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Earlier this month the Ministry of Health, in conjunction with 16 other
ministries, released an eight-year national plan aimed at tackling youth mental
health issues.
At the heart of the strategy is the incorporation of psychology courses
into the curriculum of 80 percent of schools in urban areas and 50 percent in
rural areas by 2010.
Counseling offices will also be set up initially in 40 percent of middle
and elementary schools in urban areas and 10 percent in rural areas.
For psychology and social work graduates who previously found it difficult
to find a job, the announcement will be welcomed.
More importantly for those out in the communities who have been struggling,
be it parents, teachers, and China's youth, the recent plan will be music to
their ears.
We should never forget the extreme challenges China's students, parents and
teachers face when compared to their western peers.
Here it is common for children as young as six to be assigned several hours
of homework each night. Then they are sent to extra classes on the weekends, to
learn English or music, math or calligraphy. Before these children have even had
a chance to be kids, they are competing academically with their peers.
American mental health professional Dr Gregory Mavrides who has lived and
worked in China for several years says, "In America, any parent would dance for
joy upon finding that their child was reading anything, even the television
listings in the daily newspaper, let alone a magazine or work of fiction. In
China, children are often physically scolded by their parents, and, in some
areas, their teachers, if and when they are caught reading anything other than
assigned textbooks. In this context, there is simply no psychic energy left over
for doing anything other than preparing for the next exam."
Compounding the situation is the continuing family planning policy, where
most elementary and middle school students have no siblings to talk to when the
pressure gets too much. In such situations friends become increasingly
important, yet they too are under similar strains and are not equipped to offer
practical emotional advice.
Both parents are often working and it has become increasingly common for
children to now reside at school dormitories for six nights of the week
returning home late Friday afternoon to spend just two evenings with the family.
Alternatively, for those students who may still live at home during their
schooling, a grandfather, an aunt or an uncle may be the primary care giver yet
here there is a big generation gap.
Ask many young kids how was the recent Spring Festival and they will say
"bu hao wan" meaning "no fun". Reason being, they had extra homework and were
made to attend extra lessons to get a head start for the new upcoming
semester.
Once they enter middle school, many teenagers will then start having
special classes as early as 7 am and then two extra evening classes before
closing books by 10:30 pm, but for many it is well past midnight.
Adding to their woes changes in social security and the closure of many
state-owned enterprises has seen welfare, retirement, health care and housing
issues placing great strain upon extended families and it is the young who
shoulder these future responsibilities.
That's why youth find Internet bars provide a temporary safe haven where
gaming, role-playing and online chatting connects them to a like-minded
community distancing themselves momentarily from what can be an oppressive
reality.
For those students in the countryside the situation is just as challenging.
Many of their parents work away in the urban areas as migrant workers and only
see them once a year when they return home for Spring Festival.
We should not be surprised when the manifestation of all this pressure on
China's youth appears in the form of net addiction, childhood obesity, growing
self-centeredness and reclusion.
Thankfully, the Chinese are a robust lot and most do not crack under the
strain. The brightest minds are headhunted and embraced by the world's best
universities and are later granted work visas for such multinationals as
Microsoft or Monsanto. Even the average Chinese student who is fortunate to
study abroad, when placed alongside their international peers rank highly at a
tertiary level, thanks to their rigorous academic upbringing.
As the education system constantly adapts, the government's recent holistic
approach to mental health in the education sector is a welcome addition to an
already crammed curriculum.
Ideally for the future when students are feeling overwhelmed they will now
have more resources at their disposal to cope and be able to find more effective
ways for managing their affairs rather than isolating themselves or gravitating
towards self destructive anti social behaviors.
Expect long lines queuing outside those counseling offices come 2010 and
expect many parents and teachers to be dazed by their child's insistence that
they are now suffering from previously unheard of ailments such as attention
deficit disorder or chronic fatigue syndrome, conditions at times almost
pandemic in western societies today. |
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发表于 2016-7-9 23:45:48