Should Students Go Abroad for Study at an Early Age

Nowadays, there has been a growing trend that a great number of parents would like to send their child abroad for the sake of their future. Some even go so far as to make the kid take foreign primary edu cation at an early age. And such children are given a special name, “Parachute Kids”. It’s beyond argument that parents are willing to exert all their energies in preparing a bright prospect for their honey. Yet I stoutly object to the unadvisable practice above.

In my opinion, kids are too young to resist temptations and adverse influence of other countries. Drugs, i nternet addiction, violence and so forth are a big threat to the child’s sound development. For instance, a group of children were sent to the USA at public expenses in the late Qing Dynasty. What many of them had learned wasn’t the knowledge to save the nation, but bad behaviors of westerners like disobeying the rules. By contrast, the risk of being exposed to vicious habits at home is relatively low due to the strict supervision from both the parents and the schools. Whether the foreign education mode is suitable for kids should be the question that parents consider over and over again. Take the USA for example. There’s no doubt that its higher education is excellent. Yet elementary education seems far from satisfactory. Americans prefer independent learning process, which means less control and has caused a series of discipline-related problems. Therefore, the disadvantages clearly outweigh the advantages as for the only Parachute Kid. And I believe it is Chinese education that will lay solid foundations for Chinese children especially at their early age.

The next factor to take into consideration lies in the family conditions. While a few families have formed a concrete and detailed cultivation scheme, most of them are just copycats following the trend blindly. Such examples are not rare that a family run out of money to support their kids to receive the foreign education, whereas the child turns out to be less successful than expected. Mindful of the listed reasons, I strongly suggest the parents have their kid study basic knowledge at home and go to receive further education abroad later.

Should Students Go Abroad for Study at an Early Age?

These years have witnessed a trend where Chinese parents send their very young kids abroad for study. Kids’ brighter future is their shared goal.

To be candid, I subscribe to parents’ choice. As for the reason, I’ll give top priority to the better education system. Since education in China lays too much stress on scores, kids are excessively buried in books all the time. By contrast, western schools emphasize integrated development and create more attractive study atmosphere.

Maybe most of the parents’ concern lies in whether kids will feel isolated or not without parents around. But to our relief, majority of the students interviewed expressed their homesickness but also admitted their fitting in quite well. As you can see, leaving young kids abroad alone in new surroundings effectively fosters their independence and ability to adapt.

Besides, partly because of kid’s being open to fresh things, life abroad not only improves their English but broadens their views to build up a positive outlook on the world. Therefore, those kids gain a upper hand either in academic field or in fierce job market.

Whatever the reason, students’ going abroad for study is advisable and parents should let them go and let them grow.

Nowadays, the phenomenon that an increasing number of students go abroad for study, especially to the USA and Britain, at an early age has aroused public attention and triggered a heated discussion. Partly because of the concern over children’s further development, partly because of families’ urge to live abroad, parents are determined to send their dear kids, who are just studying in middle school or even primary school, to a distant country.

For some youngsters, this chance will be productive as they can blend in the English-speaking social environment as well as the educational system faster than adults. Besides, their way of independent thinking will be shaped at an early age, which may benefit their whole life time. Conversely, it can be a miserable time if children can’t fit in such an unfamiliar situation because they may feel isolated, resentful and bitter without parents around them. To make matters worse, they might stray from the path as a result of searching for unknown world under the circumstance of no one guiding them. In this case, the decision on sending children abroad will spoil them instead.

From my point of view, it is not advisable for students to go abroad to study at a very early age as a majority of them lack the sense of self-discipline and the ability of making a clear judgment. Of supreme importance should be the quality of children’s growth, not just where to study. Therefore, it will be preferable for parents to care for their kids when they are still young and send them abroad when they are mature enough, maybe in high school or university.