When it comes to education, most Chinese parents will, unflinchingly, hand over all their money to any international school or English-language institutions claiming they can get students conversant and culturally prepared before being shipped overseas. But many of these same parents will turn around and complain when a "Western education" also includes Western-style discipline.
A local parent surnamed Zhu recently told Shanghai media that her 4-year-old son's mouth was taped shut with adhesive tape by a 25-year-old Russian English teacher working for a private language institution in Changning district.
According to thepaper.cn, the incident was witnessed by the child's grandparent, who peered into a classroom window at K & H International School. The teacher later explained that he was "just kidding around with his students."
But Zhu argued that his abusive behavior was not fun for the children and demanded a dismissal of the Russian, a public apology as well as a refund of her 10,000 yuan ($1,451) tuition fee.
Yes, placing tape on a child's mouth is excessive, but in this instance it was obviously not done cruelly, and certainly it was far less cruel than how some Chinese teachers punish their students. Even in the US, a country that prides itself on its "human rights," 19 states still allow corporal punishment in schools.
According to a 2009 report by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, corporal punishment usually comes in the form of paddling, but it is also often carried out using a belt, a stick or the palm of one's hand.
It might be because I am not a parent, but I personally don't have a problem with teachers being allowed to punish their students as they see fit, so long as it's fair and appropriate to the age group. Primary schools, for example, would be in complete chaos if nobody was punished for his/her bad behavior.
Growing up in Shanghai, my classmates and I were regularly punished by our teachers; none ever left any traumatizing psychological shadows on our young minds, as many politically correct parents these days seem to believe.
In middle school, for example, our foreign English teacher would throw pieces of chalk at absent-minded students to get their attention. At my key high school in Shanghai, our head teacher made tardy students stand outside the classroom.
Back then, these were completely normal ways to discipline naughty kids, but such punishments would make headlines in today's hyper-sensitive society. Overprotective parents take every opportunity to find fault with teachers instead of their children.
Recently, for instance, it is a parenting trend in Shanghai to hide recording devices on students in order to have something to use against teachers who don't favor their precious sweethearts.
In the case of the Russian teacher, why is nobody asking what the students did to deserve it in the first place? If grandma was observing the class through a window, why didn't she step in earlier to tell her grandchild to stop horsing around and pay attention?
The school's official WeChat account later confirmed that the teacher has been terminated, but that the refund was denied.
When parents start blaming everyone else EXCEPT their own child for problems in the classroom, then that's when you know a child is truly spoiled - and probably deserving of the punishment the parent is complaining about.
The result of a joint comparative survey on high school students conducted by Chinese, the US, Japanese and South Korean institutions in 2015 showed that "Chinese students are much more overprotected by parents" than their foreign counterparts.
For example, 93 percent of Chinese parents repeatedly ask their child to "be careful" before allowing them outside to play, which is 30 percent higher than American, Japanese and South Korean parents, who usually just say "okay, have fun."
However this well-intended protection doesn't necessarily convert into well-being for the kids. Chinese students are, according to the survey, "the most self-doubting" and "least risk-taking."
