Our expat community thrives on connection, and here at jingkids, we’re all about our readers, and what they need and want in order to maximize their time here in Beijing. Every Monday, we’re going to feature a prominent member of our expat community and get to know them a little bit better.

Hi, my name is Taylor O’Brien. I am 11-years-old and South African. I have been homeschooled for the past 3.5yrs. I am a swimmer on the competition team of Sailfish Swimming Club. I like playing video games with my cousins, playing soccer with my friends, and watching Formula One.

I moved to China in 2019 with my Mom, Aunt, Granny, and my cat, Simba (who has sadly passed away since). My aunt and granny left China a few months back so it’s just my mom and me now.

Why did you want to start a WeChat channel about formula one racing??

I started watching the sport with my uncle when I was very young. He is a Ferrari fan and maybe that’s why I am too. My mom is really crazy about the sport too and she’s a die-hard Mercedes-AMG supporter.  Formula One is a very technical sport and not at all easy to understand. It’s also a very elite sport with not nearly enough kids and ladies that watch. I decided to start the OFF TRACK channel to firstly help newer F1 fans understand all the technical terms of the sport because we explain it in simple terms for them, and secondly to try and encourage more people (kids and ladies in particular) to watch the sport. My Mom and I represent the few that do and that’s why we present the show together.

What was the hardest part about getting started?

Really just the courage to actually start. I’d been sitting on the idea for months without doing anything about it. I had doubts as to whether anyone would even be interested or even watch. I also didn’t really know how to start. Luckily my mom’s professional background is in media and television entertainment and so she helped me put a plan together and turn the idea into a reality. Lockdown also really helped because we finally had the time to make it happen!

What is the most important thing you have learned while starting your channel so far?

That it’s not as simple as just switching on a camera and talking! You need a content plan, write a script, understand the content you are speaking about, source the footage, learn your lines, rehearse, be brave when the nerves hit, do as many takes as it takes to get the best shot, edit, get it translated and then put it out into the world. I have also learned to not overthink things and try to just have fun with them. In the first episode, you can tell we were really uncomfortable and nervous, but in the following episodes, I think you can see we’ve settled in and are more confident. Also not to worry about whether people will like it or not, or watch it or not. I need to enjoy the experience and if it helps 1 person or gains 1 more supporter, then I’ve still achieved the goal.

What’s your motivation to get moving?

Mainly my mom and family motivate me to do better and try harder in everything I want to do because nothing can be achieved without trying anything new.

To see Taylor and his mom in action check out Off The Track at the QR code below

Images: Taylor O’Brien

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, all training centers in Beijing were forced to shut down. On top of that, schools – both local and international – were also forced to close their doors to students, instead switching to online classes. Since then, most English and Chinese language training centers have continued offering online classes to students. This is especially convenient for families who are still stuck outside of China, or families who are looking to provide extra practice for their kids when mastering Chinese. Online classes are also an important resource for homeschooling families, or even those currently considering whether or not to switch to homeschooling.

But if you aren’t up to shopping around for courses in various private Chinese language training centers in Beijing, or don’t even know where to start or what exactly to look for in terms of quality, what do you do? Luckily, there are fantastic resources online, both local and international, to help your child along their language learning journey. Here are a few recommended by Beijing parents.

Little Fox Chinese 

Complete with a fully interactive website, Little Fox Chinese is perfect for young children as an online resource for learning Chinese. The site uses a combination of songs, games, stories, and videos as learning aids. Little Fox Chinese’s courses are divided into five levels that are great as a foundation for learning the language or fine-tuning the skills already gained, depending on the child’s level of fluency.

Level 1 

• Learn tones, pinyin, and correct pronunciation.
• Practice listening skills with short sentences from the stories.
• Learn basic vocabulary and form sentences.

Level 2

• Learn everyday expressions.
• Improve listening skills with simple, easy-to-read stories.
• Gain conversation skills for everyday settings.

Level 3

• Continue to learn everyday expressions.
• Learn the word order in sentences.
• Continue to practice listening skills.

