Advertisement
Letters | Helicopter parents, stressful schools and a pandemic: no wonder Hong Kong children are unhappy
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
I am writing to express my opinion on the declining resilience of Hong Kong students. According to a recent survey conducted by a non-profit group, HK. WeCARE, children and teenagers are Hong Kong’s unhappiest people this year. Some people think this young generation lives a far more comfortable life than previous generations, leaving them less prepared to handle adversity and prone to feeling depressed easily.
Overly doting and protective parents may be to blame for the low resilience among students. Such parents tend to do everything for their children, motivated by the desire to take the best care of them. As a secondary school student, I sometimes see parents waiting outside campus for their teenager to finish school. Such actions, however well-intentioned, could make children less resilient.
Deprived of the opportunity to learn to be independent and to solve problems on their own, they are likely to grow up taking everything for granted and breaking down at the slightest hurdle: what some people call the “snowflake” generation. When they encounter challenges or setbacks, they seek help from others immediately and are easily discouraged.
Advertisement
However, when it comes to academic studies, I do not think that students should be blamed for low resilience. Even if young people have poor resilience and are used to having help, there is no denying that the heavy workload from school exerts great mental pressure. Students are burdened with excessive homework and quizzes every day. And this has been exacerbated by the unstable learning environment caused by the coronavirus, with e-learning blurring the boundary between school and home, where distractions are harder to resist.
01:38
Low-income Hong Kong students struggle as coronavirus forces classes online
Low-income Hong Kong students struggle as coronavirus forces classes online
In sum, parents should let children take risks, offer support but resist the urge to be overprotective, so that children grow up more resilient to life’s hard knocks. At the same time, the government should pay more attention to improving the stressful education system.
Advertisement
Becky Ho, Sha Tin
Advertisement
Select Voice
Select Speed
1.00x