童年，应该是什么样子？

Should childhood be a period of fun, or a time when the rat race begins? This was a question that popped up during a lunchtime conversation with my colleagues. Among us, only 1 is married with 2 kids, one in primary school and the other in preschool. She commented that her poor kids have extra lessons almost every weekday and she is trying hard to keep their weekends free to ensure that her kids have a “proper” 童年. My another colleague commented that a kid she knew in Korea volunteered to attend those extra classes in order to get to know more people, as all his friends are attending one class or another and he would be alone if he chooses not to attend.

These days, it seems that primary school education starts from preschool. Increasingly, kindergartens are now tasked to equip the preschool kids with at least Primary 1 knowledge, as more and more schools have some sort of “streaming” exercises even before the children enter the school. It has become a vicious cycle; when some parents start to give their children some preschool education, being “kiasu”, other parents follow suit, and being more “kiasu”, some other parents will make their children study even more to gain a better headstart. Sometimes, I wonder, should we expose the kids to the rat race so early? But I guess, parents don’t want their kids to lose out.

It’s not only pre-school kids who are feeling the heat. Secondary school students are now being kept in school till around 3pm (if there are no CCAs) and their weekends and nights are packed with tuition classes, one after the other. It’s common these days for schools to hold remedial or enrichment lessons after classes, sometimes till late in the night (like 8pm or so). I think I am fortunate enough to be able to count down to 1.30pm for most of the days and, for majority of the times, I am able to choose the extra courses I want to attend. In fact, the only kind of course (apart from mandatory tuition) which I managed to “survive” and advance through was the computer courses. Hahaha.. The number of tuition classes I attended was inversely proportional to my education level, from English to Science in Primary School, to English in Secondary to none in JC. I felt quite sian to wake up early on a Sunday morning for tuition, and tuition fees weren’t exactly cheap. Actually, my dad wanted GP tuition for me all along, but my Secondary School English tutor jerked up her prices substantially, pricing herself out of her job. I assured them that I would go for tuition classes if I failed, but my common tests had been somehow amazingly quite constant at C6 (except for 1-2 times I think). Hahaha…

Hmm.. I don’t remember being stressed in Kindergartens as some of the kids now. Though I’m in the era whereby preschool kids started having “proper” lessons on subjects like English and Maths, I remembered more about the TV programs we watched (like Tom & Jerry cartoons) and the naps which we were forced to take. Come to think of it, I do feel old… Hahaha…

I have always thought that childhood days should be carefree ones, when kids are free from most troubles that older kids (like me =P) faced and can do silly/naive stuff (or act in a silly way) and yet still got off with it =) It’s also a period when they do not have to think too much and have time to do what they want to do.

These days, I see kids lugging heavy bags around and have to study all the time, even during Chinese New Year. Not sure if it’s because they like studying that much, or are made to do so, but if it’s the latter, I really pity them. I understand from the parents’ point of view: if the kids don’t study hard or attend extra courses, they may find themselves lagging behind or may regret in the future for not picking up a certain skill. To avoid such, parents thus enroll their children in all sorts of courses and activities that they think will help the kids. Perhaps, we should take a step back and ask ourselves, what do we remember from our 童年 and what do we wish the kids to remember from their 童年? I believe there should be a balance somewhere.