Level 4

• Review sentence structure by reading stories.
• Summarize the stories after reading.
• Learn more complex characters.

Level 5

• Understand complex sentence structures.
• Expand vocabulary by reading and listening to the stories.
• Begin to practice speaking skills by saying simple sentences to express thoughts and feelings.

Outschool.com 

Described by one parent as ‘Taobao for extra lessons’, Outschool.com is a community marketplace of online classes for kids aged 3-18 years offered by independent teachers. Based in San Francisco, California, parents are able to register their kids for lessons and subjects unavailable in the kids’ schools or just extra tutoring lessons. Parents can watch demo videos of teachers offering their services, with teachers ranging from amateurs with a passion for teaching to professionals in the education industry. Classes also range in price, length, and frequency. Outschool also focuses on small-group, live online classes. All you have to do is browse through a catalog of classes on offer and match them up with your schedule and level. You can also find other lessons on the platform, from arts to sciences and even Minecraft social clubs.

That’s Mandarin

You might already be familiar with That’s Mandarin’s popular minute-long Chinese learning videos posted on a regular basis on WeChat. That’s Mandarin is one of the more popular options for adults wishing to learn Chinese in a more fun setting. They also offer online classes for kids. With no fixed start date for courses, you can decide when you wish your child to start taking the one on one online lessons. Each lesson lasts for 25 minutes with students being advised to take an average of two classes per session, once or twice a week. Seeing as it based in Beijing, you don’t have to worry about working around time differences, thus making it convenient. Here is a breakdown of lesson prices.

• RMB 4,320/person for 32 classes
• RMB 7,680/person for 64 classes
• RMB 13,440/person for 128 classes

Culture Yard 

Culture Yard has quickly become a Beijing institution, offering foreigners a chance to explore and experience Chinese culture in authentic ways. With everything from Mahjong classes, to other fun cultural activities, Culture Yard can be considered a curator of Chinese culture. Chinese is also included in the long list of fun and interactive classes offered by Culture Yard. With the help of teachers with extensive experience teaching Chinese to kids as a second language, the Culture Yard online kids courses focus on using Chinese to communicate, with an emphasis on speaking and listening skills, and encouraging the young learners to hone their reading and writing skills at home. If you wish to sign up for classes, you will be required to purchase a minimum of 10 lessons. Scan the QR code for more information.

KEEP READING: Virtual Parties for Birthdays or Just for Faery Fun!

Photos: Unsplash, littlefoxchinese.com, outschool.com, That’s Mandarin, Culture Yard 

The disruption that COVID-19 has caused in the traditional school system has left many parents wondering whether there is a way to take more control over their children’s education. An increasing number in Beijing are now turning to homeschooling, yet questions abound: how does it work? Where do you start? Is it legal? In this series, we dive in, talking to Beijing parents who have already started the journey about the big questions, and busting some myths along the way. Let’s get stuck in!

For the first article in our series, we spoke to May Yeung, who has been homeschooling her two daughters (8 and 14) for a total of 14 years.

May Yeung with her daughters Theo Chow – 14, and Halak Chow – 8

There are a few reasons why my children don’t ‘attend’ school. A month after we had our first baby we learned we were moving to Beijing. I started doing research on parenting and teaching. It was fairly easy and fun for the infant stage because there were so many programs and tools such as occupational therapy training, baby sign language, Doman, and Montessori training available. I just had to follow them and arrange playdates with other children.

When my daughter started kindergarten I started visiting schools with other moms and one of them mentioned homeschooling. She invited a lady who was homeschooling to share with us, and when I went over to look at the school materials I was blown away because it was exactly what I had dreamed of when I first prayed about it. I just jumped right in and started and it went well and we loved it.

The system that we use to homeschool our children is Sonlight from the United States. The reason I chose this system is quite simple. As I mentioned earlier, I want my children to be taught through the tenets of our religious beliefs, so I especially like the way their daily curriculum is structured, starting with a religious module, and the entire curriculum is structured around religious history and a worldview shaped by our personal beliefs.

‘I especially like the way their daily curriculum is structured’

We intend to homeschool our children until they are in High School.

