My sophomore students have to write a one-page journal entry every week about any topic they want (as long as it is not copied off the internet). I have learned a lot about their daily life, their families, their home towns, their traditions and their common feelings, emotions and social pressures that they feel in their daily life in the university. There are so many entries that would be interesting to share so periodically I will try and give you a glimpse into the lives of my students. Here is part of an entry that one of my sophomore students wrote on some of the pressures they feel and the consequences of those pressures.

She starts out by saying that she watched the movie the "Dead Poets Society" and explains that one of the students with an overbearing father ends up killing himself in the movie. This is what she comments after that (I haven't changed any spelling/grammar):

"Nowadays, many children are under great pressure of their parents and families. What's worse, more and more children choose to kill themselves to get rid of this kind of pressure. For example, 4 students in Changzhou have died because of this last semester. I don't mean that parents should allow us to do all the things we want to do. However, study can't mean all things. At least, we have the right to some proper things except study. Parents often say that we are too young to live with ourselves. However, some parents put their dreams on their children and don't care what their children think. Some parents obstinately think that under their help, their children can have a perfect future. They don't care their children's thoughts too. As a result, many children choose death. I just hope that parents can pay more attention to children's opinions and give them more free time and space. Then children can live and study more happily."

Perhaps not every student feels pressure from their parents to this extent, but I would guess that for many that type of pressure exists. I often see entries like this one in which the student is stressed because they can't meet the expectations of their parents or because they are worried that they won't make enough money in the future to be able to support their parents. This adds a new and powerful motivator for success in school when compared with students in the U.S. I have always wanted to make my parents proud and meet their expectations, but it has never affected me like it seems to affect my Chinese university students.

1 Comment

1. Chen on October 21, 2009 at 4:51 AM

   Life is not to be worried but to be lived.