<p>I am always puzzled by people who want to spend as little as possible on education. That is, I don’t get the Walmart approach to something as complex as developing the intellect. On the other hand, maybe it is possible to go too far:</p>
<p>[BBC</a> News - Asia?s parents suffering ‘education fever’](<a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24537487]BBC”>Asia’s parents suffering 'education fever' - BBC News) </p>
<p>Where do you think the happy medium might be?</p>
<p>Does the article describe “education fever” or “credential fever”? The article points out that admission to university is perceived by many as the only path to upward mobility, so the economic stakes are very high. Whether these parents actually care primarily about intellectual development is questionable.</p>
<p>In the USA, in general, educational spending is driven by what a family can afford, and not by prestige. Also, we don’t think of our children as walking/talking 401K retirement plans, our kids expect us to care for our own retirement planning, so “Walmart State U” maybe the best option (based on grades and $).</p>
<p>“Education Fever” is a cultural issue in Asia. Unlike the USA, prestige is everything, it dictates what jobs and career’s will be open to each student. In the USA, our CEO’s can come from Public, Private or even the military academies. You don’t need to go to an Ivy school to be the CEO of IBM. However, in general, that’s not the case in Asia.</p>
<p>Added to that, in Asia, children are expected to care for the parent’s retirement. Happy children is not the goal, successful, $ earning children tops all.</p>
<h2>From the article:</h2>
<p>But it is not easy to dampen education fever. In South Korea as in other East Asian countries, “it is deeply embedded in the culture. It’s also based on reality that there is no alternative pathway to success or a good career other than a prestige degree, this was true 50 years ago, and it’s just as true today”. </p>
<h2>“As long as that’s the case it’s actually rational for parents to spend so much and put so much pressure on their children,” said Prof Seth.</h2>
<p>I remember reading about this “issue” in the 1980’s, in this case, it was Japan. </p>
<p>Happy medium? Lets keep our culture based on individual performance and not so much prestige (which will always play a role); and let’s continue to allow families the option to make rational choices when it comes to education. In most cases, they will make the “right” choice.</p>
<p>Ah…the shadow of the “Tiger Mother” rears its head once again.</p>
<p>" Added to that, in Asia, children are expected to care for the parent’s retirement. Happy children is not the goal, successful, $ earning children "</p>
<p>Asians also do not kick their kids out at 18 asking them to fend for themselves. </p>
<p>With all due respect, you are generalizing and quite frankly insulting a very deep rooted cultural issue by using terms like " we dot look at them as walking talking 401ks" - as though that is the only motivation of Asian parents, who are willing to spend on their offspring’s education.</p>
<p>CUPKSDAD, would you say my statement was false, or simply insulting? Clearly it’s a complicated cultural/economical issue, but expectations that children will support their parents in retirement is one important factor (and one reason parents are willing to sacrifice much of their life savings…).</p>
<p>There is no easy fix to this problem (and it is a problem), everyone, the parents and the children, are struggling with this issue.</p>
<p>I will not call it false but it is a huge generalization. There are many Asians who do not support their parents (including me) in their retirement years, even though parents spend on their educations. There are many who support their parents even if they have not spent on their education. It is not quid pro quo. They do it because they value education and strongly believe that will provide their kids a better life. Like everything else, depends on the financial situation of the family.</p>
<p>My spouse and I are going to fund our kids through any school they want to go to. Grad school if that is in the cards – certainly not expecting them to take care of us</p>
<p>Hello from Singapore. Parents here (I am talking partners in law firms, for example) take a full year off work to help their children prep for their PSLE (Primary School Leaving Exam) at age 12. Exam results come out soon, and most parents take the day off work to await the results and plan the next step in their educational strategy for their child (that is if they haven’t already schemed an admission to the right secondary school). A lot of pressure for a 12 year old child…I think it is not the money that it is the issue, it is the message to the child about what it means if they are not an ACE student at 6th grade…This is not upward mobility, this is maintaining a status quo… for many.</p>
<p>CUPKSDAD, can I assume you live in the states/Canada? If so, you’re situation is very different from someone in South Korea or China. We simply don’t have the same pressures put on us, as parents or children, as those in that part of the world.</p>
<p>To be clear, when I mean “Asian”, I mean those living in Asia and dealing with the challenges that come with that…</p>
<p>Parents in Asia, love their children as much as we do. However, they don’t have the luxury we do in selecting schools for “fit”. In Asia, far more than here, Education (at the right school) = social status=Financial Status. Education is a means to an end, getting into the right school and into the right social status. Getting into the right school (far more than how the children may do in school) will determine the kids future, and the parents are struggling to make it happen.</p>
<p>The PSLE, the gao kao (China), the Suneung (S. Korea)… and last month I was worried about my daughter’s SAT score and if she could improve it a bit so we may get a slightly better scholarship award. </p>
