No business no gain (2)

Second day, we went to navy pier after a series of activities at Cabrini Connections. The kids got on ferris wheel but when they got off, some of the kids said it was just OK. The Shanghai Circus was giving performance those days, and I heard some Chinese music play around ferris wheel, so I thought they might be doing rehearsal in the closed theatre beside ferris wheel. It was really good to find something familiar to me in a place oceans away from my hometown.

After that, we walked to Museum of Contemporary Art and took a 20-minute appreciation of the art works there. The art works there were very creative and some of them were even cynical but meaningful.

I like to think about different questions. Education is a hot topic in my mind, because I will be a parent when it just comes to me. Based on my being-a-child memory, I am always trying to figur out questions like what could make a child grow in a positive way, what are important to gain a good upbringing etc.

I think the appreciation of art plays a very important role in influencing a kid's character and talent. The image he or she see will always remain in his or her brain and keep a potential effect. It is really good to offer the kids more opportunities to get in touch with art.

In Mainland China, there is a more and more common trend that parents and schools have given too high priority to acadamic score. Some of them care nothing but the scores their kids get from acadamic examinations and have ignored many other important or even critical qualities which the kids are supposed to have. Every year, the news report that a few students in some of the top universities around the country commit suicide. A few years ago, a student in Sichuan University(a very famous one in China) killed his four roommates with a hammer in campus and this made all people in China shocked and force us to think about what's going on in our education system.

Another problem in our education system is about poverty. Many kids in some remote areas get inadequet education resources. Although our law claims a 9-year compulsory education for every kid, some families are just too poor to afford it. The government does have spent a lot effort and resources to help the kids in poverty, but many other problems, like corruption etc., seem to have a greater resistance. The philanthropy in China is also still in period of developing. It has been slowly filtering into people's minds but it still needs a long way to go.

It seems that I have been a bit "critical" and put many problems on table to show, but it is just the reality people have to face. There is no possibility to solve it until we are brave enough to face it.

I am glad to see that some of my friends have gone to Cambodia to help the kids there against the diseases and poverty and they have introduced many experiences they had on their blogs. This is how internet can help us learn where the people need help and what they need and this is internatinal.

Later I will introduce some more on this.

--Paul