As a guest in my second home, I usually keep my opinions about Chinese society to myself. One exception is in my area of professional expertise. As an educator, observations over many years have led me to conclude that children in China are slaves to the education system. When sharing this observation in my home country, people sometimes respond, “It’s the same here.” It’s not. Let me tell you about four teenagers¹ in order to illustrate how.

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.

~ “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” by Charles Wesley

On a bright afternoon, two teenagers sat in my office recounting some of their school experiences. When Aili, a 9th grader, couldn’t seem to say anything positive, I asked which class she likes the most.

Aili: History.
Me: Oh, that’s interesting. Why?
Aili: I like the teacher.
Me: Why do you like your history teacher?
Aili: Because she’s the only teacher who doesn’t hit me. 

On hearing Aili’s words, Lili, a junior in high school, quickly clarified that at her school the teachers never hit the students. Her school is in a large city where teachers are better trained and closely monitored. However, Lili is subjected to a different kind of torture. She and the other boarders at her school are out of bed by 5:30 each morning, in class until dinner time (around 6 or 7pm), and then they spend the evening in the classroom for mandatory study hours. They’re back in their dorm rooms by 10:30. They follow this schedule seven days a week with the only “break” coming on Sunday afternoons, but extra weekend homework doesn’t give them much time for rest.

Although invited, Peipei didn’t join the gathering in my office. She used weather as an excuse but more likely felt too embarrassed to come. She was supposed to start high school in the fall. Instead, she dropped out. Feeling shame, she probably doesn’t realize that rather than blaming her I’m concerned. Were her teachers hitting her like in Aili’s situation? Was she being subjected to the same kind of torture that Lili is facing?

Where Aili and Lili have persisted in spite of the challenges, Peipei has given up. In part, she has no older siblings and can’t learn from their mistakes. Aili’s older brother, for example, dropped out before finishing middle school. Without a high school diploma, he’s only qualified for jobs that require twelve-hour shifts seven days a week with one day off each month. Perhaps Peipei, unlike Aili and Lili, cannot see that she may have escaped one kind of torture only to face another. For the rest of her life.

Sunny stands in sharp contrast to Aili, Lili, and Peipei. Her parents are well-educated, both with MA degrees, and each with a steady, well-paying job as an English teacher. They’ve provided Sunny with many experiences in her sixteen years that Aili, Lili, and Peipei will never have access to throughout their entire lives. Sunny’s first trip outside China occurred when she was just a toddler. Then, in elementary school, she and her mom spent a year in an English-speaking country, and Sunny has never forgotten how enjoyable school can be.

Using the critical thinking skills taught by her parents, Sunny proposed last spring that they send her abroad for high school. They counted the cost and agreed. At her new school, Sunny usually completes any homework during the day. After arriving home at 3 or 4pm, she reads novels or practices piano, pursuits she’d had to abandon when she started middle school in China. She just returned to China for her new school’s long winter break, and with her parents, we got together for some fun, the first time since fifth grade that she wasn’t too burdened by weekend or holiday homework to enjoy an outing.

He comes the prisoners to release,
In Satan’s bondage held.
The gates of brass before Him burst.
The iron fetters yield.

~ ”Hark the Glad Sound” by Philip Doddridge

For many years, I have prayed that Jesus would release China’s children from the slavery of their education system. For Sunny, He opened wide the gates and is shining light on the path! But children and teenagers like Aili, Lili, and Peipei are still in need of rescue, and so my prayers persist. May Jesus’ favor rest upon them! May the captives be released and the oppressed set free!

1. In order to protect their privacy, I use pseudonyms. ↩︎

Image by Arnie Bragg from Pixabay