When five-year-old Xiao Ge starts primary school in Guangzhou next year, she won't endure strict discipline and mountains of homework. Unlike the school life of most children in China, her days will be filled with art, music and creative learning at a private Waldorf school.
Xiao is part of a fast-growing number of Chinese children whose parents are turning their backs on the state-run education system, which is based on rote learning and limited critical thinking. Instead, they are choosing independently-run schools that use the Waldorf, Montessori, or Reggio Emilia pedagogies.
Despite a lack of regulation over these schools, parents prefer the humanistic approach of these classrooms and the perceived softer learning environment.
"Compared with studying under the public system, my daughter will get a healthier education and life here," says Xiao's mother, Lu Dan, when we met at the Hairong Waldorf School Xiao is attending in the southeastern city of Guangzhou.
As we tour the school, headmaster Wei Yueling, casually dressed in a tweed jacket and sneakers, playfully grabs one of the students by the waist and spins her in the air, making other kids scream with laughter. At a state-run school, a similar scene of student-teacher bonding would be next to unthinkable.
Global attention
China has undeniably gained the world's attention for outstanding academic performance. Shanghai's 15-year olds lead in mathematics, science and reading, as seen in the 2013 Pisa survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, rating the performance of children across 65 regions.
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