The Coddling of American Children Is a Boon to Beijing

[S1ngh]

Good read.

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The Coddling of American Children Is a Boon to Beijing

In China, my son had to study hard. Here in the U.S., he just needs to bring a ‘healthy snack’ to school.

As a Chinese doctoral student raising a young son in the U.S., I am mystified by how American elementary schools coddle students. In China, schools are run like boot camps. What do the therapeutic comforts America showers on its youth portend for a growing competition with China?

I recently registered my son in the third grade at a New Jersey public school. Hattie had recently finished two years of elementary school in Chengdu, China, where he trotted off to school each day with a backpack stuffed with thick textbooks and materials for practices and quizzes. Here he leaves for school with little in his backpack other than a required “healthy snack.”

The first day he came home with a sheet of math homework: 35 addition problems. He finished in about a minute. On the second day, he was asked to write 328 in different configurations. He first wrote down 300+20+8, following the prompt, and then 164x2, 82x4 and 656÷2.

My son is not a genius, but he started studying math at an early age. When he was 5, I taught him fractions. Two years later, I introduced him to algebra. It is a core belief in Chinese society that talent can be trained, so schools should be tough on children. Chinese students score at the top of international math and science tests.

This is not a philosophy shared by American schools. On Friday night my son came home announcing in bewilderment that he didn’t have any homework. In China students tend to receive twice as much homework on the weekend, given the two days to complete it. How will America compete with a China determined to train the best mathematicians, scientists and engineers?

Unfolding now are two Maoist cultural revolutions, one in the East and the other in the West. The former is a jingoistic nationalism enforced by party loyalties and ubiquitous secret police. The latter is an anti-Americanism enforced by progressive mobs seeking to defund the police. Both are about limiting expression, controlling thought and regulating behavior.

Xi Jinping has been cracking down on everything from finance to entertainment to whip his country through a “national rejuvenation.” China’s nationalism is explicitly anchored in Maoism, with Mr. Xi representing the new cult of personality. Meanwhile, woke America—which, consciously or not, deploys Maoist tactics—is destroying the core traditions of Western civilization with identity politics.

In both countries, control must extend to the very young to mold them in the image of the official ideology. In fall 2021 Chinese pupils returned to school with a new requirement to study “Xi Jinping Thought.” Schools must “plant the seeds of loving the party, the country, and socialism in young hearts,” a government announcement declares. Across the ocean, American pupils are taught that white America is inherently racist, regardless of individual intention or action.

Chinese education pushes the young in directions that serve the party and the state. Youth are trained to be skilled laborers ready to endure hard work and brutal competition. Such political indoctrination is taught side by side with math and science. American education is supposed to be about opening minds but appears not to fill them with much. Worse, young Americans are not prepared for the demands of being an adult.

This phenomenon started in higher education. For years attending American universities, I have been disturbed to watch colleges fabricate “anxiety” and “depression” in students who are not mentally ill. Administrators have used grossly exaggerated terms such as “trauma,” and melodramatic expressions such as “I cannot begin to imagine what you have suffered,” to turn into a catastrophe what is best described as disappointment. This creates a culture of victimization.

The absurdity peaked after the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Students from elite universities claimed existential despair, finding comfort in cocoa, coloring books and therapy dogs. Classes were canceled and exams postponed, all in the name of soothing 20-somethings who need to be learning how to adapt to reality as adults.

Chinese citizens enjoy mocking the Western “snowflakes.” Less amusing is what this trend means for the U.S. as China no longer hides its enmity for America.

Ms. Zhang is a doctoral student in political science

 

https://apple.news/A2NXM-nwBSBy3S7A9EkmS7g

[Premi5]

With respect Ji, maybe this be in ‘Politics | Lifestyle’ section? 
 
There’s no direct relevance to Sikhi or Sikhs.

[justasking]

In societies like china the route is pretty easy go get educated and become productive memeber of society in the west there are too many factors outside family and schools that can derail a child from going onto the path of success and to be frank with you all i feel its like that by design

[dallysingh101]

4 minutes ago, justasking said:

and to be frank with you all i feel its like that by design

In england that is definitely the score. It's a rigged game. 

