Are We Too Easy on Our Kids?

How do U.S. students compare with their peers around the world? According to a Pew Research Center February 2017 report, “Recently released data from international math and science assessments indicate that U.S. students continue to rank around the middle of the pack, and behind many other advanced industrial nations.”
In light of our mediocre standing against our peers, an article in the Review section of the Wall Street Journal Sept. 9 could shed some light on how to assess our approach to education. It was written by an American mother, Lenora Chu, who has had her child enrolled in a Chinese school for several years. In her article, “Why American Students Need Chinese Schools,” she contrasts her child’s experience in Shanghai to her knowledge of American schools.
The saga starts out by telling how the Chinese teacher forced her son to eat some egg by cramming it into his mouth because he refused to do so voluntarily; after four tries, he swallowed it. Incensed, the mother confronted the teacher, telling her that that is not the way we do things: “We explain that egg eating is good for them, that the nutrients help build strong bones and teeth….(W)e trust them with the decision.”
The teacher then asked, “Does it work?” The mother replied, No, that he’s a picky eater, and that she has not been able to get him to eat eggs. The teacher then told the mother that she should support the teacher and that the mother should follow her example.
Chu writes that “Having the teacher as an unquestioned authority in the classroom gives students a leg up…. By contrast, Western teachers spend lots of time managing classroom behavior and crushing mini-revolts by students and parents alike….The Chinese parent knows that her kid deserves whatever the teacher metes out, no questions asked. In other words, let the teacher do his or her job. As a result, educators in China enjoy an esteem that’s tops in the world.” In China, a teacher is highly respected. Incidentally, per the article, “the Chinese are known to pump out some of the world’s best students.”
I was discussing this article with our daughter, Anna-Faith, who has taught in public and private schools. I told her that as a student, I could only recall one incident in 11 years of public school, where, a student had been disruptive in the classroom. Anna-Faith shook her head and said only, classrooms aren’t like that anymore.
The disruption I referred to was in the eighth grade, and the student’s name was Steve Marion. The whole class stared at him as the teacher motioned with his finger, for Steve to follow him. They went across the hallway to the principal’s office, and shortly we could hear the paddle striking him on his rear. They returned to the classroom, and the teacher returned to the chalkboard. There was dead silence.
Is the Chinese no-nonsense approach contrary to the American way of life? In the classroom, perhaps, but not on the sports field. On the field, the child and the parents know that that the child must toe the line…so they do. Where schooling is concerned, in too many instances, somehow we in America have become soft, and have come to believe that school does not require the same rigor or discipline in order to excel. 
Further, we have all heard the argument that rigid structure destroys a child’s creativity. But, if a child does not learn self-discipline, he’ll lack the necessary preparation to accomplish difficult goals in life.  For our students to join the top educational rankings in the world we’ve got to regain our discipline; we’ve got to toughen up.
PS: A piece in the Sept. 15, 2017 New York Times by David Brooks, I believe, underscores the value of not being easy on ourselves nor on our children. He states, there is “a yawning gap dividing the median Asian-American household, which makes $81,000 a year; the median white household …makes $65,000.” 
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From the Bible: Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.  Proverbs 22:29