I think the best thing about homeschooling is the ability to choose a curriculum that meets my family’s needs and fits my children’s learning style. For example, we can choose a math curriculum, whether it’s more intellectual or hands-on. Also, my children can learn each subject at their own pace so that they can master everything without pressure. It also provides us with a flexible daily schedule so that my children can focus more on developing their giftedness. For example, my eldest daughter can have more time to practice ballet and write her own book.

Homeschooling saves a lot of travel time which allows them to enjoy more free time. Looking back, I think homeschooling really helps them become self-taught instead of being indoctrinated. In addition, it helps them build a completely different network of friends that is not just limited to their classmates or schoolmates, but everyone they come in contact with.

“My eldest daughter can have more time to practice ballet and write her own book.”

There are some drawbacks to homeschooling. When my daughter was in elementary school, the people around me, especially my parents, were so anxious about my daughter’s future and a social life that they would even try to test her abilities and find any difficulties in her, which put a lot of pressure on me.

There are wonderful resources that have helped us on our homeschooling journey. It’s been a blessing to find native language teachers to help with language classes, Beijing Sports to allow my daughters to participate in different sports programs such as baseball and gymnastics, and Girl Scouts to enable my daughters to have peers to grow up with.

My advice for parents wishing to start homeschooling is this. I think parenting/homeschooling is like a dessert you want to make for your family (what kind of children you want to raise), once you figure out, the rest including the cooking method (teaching methods) and ingredients (resources) becomes easy because it’s just problem solving and it will sustain you through the difficult times of doubt. As a bonus, during this journey, I also discovered my gift and developed it into my “second curve” to become an accredited play therapist. So, I highly recommend that you give it a go, why not? If you don’t try, you’ll never know!

“I definitely love the fact that I’m able to ‘play around’ even though I’m a high school student.”

I thought it might be good to have my children share their thoughts on homeschooling:

I like being homeschooled for a lot of reasons. The most important one is that I get to spend half of my day playing and doing things that I love, such as dancing, playing with my sister, cycling, playing Minecraft, reading, writing, and hanging out with my family. Homeschooling has given me the extra time I need to dance more at my dance studio and still be able to play around. And I definitely love the fact that I’m able to ‘play around’ even though I’m a high school student. Homeschooling is amazing because I can go at my own pace, have no homework, and I can go to school at my own house! I don’t have to wake up early every morning to travel to school and come home late in the afternoon to finish up homework. I can wake up later than most people, finish school before them, and still have so much time leftover! I love homeschooling, and I would highly recommend it. – Theo Chow, 14

“I have time to do my favorite things”

I like homeschooling because I have time to do my favorite things: play Minecraft, lego, singing, drawing, and relax. And another great thing I love about homeschooling is that I have less homework to do and more time to spend with my family. – Halak Chow, 8

KEEP READING: What You Need to Know About Homeschooling in Beijing

Photos: Courtesy of May Yeung 

China’s Education Ministry has instructed local education authorities to clamp down on homeschooling parents, as a new app helps to ensure that no child can avoid the mandatory lessons about socialism and Xi Jinping thought.

Homeschooling has technically been illegal since 2006, with all children required to spend nine years in an officially recognized school. However as with many areas of China’s opaque legal system, enforcement was patchy at best. An announcement clarified the law in 2017, and now instructions have been issued to take action against unlicensed home education.

These unofficial schools are known as 四書 (sishu), after the Four Classics which form the basis of a traditional Chinese education: three works by Confucius and one by Mencius. They have often been criticized for the lack of essential modern subjects such as math, for relying on rote learning, and for the use of corporal punishment.

It is not clear what the ruling might mean for international parents who practice homeschooling as an alternative to increasingly expensive international schools. In the past authorities have tended to show little interest in the education of foreign children, being more concerned to ensure that Chinese citizens grow up learning the required lessons about socialism with Chinese characteristics. However in 2016 a law was introduced requiring international schools which accept children with Chinese passports to teach the Chinese curriculum in its entirety.