<p>…not even close to being equivalent :(</p>
<p>Regarding the issue of cost of higher education, that has only become an issue since the end of the '90s when the Mainland government eliminated the subsidies which made higher education free for anyone who qualified on the Gaokao. </p>
<p>It was still free when I did my study abroad there in the very late '90s. </p>
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<p>In many East Asian countries, it’s not perceived…but actual reality in most cases. </p>
<p>Most highly paid/prestigious career paths in the public and private sectors WILL be closed to someone who fails to get into the top chosen elite colleges or sometimes even a top department within an elite college*. </p>
<p><em>E.g.: MITI/METI</em> practice of only hiring entry-level employees who graduated from the Law department of Tokyo University before the late '90s/early '00s. And it’s not because their department necessarily requires the educational background provided by that department. Rather, its viewed as a signaling credential to say the graduate is the elite among the elite. </p>
<p>** Ministry of Trade and Industry/Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry</p>
<p>Gator, I think it’s false to see Confucian family values as a tit for tat arrangement. I put you through college, you take care of me in my old age. </p>
<p>It puts on capitalist gloss of a way of imagining family that predates Christianity. Rather it is a commitment that honors both sides in an endless cycle of love and commitment, a cycle that replicates reciprocity through generations (of ancestry). As a student in China once told me, even if her parents were bad to her, it was her honor to be good and respectful in return.</p>
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<p>This attitude has become increasingly less commonplace, especially among younger generations. This phenomenon has caused the governments in Mainland China and Singapore to pass “filial piety” type laws mandating adult children to visit and care for their elderly parents.</p>
<p>In the old Confucian way of thinking, if laws has to be passed to ensure people perform basic filial duties, then society and its people are in pretty bad shape morally and ethically.</p>
<p>Incidentally, your student’s philosophy regarding parent-child relationships, especially the part about treating them well even if parents treat you badly would be considered extremely old fashioned with most Chinese of my generation and younger…even those fresh from the Mainland.</p>
<p>Perhaps her view is old-fashion, but she said it in 2001, not so long ago. Her response surprised me a bit, too, but even in the U.S. today, I see college age, Asian-American children working for the family honor and not their comfort.</p>
<p>It is true that many Asian cultures are changing fast, but having lived in China and Singapore, I must say that it is not changing so fast that filial piety is dead. China is not the U.S.</p>
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<p>It’s not completely dead, but perceived and real neglect of elderly in Mainland China and Singapore are at such a level that governments in both nations have recently felt the need to pass “filial piety” type laws mandating adult children take care of and/or even periodically visit their elderly parents or face serious civil and criminal penalties.</p>
<p>Those passage of laws took place within the last decade.</p>
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<p>The US has had such “filial piety” type law since the 1930’s, and it is very strictly enforced. It is called the Social Security Act.</p>
<p>The shameful part is that this heresy has not remained confined to Asia. It has permeated and poisoned the US with a growing popularity. It is based on achieving success at all cost, including ignoring all facets of decency, honesty, and legality. </p>
<p>It is bad for the children raised in Chua-like environments, but even worse for the schools that admit those selfish, uninteresting, rote-learning little robots that are meant to work like ATM. </p>
<p>Makes the milder version of the Suzuki cheats and Stepford clones almost desirable.</p>
<p>Like the battery bunny</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1572534-thoughts-cc-parents.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1572534-thoughts-cc-parents.html</a></p>
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<p>Apples and bananas.</p>
<p>The US Social Security Act doesn’t mandate adult children provide direct financial support for elderly parents or moreso, mandatory periodic visits as mandated in those “filial piety” type laws or risk serious civil and criminal sanctions. </p>
<p>If anything, the US Social Security act offloads a portion of that responsibility off adult children and families to the US government and to some extent, the elderly parent through paying social security taxes during their working years.</p>
<p>There is a limit, and parent here go over it as well. The way many of them so do is in taking out too much in loans and encouraging the same of their kids to pay for colleges they could not afford. </p>
<p>We joke (at least I hope it’s a joke) about parents willing to give up a kidney or their right arm to get a kid through HPY. I’ve known of parents taking second mortgages, second jobs, and some going truly an unhealthy route to pay for college. I would not want my mother or father to have done that for me, absolutely not I wouldn’t want my mother scrubbing Port a Johns or floors for the extra cash so I could have a college experience otherwise unaffordable Or taking out loans endangering them financiallly, Or doing without things that could hurt them, or my younger siblings…</p>
<p>I hope my kids feel the same way, and that other kids feel that way about their parents. It should not be lauded when there are stories of that kind of parental sacrifice. It’s not that important.</p>