Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2959 The Starting Line of Life

When it comes to education, people like Zhou Buqi, Aunt Xue, and Ning Yaxian are all laymen.

Can only talk big.

However, after a brief discussion, the three of them basically reached a consensus that they should not blindly believe in the American happy education system, which is actually a screening tool for social classes. Those social elites and experts in various industries have accumulated a lot of knowledge since childhood and have grown up little by little.

The more ignorant you are, the happier you are.

The Zhou family's conditions were impeccable, and they had everything they wanted. Zhou Buqi could provide the best resources for his children. However, he did not want all his children to become happy pigs. In choosing the direction of their education, he had to be ruthless and discipline them strictly, so that they could receive a better and more difficult education.

In fact, Zhou Buqi has always been able to feel this while doing business in Europe and the United States over the years.

Many young people in Europe and America break down easily, and many of the things are actually trivial. Even some young people in China have such people.

When a girl suffers a breakup, she jumps off a building; when a boy fails in his marriage proposal, he jumps off a building; when he has an argument with his parents or teachers, he jumps off a building; when his investment in a house fails, he jumps off a building.

The tolerance is really poor.

You underestimate the value of life.

A very important reason for psychological fragility and poor tolerance is that children are spoiled from an early age, lack frustration training, have no experience of pain and failure, and have not developed strong self-resilience from the inside out.

Zhou Buqi felt that he should be cautious in this regard.

This is not his area of ​​expertise.

He also didn't dare to express his opinions carelessly.

Fortunately, he had made good plans in the early stages and managed to get Teacher Wen.

Wen Zhixia is an educator and she has a lot to say in this field.

After dinner, the family committee held a meeting, mainly to discuss the education of children.

Wen Zhixia first talked about the fundamental meaning of education. "Education in the United States is quite different from that in China. Education in China focuses on teaching cultural knowledge in order to cope with exams. Education in the United States does not teach cultural knowledge, mathematics, physics, and chemistry, but cultivates a child's sound personality from an early age, guides children to get along with each other in a friendly manner, communicate fluently, and teaches them how to be a good person. Both ideas are actually correct. For many ordinary families, they do not have the ability to make their children develop comprehensively. In the structural design of mass education, there must be some trade-offs."

After hearing this, Zhou Buqi understood and said with a smile: "We are not an ordinary family."

Wen Zhixia said, "Yes, so we must go in both directions. We all say that the education pressure on children in China is too great, and that children in the United States are very happy and relaxed... This is really a huge misunderstanding. Children from low-income families in the United States are very happy and relaxed. Children from elite families are also very tired and hard-working. They learn this and that every day, and sign up for various extracurricular classes, interest classes, and cram schools. They are actually no different from children in China."

Ning Yaxian smiled and said, "Of course, how can a child not study?"

Senior Sister Zhen Yu said softly, "The annual scale of the after-school tutoring market in the United States is about 60 billion US dollars, which is much smaller than that in China. This is because the group of people receiving after-school education in the United States is too small. Most children in China have basically received extracurricular tutoring during their growth, but few children in the United States have had such an experience."

"Hmm?" Zhou Buqi immediately took it seriously, "On average?"

Zhen Yu chuckled and said, "If we compare them on average, tutoring in the United States is definitely more expensive. In China, tutoring is done by sending children to after-school training institutions. In the United States, it is customary to invite a tutor to teach the child at home. One-on-one private lessons are, of course, more expensive."

The Zhou family's situation is special, so it is not convenient to invite a teacher to their home.

So when Wen Zhixia took Nian Nian to learn piano, she went to the teacher's home.

However, this is also a one-on-one private lesson.

Private lessons not only have better educational effects, but are also "confidential", allowing for secret growth.

Zhen Yu added, "The extracurricular tutoring I'm talking about refers to the extracurricular tutoring market, which does not include interest classes such as basketball, piano, gymnastics, and programming. It refers to tutoring for specialized knowledge outside of school, mainly courses such as English, history, mathematics, biology, physics, and chemistry. The domestic extracurricular market is about 1000 billion US dollars in size, which includes all areas of extracurricular training. Looking only at the extracurricular tutoring market, the domestic market is about 180 billion US dollars, which is not much different from the United States." Wen Zhixia knew this very well. She had done such work before. "Well, the expensive extracurricular tutoring in China is in the art and professional fields, such as model catwalk training, singing training, violin training, etc., which cost thousands of yuan per class. Extracurricular tutoring for primary and secondary school students is actually very cheap, and most families can afford it. It's not the case in the United States. It's all a one-on-one private tutoring model. Even if many middle-class families value education, it is difficult to afford this huge education expense."

