Count 10,000 grains of rice homework: Chinese man helping son finish odd assignment ridiculed, sparks education methods debate
- Online reaction has been scathing of a Chinese dad who helped his son manually count 10,000 grains of rice for a special homework assignment
- Unconventional teaching methods in China, sometimes used by parents, have often gained traction online and generated fierce debate
A video of a Chinese man helping his son with his homework that required counting 10,000 individual grains of rice has been ridiculed on mainland social media, where critics attacked their counting method and the futility of the exercise.
The father from Jiangxi province in eastern China said the homework was assigned by his son’s primary school teacher for his entire class.
In the video clip, released by the father who was not identified, the boy and several other family members can be seen seated and counting the grains of rice.
They first make small piles of five grains of rice on a desk and then use a plastic board to carefully push those small piles of rice together to form a larger pile while counting how many small piles they have gathered.
“This is homework from school; to count 10,000 grains of rice, my God!” Said the father in the video. “So I have mobilised the whole family to help out.”
“No matter whether his teacher will check or not, I think students should have a serious attitude towards their homework,” the father told news website Express News Broadcasting.
“Teachers are training students to have this serious attitude in everything they do,” the father added.