Between Happiness and Excellence: Rethinking Education as Immigrant Parents

My high school friend's family visited Japan from Australia. After more than a decade apart, we unexpectedly reunited in Osaka.

When we met again, our party of 2 had become 8. Our conversations, beyond catching up and gossip, inevitably circled back to our children's education.

As comrades who survived one of China's top-ranked high schools, we know the domestic education model well. Today's educational competition may be even fiercer than when we were students.

Now we have children of our own. Though separated by continents—Australia and Japan—we've never relaxed our investment in their education. And we all face challenges our parents never encountered raising us.

Language, culture, social environment, and more.

IELTS high-scorers can't tutor their children in English. Passing Japanese N2 doesn't mean understanding a third-grader's test paper.

Our glorious achievements on the examination battlefield belong to another world as far as our children are concerned.

Whether in Japan or Australia, intensive parenting exists. Testing remains the only measure.

If tests are required, extensive training is needed. Practice problems, practice problems. Rankings, rankings.

Wanting to attend good schools means selection and fierce competition.

We're ordinary people without family wealth. We've earned today's life through our own efforts. Though hardly luxurious, at least we don't worry about food and clothing.

What can we leave our children?

Money? Property? Good health? Mental wellness? Self-reliance skills?

We're first-time parents too, facing challenges our parents never encountered raising us.

I know many families have come to Japan in recent years to "escape" China's educational environment.

But in reality, 99% of people haven't thoroughly understood Japan's education system and social reality before arriving.

"Happy education" and "elite education" appear to be completely contradictory models.

But perhaps we've misunderstood "happy education."

Happy education doesn't equal indulgence or going with the flow. It shouldn't mean avoiding competition.

The core of happy education should be sparking children's interests, unleashing their potential, focusing on emotional experiences and happiness in learning, ultimately cultivating lifelong learning ability and enthusiasm.

Simply put: don't make them feel learning is painful. Because learning is a lifelong endeavor. Especially in today's rapidly developing AI society, interest may become humanity's only motivation for learning.

Japan's happy education is built upon its extremely comprehensive social safety net. 98% junior high to high school admission rate, 98% high school graduate employment rate. Legally mandated minimum hourly wages, social security system, and so on.

But these only barely guarantee that non-lazy people can survive.

How many parents only require their children to "just survive"?

(To be continued)

这里是中文版。