Children Should Have Free Time To Play

    Research is proving that play is beneficial for children (Gummer, 2010), but this theory is not welcomed in Chinese culture. In today’s China, most parents think it is more important to focus on their children’s academic studies. They think that if children want to have high achievement in adulthood, they must study hard starting from a young age. Most Chinese parents think that if the child spends too much time at play, then they won’t focus on their school work and won’t have a good future. Another unspoken line of thought is if children want to be more successful, they must study harder. All of these common thoughts are forcing children to study hard in order to get a good education, so that they will have higher achievements in their adulthood. For most Chinese parents, education is the main and only priority for their children; having a good education is more important than having a good childhood.

    When you are talking about childhood, most people in the U.S.A. can list lots of fun things they did with their parents and their peers. For example, on a sunny weekend, the whole family may go on a camping trip; children may play a football game with their friends, go fishing with dad or shopping with mom. This is not what most of today’s Chinese children will remember about their childhood. As well as going to school five days a week, most Chinese elementary students are forced by their parents to take extra classes on the weekends. During the week, after school, they have to complete a heavy amount of homework, and on Saturdays and Sundays, they need to take extra school classes.

    For most Chinese students, the school day is long and tiring. Most students get up at 6:30 in the morning to prepare for the school day, arrive at school around 7:40 and leave school at 15:10 in the afternoon. The whole day is fully scheduled. In the morning, there are usually four classes with ten minutes breaks between classes, and a thirty minute lunch. During lunch hour, teachers often ask students to do homework. After school, most of the students have to take several tutorial classes; such as music, art and calligraphy. On their precious weekends, most of them have to take math, Chinese and English language classes. Day after day, the children must follow this rigorous schedule that their parents have formulated. Such is the life of a child in today’s modern Chinese society. There is not a lot of time for childhood fun.

    So what causes young children to have to do so much school work and to not have   spare time to enjoy their childhood? China has a huge population, and Chinese society was shaped for a long time by Confucianism and then by Communism. Ancient Chinese philosophers such as Laotzu and Chuangtzu had a huge influence on Chinese traditional culture; they taught Chinese people that “to be a scholar is to be the top of society.” (Song Zhen Zhong, Song Dynasty) Education has always been important to Chinese people but never as important as it is now. The biggest change came after Deng Xiao Ping’s Reform and Opening Up policy, and now people are more and more influenced by western culture. People hunger for the trappings of western civilization; for example, houses, cars and high fashion. These desires require money. For most people, money comes from having a high paid job. In today’s competitive society, the only way a person can get a good job is to have an excellent education, and that requires getting into one of the top universities. Because of the intense competition, parents feel that it is necessary to push their children very hard from an early age. Children get it drilled into their heads early that the only way to have a good future is to spend all their time studying. As a result, the heavy amount of homework and extra classes not only deprives the children of their play time, in essence, their childhood, but it also harms their health. A Chinese survey showed, over sixteen thousand students from different provinces were given psychological tests. Of this group, almost eighty percent were found to be what is considered normal; about sixteen percent had some degree of abnormal psychological tendencies and four percent were found to have severe mental issues (Chinese website, 2012). The main issues are: depressive and autistic tendencies, to be selfish, lacking in social and communication skills and low self-esteem.

    Giving children some free time to play is one way to prevent the above problems. Play can be an effective and enjoyable way for children to develop skills. For example, thinking skills: when they construct a block tower, follow directions to a game and figure out pieces to a puzzle. Creative skills: when they make up stories, put on a puppet show and play dress-up. Social skills: when they team up to play ball games, discuss rules for a card game and decide who will play what part in dramatic play (“The Tip Sheets”). These games help children to learn to be sociable, make friends, learn how to share, negotiate and sort out arguments. These are the tools they will need for life, not just school (Lipsett, 2007). More time just being children and playing would give the child more time to learn essential lessons for a successful adult life. Chinese parents should not be blinded in seeking the goal of high achievement for their children but they should also help their children find a balance between school work and play time. The evidence shows that it is a good thing to leave some free time and let the children play (Gummer, 2010)。