The clampdown comes at the same time as the launch of a new app to teach elementary and middle school students about “new socialist thought”. The app includes sections called “I Am Chinese,” about the country’s 56 recognized ethnic minorities, and “Grandpa Xi Led Us Into the New Era”.

This follows the success of a similar app for adults; although that success may have something to do with the Communist Party’s 90 million members being instructed to download and use it. The idea that a high score on the app might help members’ career prospects led to characteristically Chinese, or perhaps just human, attempts to game the system, some as simple as just leaving the app open to rack up points.

These latest initiatives demonstrate that the government is determined to ensure that all children in China get the official line about the country’s politics and culture. However it should be pointed out that such interference is not unknown in western nations; whether it’s applicants for UK citizenship having to take a test in “Britishness” which many native-born Brits would struggle to pass, or conservative lawmakers in Michigan removing the word “democratic” from the “core American values” to be taught in the state’s schools.

Most people regard their child’s education as a major priority. Parents often make huge sacrifices and willingly expend time, effort, and finances to ensure that their children receive the best possible education. And not without good reason, as generally speaking, the type of education one receives often determines how well they do in life. But what exactly constitutes a good education? Is homeschooling a viable option for expat parents in Beijing? Can this mode of education effectively prepare children to succeed in today’s society?

We asked three expats with homeschooling experience to help shed light on these fundamental questions.

Therese Baron

Therese and her husband have lived in China since 2006. The couple has four children aged 6, 7, 9, and 11, all of whom were born in Beijing. Therese is currently in her fifth year of homeschooling.

What do you like about homeschooling?
I like being able to work with my kids all day long. Each child learns at a different pace. They can be really fast in one subject and really slow in another. I can allow them to do that because we make our own schedule and it’s tailored to each child.

What’s challenging about homeschooling?
The higher the grade, the more I have to figure out how to make sure they are getting everything. With higher level math, if you can’t do it you have to find someone who can teach them or an online program.

Are there any challenges with homeschooling that are unique to living in Beijing?
The lack of libraries and all the activities that are usually connected to a library is a challenge here. We overcome this challenge by downloading books for the kids to read on their Kindle. We also make use of reading app subscriptions, and the kids love to listen to audiobooks.

How do you develop your children’s social skills?
We want people to enjoy being around our children. So we are always encouraging them to think about how they can be friendly: things like, if they see a kid being left out of something, try to include them. We have four children so they have plenty of practice with each other. If I was parenting an only child, I would have to do more to help that along.                           

What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking about homeschooling?
It has to be understood that homeschooling is a commitment. It’s true that it is flexible. I like that we can do double school one day, and take a family day the next. But if you’re too flexible and you can’t stay on a schedule, it’s easy to derail your child’s education. Also, it’s really helpful to have a friend who’s homeschooling as well: someone who can encourage you on the days you feel like giving up, somebody you can bounce ideas off. It doesn’t always have to be someone here, but it is good to have someone to talk to.

Andrea Viera

Andrea and her family moved to Beijing in 2013. Andrea has four children aged 6, 17, 19, and 21. Her two oldest children are currently in college in the US. Andrea began homeschooling in America, and her homeschooling experience spans 17 years.

What do you like about homeschooling?
In the early years, homeschooling really suited our lifestyle. We were a military family and so we moved every three or four years. Homeschooling was the thing that made our life predictable. No matter what was going on, we just did homeschool. It was something that pulled our life together.

What aspects of homeschooling do you find challenging?
When I started homeschooling, many of the resources that are available now were just developing. So there was often that question of, “Am I doing the right thing?” Most people who send their kids to school don’t really think about this. They just send their kids to school because that’s what people do. They don’t overanalyze everything.

What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about homeschooling?
I think it’s important for people intending to homeschool to develop some sort of philosophy and revisit it every few years. Ideally, this exercise will provide an answer to two questions: “Why are we doing this? and “What is the goal?”