[MisterrSingh]

I wish there were countries in the developed world that you could move to where the affects of the Anglo-materialism / consumerism culture (and its socio-political arms) was non-existent (without resorting to fleeing to Catholic Eastern European countries). The older I get, the more I'm feeling suffocated by these "zombie" nations where money can clearly be made in vast amounts, but at the expense of the serenity of our inner self.

As much as we can switch off the outside world and live in a bubble, the idea that the rest of society is operating in accordance with those degenerative values is the importance part, because you can't formulate relationships and ties with people with whom you fundamentally disagree on every aspect of existence on a philosophical basis, because they want to shape the society according to their 5hit values and beliefs. Unlike Muzzies, I'm not interested in imposing my beliefs on others through force. 

Anyone who says "India" is having a laugh. That place makes one question the premise that our differences as humans are no more than skin deep, which is a premise I find to be worryingly untrue.

[proudkaur21]

8 hours ago, MisterrSingh said:

Anyone who says "India" is having a laugh. That place makes one question the premise that our differences as humans are no more than skin deep, which is a premise I find to be worryingly untrue.

could you elaborate a bit on what you mean by this?

[MisterrSingh]

25 minutes ago, proudkaur21 said:

could you elaborate a bit on what you mean by this?

Some apne say that in order to find a more authentic, grounded, and non-materialistic existence, we should spend some time in Punjab amongst our own people and our culture, etc., because apparently the people over there aren't tainted by the grossness of Western desires. I've always found that laughable because you only have to spend a few days in Punjab to notice the exact opposite. Familiarility breeds contempt and the rest of it. When these so-called deeply spiritual and religious people exhibit the same greed and ruthlessness (amplified) that you wanted to escape in the first place, then you begin to question that ideal that says we're ultimately all the same underneath, the only difference are our surface attributes. I'm arguing that's rather misleading, and that's exactly the kind of philosophy that gets tender, naive spiritual types into a lot of trouble when they're convinced they need to kill their instincts in order to be a wonderful spiritual being; the same instincts that are actually trying to warn them about impending danger.

[proudkaur21]

1 minute ago, MisterrSingh said:

Some apne say that in order to find a more authentic, grounded, and non-materialistic existence, we should spend some time in Punjab amongst our own people and our culture, etc., because apparently the people over there aren't tainted by the grossness of Western desires. I've always found that laughable because you only have to spend a few days in Punjab to notice the exact opposite. Familiarility breeds contempt and the rest of it. When these so-called deeply spiritual and religious people exhibit the same greed and ruthlessness (amplified) that you wanted to escape in the first place, then you begin to question that ideal that says we're ultimately all the same underneath, the only difference are our surface attributes. I'm arguing that's rather misleading, and that's exactly the kind of philosophy that gets tender, naive spiritual types into a lot of trouble when they're convinced they need to kill their instincts in order to be a wonderful spiritual being; the same instincts that are actually trying to warn them about impending danger.

lol lol lol anyone who thinks that people in punjab are spiritual and not tainted by this consumerism culture is a fool.They are even worse I say. I remember my mom telling me how back home they all judge you based on what you wear, what job you have, what cars you have and what not!!! They are so superficial. Not saying the west is some utopia and people aren't superficial here but i have found people to be less judgemental and nosy than people back home. Honestly the society back home is really really messed up. It can be a developed first world country but you would still want to to get out of there because of the society and the way they operate.

[MisterrSingh]

13 minutes ago, proudkaur21 said:

lol lol lol anyone who thinks that people in punjab are spiritual and not tainted by this consumerism culture is a fool.They are even worse I say. I remember my mom telling me how back home they all judge you based on what you wear, what job you have, what cars you have and what not!!! They are so superficial. Not saying the west is some utopia and people aren't superficial here but i have found people to be less judgemental and nosy than people back home. Honestly the society back home is really really messed up. It can be a developed first world country but you would still want to to get out of there because of the society and the way they operate.

The only thing they've got going for them over there is they're largely free of the globo-homo media complex that's starting to become inescapable in the Anglosphere. But at what cost, lmao?

[Suchi]

The reality of the diversity agenda.