CHINESE PARENTING SCHOOL

The city of Hangzhou, China, offers Parenting School for parents of children up to 15 years of age. The school works on a point system. Parents learn how to deal with angry children, create empathy, and handle puberty. They obtain points by completing courses, and once they reach 100 points they get… a star. Top achievers can earn up to 500 points to become – ooh! – 5-star parents. So far, the district has distributed 222,000 “parenting certificates” to high-achieving participants in the program. Although for now the courses are voluntary, the school district feels the parenting class should be a mandatory for all parents.
* Even in kindergarten, I knew the whole “star” system was bogus.
* Then when you grow up, you can name a star after someone with one of those Star Registry companies. Also bogus.
* There’s 1.4 billion people in China, so by the time you get in your kid will be a grandparent.
* “Voluntary” – is there’s even a Chinese word for that?