What is the goal of homeschooling for your family?
In the US and here, there is a huge focus on college. That was never our main intention. We always expected our children to go to college and talked to them about college so that it seemed normal, but my goal was so much bigger. I wanted each of my children to develop into a whole person who succeeds in life, not just gets into college. I want to see who my children become after college. For me, going to college is just one part of life, not all of life.

It was also really important to us that we taught our children how to learn independently so they didn’t always have to be taught things. In traditional forms of education, you are taught things by a teacher, you memorize those things and then you take a test. Well, you should be learning your entire life. After college, there isn’t a test on everything you learn. We wanted to foster a lifelong desire to continue learning.

What curriculum do you use and how did you choose it?
We started off with a curriculum called Sonlight because it came all together and ready to go. As the years passed our curriculum became an amalgamation of pieces from several different curriculums. We also used online classes and online community college. In terms of choosing a homeschool curriculum, I would really recommend just picking something and starting. After a year of doing it, it will be easy to see what you love and what is the thing that everyone hates every day. Then you can go and talk to friends and ask, “What do you use for this?” It’s helpful to talk to different people about the way they homeschool because there are so many ways to do it.

How do you ensure your children receive adequate socialization?
It depends on your definition of socialization. This whole concept of socialization often refers to interacting with people who were born the same year as you. My children can interact with people of other ages easily and they’ve always been like that. I don’t think we did anything magical; we just exposed them to a whole range of other people. In life, you have to interact with people who are all different ages. My kids were always doing music and sport. They kind of had both worlds. If you just stay home all day, every day, then your child is going to be that stereotypical socially awkward kid, but it’s not because they were homeschooled; it’s because they weren’t socialized properly.

Does a person need teaching experience in order to homeschool well?
In reality, you are your child’s first teacher. You taught your child to walk and to talk. If you can read, you can teach your child to do it. You grow with them and your teaching style develops with them. Teaching your child at home is very different from standing at the front of a classroom having to deal with classroom management. When I started homeschooling, I had to change the images that I had of “school” and develop new ones.

Andrea is happy to answer questions about homeschooling. Email her at beijinghomeschool@outlook.com

Lisa Waltz

Lisa and her family took up residence in China way back in 1988. Lisa has been homeschooling in Beijing for 22 years. She has three adult children and is currently homeschooling her last child, a 17-year-old high schooler.

When the time came to apply for college and then actually go to college, were your children at a disadvantage due to having been homeschooled?
For the colleges we applied for, it wasn’t at all a problem that they had been homeschooled. Once they got to college, academically they were fine. In some cases, they were actually at an advantage. They struggled in other areas, such as being tied to somebody else’s timetable, but academics weren’t a problem.

I would say that parents need to help their kids figure out what they want early on. If they want to go to Harvard or Yale they need to be thinking about that as early as Grade 9, so that they can design their homeschool program accordingly.

How do you ensure your children receive adequate socialization?
My children didn’t lack in this area! They had too much socialization. They went to a homeschool co-op, they attended youth groups, and they played community soccer. They also had a lot of friends in our apartment complex. This city has a good transport system so it is easy for youngsters to get around by themselves.

What is a homeschool co-op?
Co-ops provide children with an opportunity to participate in activities such as music groups, science experiments, and art workshops. Some of them also organize an annual graduation ceremony.

What tips do you have on choosing a homeschool curriculum?
I would recommend starting with something that is all there in one package. Begin to understand how your child learns and then you can slowly veer away from the package if you need to. Over time you’ll get comfortable with branching out. And remember, it’s not really about stuffing them full of information. We are trying to give our children the tools that they need for learning because today’s information will be outdated tomorrow.

What advice would you give to parents thinking about homeschooling?
It’s important to be connected with other people who are doing the same thing as you.

And how does one go about getting connected with these people?
You could try posting on internet chat groups, or any one of the many family-orientated WeChat groups. You could also try approaching the international schools that homeschooling families might be connected to, such as the schools that homeschooled students might go to take their SATs.

