion. When a comparison is made, it's also important to take into account differences in personality and objective conditions. Anxiety will be triggered if all these factors are neglected.

Making comparisons is unavoidable, so is anxiety. The key is how to treat or even make use of anxiety. Some people can extract from it the power to push forward, while others become impulsive. Comparison can sometimes stimulate people to find a better way of doing things. Obviously, all parents hope their children will be successful in school, but what is more important is to find a proper method that is really suitable for the children, instead of copying other ways.

Shandingwenyanhui (www.edushi.com): We should not judge this 5-year-old boy too harshly. Maybe he is enjoying the process. No one knows how he really feels about his life. He probably doesn't even know himself, but his parents always tell him that learning makes people happy.

Even if he is really happy, he is leading a really tough life. He has so many things to learn and so many books to read. Some things that he has tried are very difficult even for adults. He goes along with the schedule arranged by his parents, with no space to express what he really wants to do. For most children, who are average people, this educational model is agonizing and it may even damage their psychological health.

In actuality, preschool education is moving in this direction, stoking parents' anxiety and forcing them to compare and compete with others. Parents are tortured by the fear that other children will surpass their children at the startling line. So, even if they don't send their children to preschool training classes, they still can't resist sending them to classes such as mathematics, piano, sketching, chorus, ballet, tennis and others. Gradually, more and more families fall into a mire. But, if they don't impose forward education on their children, then more time, energy and money can be saved for the children to enjoy other things in life. However, parents end up believing that other children have taken classes, thus their children must be enrolled in order to catch up. Usually, learning more than others in the early years tends to be amplified as an advantage, with the reasoning being that a good and early start will sustain this edge forever.

Thus, training organizations, taking advantage of parents' anxiety, tout and pitch forward education. But actually, what children need is moderate preschool education, not forward education. What preschool children need is all kinds of brain stimulation so that their intelligence can be developed. It's a process designed to better tap into their potential. Good preschool education is not about learning knowledge.

Sometimes, parents force forward education on their children because they themselves have not received a good education. They hope to achieve their dreams through their children. When their children receive plaudits, their vanity is stroked. In such cases, children are often unhappy and as a result, when they grow up, they usually fight back and even hate school and learning.

Children have a lot of interesting things to do in their childhood, while they have the rest of their life to learn knowledge. Forward education may advance them a bit faster than others, but it's quite possible that they'll be overtaken. What matters in the early stage of childhood is to help children develop good personalities, character and health, not to strain them with forward education.

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

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