How to Make Your Child Top of the Class

Author: Yanzi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Protecting leading to incompetence once, 30+ primary school students from big cities to the homeland of the Red-crowned Crane—Zhalong Nature Reserve in Qiqihar for a summer camp.
During breakfast, a second-grade girl stared blankly at a boiled egg, her eyes wide with fascination. The teacher walked over and asked, "Don’t you like eggs?"
"I do," she whispered.
"Then why aren’t you eating it?"
"Because this egg looks different from the ones at home." The girl hesitated.
"What do the eggs at home look like?"
"They’re soft, white, and easy to bite. This one is too hard to crack."
Upon further inquiry, the teacher realized the truth. She had never seen anyone boil or peel an egg at home—adults always peeled it, cut it in half, and placed it before her to eat. No wonder she couldn’t peel an egg!
The teacher asked the other children nearby, "Do you know where eggs come from?"
All of them answered in unison, "From the refrigerator!"
The teacher almost fainted!
Nowadays, many parents have turned their love for their children into excessive protection, willingly acting as their children’s caregivers. As a result, the children become incredibly incompetent.
One day, a nanny from a key school in Beijing said she had seen a book titled Letters to Young Mothers by the "Heartfelt Sister" on her employer’s desk and was deeply moved. She realized that overprotecting children was destroying them. She felt she was destroying the child. With her presence, the 10-year-old girl could do nothing for herself, even in fourth grade. She still had to wipe her own buttocks after using the toilet. The nanny thought, "If I stay any longer, this child will be beyond saving." So she decided to return home and become a primary school teacher, as rural children needed her more.
The "Heartfelt Sister" immediately called her. Hearing it was Lu Qin, she was so moved she cried. Lu Qin comforted her not to rush, explaining that leaving wouldn’t solve the girl’s incompetence—her employer could always hire another nanny, and the next one might be even worse. Then, Lu Qin shared methods to help the girl become self-reliant.
How many children raised under nannies or "nanny-style" protection in the city have become so helpless!
An image circulated online: a parent sitting their child on a street stall to get their shoes polished, while the person providing the service was a rural woman almost the same age as the parent. The woman had her child tied to her back. The photo was shocking.
The same two families, the same two children. One child starved on their mother’s back, while the other enjoyed "noble" treatment under their mother’s indulgence. The first child might struggle in the lower rungs of society and eventually become strong, or they might turn to crime. The second child, however, has only one fate: becoming a person consumed by vanity and arrogance, unable to endure hardship, and forever unable to live in harmony with others or the world.
Most of these parents grew up in poverty. After years of hard work, they finally achieved a better life. Out of their sincere love for their children, they refuse to let them suffer even a little. They would give anything to