Teacher warns of misery at school
Classes filled with depressed pupils led Belgian to set up art workshops to help children relax
Hong Kong is raising a generation of unhappy children who have forgotten how to laugh, says a former English teacher.
Liesbeth Avern-Briers has worked in schools across Hong Kong - both international and local schools, from Shek O to Tai Po. She found they all had one thing in common - depressed pupils, as young as five years old, spending their evenings doing homework, often until midnight.
"That breaks my heart," says Avern-Briers, a Belgian.
"We are creating a generation of unhappy kids. We only focus on their knowledge but not their emotional needs. They don't know how to deal with failure because failure is not an option."
Not long after she arrived in Hong Kong in 2010, she founded an art charity, Lizzie Bee, to help youngsters under pressure relax and develop confidence.
She says art allows people to screw up and laugh about it, and to make a mess.