Homeschooling families can be found across the city, with children ranging from preschool to high school age. For the parent wishing to embark upon the adventure of homeschooling, or for the seasoned homeschooler wishing to build up a network of Beijing-based comrades, it is well worth taking the time to track down these homeschooling parents. You can do this by asking around — both in person and online via the plethora of social network platforms that we have at our disposal. You’ll find that homeschooling parents are often extremely generous with their time and very willing to share their expertise with those just starting out.

Recommended resources

Books
– The Three R’s by Ruth Beechick
– The Core Knowledge series by E.D. Hirsch Jr.
– Senior High: A Home Designed Form+U+La by Barbara Edtl Shelton

Websites
– www.readaloudrevival.com
– www.theoldschoolhouse.com

This article first appeared in the beijingkids School Choice Guide 2019-2020
Photos: Adobe Creative Cloud

Almost nine years ago, when finances and geography combined to preclude enrollment of my children Myles and Brigid in schools in Changping, our family made the commitment to homeschooling. I have chronicled this part of our life a few times in the pages of this magazine, most recently in the 2014 School Choice Guide. Using phrases like “education adventure” to describe our approach, I have tried to keep my kids interested in learning for learning’s sake.

At the beginning of this “education adventure,” I enthusiastically researched curricula and teaching methods, hoping to provide my kids the most creative, cutting edge instruction I could synthesize. I aspired to make extensive use of online resources like Khan Academy and virtual coursework.

Further, paper would be banished, or at the very least severely limited, in my innovative homeschool of the future, as all work could be completed on digital media of some sort. The idea of freeing our homeschool life from the unbearable weight of paper felt like a victory long before the battle had begun.

Once I was in the thick of it, actually working on educating my older child, I made a few difficult and humbling discoveries. One was that while I was able to piece together a sampler pack of educational philosophies, it would never be close to perfect for me or my son and eventually my daughter. Sometimes we would have an immediate hit, like how well my son took to Singapore Math. Other times I would flounder a bit, like my still ongoing quest for the right English grammar program.

However it was my attempt to escape paper-based learning that was the most futile of my early ambitions. It seemed so diametrically opposed to my wanting to give my kids a leg-up on their 21st century lives. However, I kept returning to the efficacy of paper media over digital for certain tasks. My kids simply remember content better if they read it in a paper book rather than an e-book or webpage. The physical act of turning pages seems to help their brains process and categorize information.

For learning spelling and grammar, I found copywork, out of fashion in American education since the decline of the one-room schoolhouse, to be an effective exercise for both of my kids. It doesn’t take many hand-written repetitions for my kids to be ready for the dictation test, but it still involves paper.

And further in my radical departures from the high-tech education I thought I would be providing my children, I have discovered that handwriting, and cursive in particular, was much more important than I would have believed at the beginning of this “education adventure.” Cursive is increasingly out of vogue back in the US as most schools have abandoned it in favor of emphasis on keyboarding. However, cursive remains an efficient (and even beautiful!) method for taking notes, composing first drafts, and rehearsing copywork.

We have not become complete Luddites, though. Some of my early techy plans have come to fruition. The kids have taken some online classes with remote teachers guiding their work, and Myles often checks ebooks out of our hometown library when our own collection is inadequate.

Both kids even have been working on elementary coding as well. While they both have learned a few visual programming languages, Brigid has taken more to Logo, a textual programming language developed decades ago by the University of California at Berkeley. Like the cursive copywork that fills part of her days, her preference for Logo is a throwback to a previous century. Our “education adventure” has a clear vintage bent.

Photo: Free-Photos via Pixabay

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This article originally appeared on p 47 of beijingkids August 2017 issue.
Download the digital copy here.

Beijing’s rising cost of education has driven many international families to homeschooling their children. We recently examined this trend and The Global Times has also run at an article looking at a few families in the capital who have made this move:

When Ty Ahdieh gets up in the morning at 8:30, he doesn’t have to change out of his pajamas. The 7-year-old brushes his teeth, eats breakfast, and then sits on a chair in the living room with his mom, Theresa, to begin lessons in math and reading. Since Spring Festival this year, Theresa has been homeschooling Ty, mainly because the tuition to attend international schools in Beijing is too high.