Zhen Yu is the one who knows America best among the people in the family. She said slowly, "That's right. American middle-class families with an annual income of hundreds of thousands of dollars can hardly afford to provide more educational resources for their children. Hiring a tutor is almost a privilege for elite families. This means that the descendants of the elite are destined to remain in the elite class. This is actually very bad and a huge injustice in society. The model of the domestic after-school education and training industry can better reflect the fairness of society."

Wen Zhixia smiled and said, "However, there are exceptions. Asians...mainly Chinese, Japanese, and Korean families all attach great importance to education. Even middle-class families will spend most of their family expenses to provide the best education for their children. To judge whether a school's educational environment is good or not, you just need to see how many Asian students there are in the school. The more Asians, the better the school; the more blacks, the worse the school."

"That's it..."

Zhou Buqi seemed to be lost in thought, and his thoughts suddenly flew away.

"Hmm?" Shi Jinglin didn't know much about education, so she didn't say much during the family meeting. But when she saw Zhou Buqi's mind wandering, her face changed and she said angrily, "You are distracted! What are you thinking about? Are you thinking about doing business again? Isn't the education of children more important than making money for you?"

Zhou Buqi felt a little nervous and quickly cleared his throat, saying, "No, I'm listening. Well, what Teacher Wen and Senior Sister Zhen Yu said are both very good. I think in this kind of situation, it must be whoever knows better should listen to it. Teacher Wen is an expert, so we should follow her opinion. I don't understand anything, so whatever I say is just blind command."

Shi Jinglin rolled her eyes at him. "You're obviously distracted. Have you come up with some new money-making ideas?"

Zhou Buqi laughed haha.

I thought to myself, you know so much!

Wen Zhixia pursed her lips and said softly, "In fact, this knowledge is very simple for children when they are young. Well... there are mainly three aspects. The first is to learn team skills in school. In this regard, American schools have more advantages than domestic schools. Classmates have more opportunities to play with each other, and the school has more social practice activities. There are also many group outings and summer camps. They are all very meaningful and can give children a basic ability to adapt and socialize in a team."

"Ah."

Zhou Buqi refocused on the topic of family meetings and felt that what Teacher Wen said was better.

"Second, it's personal ability." Wen Zhixia seemed to have planned it out long ago, so she was very organized. "Learn cultural knowledge well. In fact, it doesn't matter what you learn. Many courses are actually useless in society. What's important is the learning process, which is personal growth and self-learning. Children with good academic performance actually have good personal abilities. Especially now is the era of science and technology, there are always new things and new industries. This means that children who study well can learn new industries faster and adapt to the new era faster. This is actually the advantage of the domestic education system. China has obvious advantages in emerging industries, which has been reflected in the talent level. Our children cannot lack this aspect of education."

Ning Yaxian said: "I also think that we should combine them. It would be best to send the children back to China every summer vacation so that they can experience the domestic education system. That kind of competitive and intense learning atmosphere is not a bad thing."

Wen Zhixia said softly, "It should be. The one-on-one private teaching model in the United States is not necessarily better than large classes. In large classes, the teacher cannot take care of every student. This kind of irresponsibility of the teacher can stimulate the subjective initiative of students and let them learn on their own to make up for their shortcomings. Moreover, large classes can stimulate the desire to compete. When the teacher explains a knowledge point, some people understand it immediately. Some people who don’t understand will be dissatisfied and work harder. This is an advantage that one-on-one private teaching cannot replace."

The domestic extracurricular teaching market is mainly for the general public and most families can afford it.

This must be a large class model, with dozens or even dozens of children studying together.

One-on-one private training is really expensive.

This inevitably leads to a lack of popularity.

Zhou Buqi said, "Well, competition is good. Competition can be an internal motivation. In the United States, there are one-on-one tutoring and home tutoring... This is a monopoly of educational resources. Monopoly will stifle innovation, create a mentality of lying flat, and lead to internal self-corruption. This is not good."

Shi Jinglin snorted.

Zhen Yu also rolled her eyes at him.

I think he is a little crazy and applies the ideas of business management to the education of his children.

Wen Zhixia said: "The third point is interest classes. The choices in this regard must have a certain upper-class tendency. Art classes can be piano, violin, or pipa and guzheng, but not singing, dancing, or modeling. If you like sports, you can choose tennis, equestrianism, or golf, but not football, basketball, or rugby."

With that said, Zhou Buqi felt more and more that the education structure in Europe and America was stratified, and nodded. "The sports of the British royal family are horse racing and golf, and only children from ordinary families play football. Different interests and hobbies determine different social circles. Children's education is really the starting line of life!"