Why these Chinese parents are home-schooling their children
‘Everyone is struck by his knowledge,’ father-turned-teacher Zhang Qiaofeng says of home-schooled son after six years of focused study
Zhang Hongwu’s daily routine has been the same for the past six years: rise at 7am, spend 30 minutes with his father scheduling a study plan, study alone through the day, review the day’s work with his father.
Hongwu, who is 12 years old, has followed this practice – first in Beijing, then in the city of Putian in southeastern China’s Fujian province – ever since his dad, Zhang Qiaofeng, decided school education was not for his son.
The boy had been in primary school just one month. “He became very quiet and had no spirit at all,” Zhang said. “He lost colour on his face. I couldn’t let this continue.”
And so, Zhang quit his well-paying full-time job to take his son’s education into his own hands.
Although Hongwu never again set foot on a school campus, he now stands out among his peers academically, is more widely read, and lives a much easier and more relaxed life, according to his father.
“Everyone [is] struck by his knowledge,” Zhang said.“I can’t say he 100 per cent fulfilled my expectations when I took him out of school, but his overall performance is satisfactory.”