"There was not really any affordable alternative for education in Beijing," she said. "We looked at the options — the starting tuition was 110,000 yuan ($18,000) for international schools." Having already homeschooled an older daughter, Monique, Theresa has the confidence to teach another child at home. Theresa is one among many homeschooling parents in Beijing who are choosing this alternative educational style for their children in Beijing. Some fear that homeschooled children will fall behind in their studies or miss out on friendships and learning how to get along with other people. But parents who tried it in Beijing say as long as you have a goal in mind from the beginning, the results can be the same or even better than traditional schools.

Read more of the article here and you can find more information on homeschooling in Beijing by contacting the Beijing Homeschoolers Network.

China Daily has an article describing the latest initiative to introduce sex education in local primary schools: 

A bold initiative to introduce sex education in primary schools is being viewed as a sign of progress by many in a nation where traditionally the subject is taboo … There are no specific sex education courses in Chinese public schools. Although a high school course called "physical hygiene" purports to educate youngsters about their reproductive organs, most students are simply left to read the textbooks on their own. But a dozen primary schools in Beijing, including the one affiliated to Beijing Medical University where Liu teaches, are trying to make breakthroughs in sex education.

However CNN reports that the initiative has stirred up controversy amongst some parents who feel the subject matter is too mature for primary school students:

A report in a local Beijing newspaper about a new sex education textbook for elementary school students — some as young as six-years old — has triggered a heated debate in cyberspace and beyond. The Beijing Times, a popular local tabloid, reported that the textbook, "The Steps of Growth", explains the concept of sexual intercourse with images and illustrations that some people consider too explicit and graphic. "Is it for elementary school students? That’s way too early for them…unacceptable!" one netizen wrote on Sina Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.

Meanwhile, British expat David Ferguson weighs the pros and cons of the Chinese education system and writes about why he has chosen to send his son to a Chinese school on China.org.cn:

On Sept. 1, my 6-year old son started school. He attends the local primary school here in Beijing, where I believe he will get a better start to his education and develop better study habits and a more disciplined and respectful attitude toward the school and his teachers than he would in the UK. I hope some of that discipline and respect might even rub off on his attitude toward his parents!

On the flipside, Voice of America discusses how Chinese educators are looking Westward for educational reforms:

“Schools around China, especially in developed areas like Shanghai and Beijing, are exploring education reforms with help from government,” said Xing Xu, a writer for “Shanghai Education,” a bi-weekly publication of the Shanghai Education Commission. “Some of them have got some good results: less homework, less memorizing, more discussion and practice.” Xu added that top U.S. high schools place great emphasis on student initiative and practical experience, things “Chinese students lack.” Li Jing, the deputy principal and director of international programs at the high school affiliated to Renmin University of China in Beijing, said China launched an educational curriculum reform in 2010 “aiming to promote a more student-centered learning setting, as well as to encourage students’ creativity and critical thinking.”

But perhaps most interesting of all is this Economic Observer article (translated from Chinese) decrying the financial lengths to which some parents are going to ensure their children get a good education:

The cost of a head start: some Beijing families spend half of their income to ease their child’s way into the best colleges, beginning with a contribution of up to 250,000 yuan ($39,000) for a place at kindergarten … A lack of resources in education has made competition for places even fiercer at Beijing’s best primary and junior high schools, testing the integrity of the school principals who oversee admissions. Prosecutors in west Beijing recently sounded the alarm on corruption at school with the publication of a report entitled Drawing Attention to Criminal Exploitation of Official Responsibilities in the Education System.

Debating the merits of the Chinese vs Western education system aside, it’s become painfully clear that Beijing is suffering from a lack of schools – making it essentially a seller’s market (ripe for corruption) for public and private institutions alike. 

More information:

International school fees in Beijing edge towards RMB 200,000 a year average (link)

Local schooling is getting pricey, too (link)

A welcome trend: need-based scholarships for kindergarteners (link)

Beijing Already has a Surplus of Students, So Why Are Schools Being Shut Down? (link)

The Diplomat: How Shanghai Schools Beat Them All (link)