Lacking Space above Hong Kong Students’ Heads – No More Helicopter
Parenting!
‘Mum! I have got 97 marks!’ daughter shouted excitedly. ‘Why couldn’t you get
the full mark?’ mother scolded her daughter in an earnest tone (Monster parents,
2016). This is just a tip of an iceberg - similar stories repeat again and again in
Hong Kong nowadays: parents recently are helicopters – hovering around their
children all the time. Helicopter parenting depicts the situation of putting
excessive efforts into children’s daily lives and completing everything which the
children are capable of facing alone. To tackle this problem, the government
holds a special place. Accordingly, the government could take the first step in
addressing this issue as threefold- raise the awareness of parents and schools,
change the social environment and improve the education system.
The problem helicopter parenting is indeed a critical issue now. An investigation
carried out by the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers revealed that
over 40% of teachers received complaints within the first quarter of 2016
academic year (Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, 2016) and two-fifth
of interviewees thought those complaints are not reasonable. Another also
revealed that each one in two parents surveyed tried to monitor their children’s
cyber activities strictly such as asking them for details when they added a single
friend, instead of solely catching up with their updates (Church of United
Brethren in Christ Social Service Division, 2012).
Why do helicopter parents appear in the modern era? Apparently, the underlying
root is the immensely vigorous competition among the adolescents in society.
Since parents experienced the tough time when they were young, they want
their children to climb up the social ladder in the increasingly pressurized
society, with a bid to elevate their social mobility in the foreseeable future (Okun,
Fellner and Greenspan, 1973).
Another culprit breeding the deeds of helicopter parenting is the
commercialization of education. Parents do not respect the teachers like the
past but reckon themselves as the customers for their paid tuition fee. Thus,
they expect to receive the best service from teachers and cannot tolerate any
single dissatisfaction with regards to them. Tracing back, we can find that the
abnormal education system which puts undue emphasis on examination is
contributory to the phenomenon too (RTHK eTVonline, 2016).
If the actuality of helicopter parents continues, the learning and future
development of the next generation will be severely damaged (Vinson, 2013). The
children under helicopter protection will be more likely suffering from anxiety
and depression (LeMoyne and Buchanan, 2011). Children will be unable to take
care of themselves such as traveling, cooking, cutting nails and so on (Chinese
YMCA of Hong Kong, 2011). Dr. Fung’s (2011) survey also demonstrated that the
rate of the narcissism of Hong Kong students is higher than that of America,
Australia and Britain by 30% to 60%. It arises from the acute problem of
helicopter parenting in Hong Kong (Leung, 2011). It can also be observed that
expressions like ‘Hong Kong Kids’ describing children who lack selfmanagement skill appeared because of this (Lee, 2012).
Wrestle with the issue, the government can firstly provide an assessment
guideline covering not only academic results and extracurricular activities but
also the students’ personality and capability to schools. Apart from academic
performance and exposure to various activities, there is something more to
assess a student: whether the student is reflective, can ‘plan and organize their
work adequately’, and the like (Manuel and Llamas, 2006). The guideline may
invite schools to weigh less on students’ involvement in extracurricular
activities but underscore on their behaviors. Consequently, parents who cannot
interfere with the assessment directly would stop over-protecting their children
and wait for their children’s own exploration. Nevertheless, narrowing their
spans of control and making them powerless when their children are lagged
behind, parents may object to this assessment insomuch.
Secondly, the government can perform better resource allocation– achieving
equality towards the distribution of education resources. We can take a look at
Finland, which is recognized as having the best education system with highest
efficiency in using its resources in education in the globe (Morgan, 2014).
Finland implements its education system with prioritizing ‘equality’. Hong Kong
can take the reference to this and gradually eliminate the differences in schools
– ensuring every student can receive the similar education. By doing so, parents
cannot have their children gotten into elite schools by forcing them. In turn,
parents who have no reasons to force their children would not over-protect and
plan everything for their children. Nonetheless, it is quite difficult to implement
in Hong Kong, which is a city with the notably intense competition.
Furthermore, the concept of elitism is deeply rooted in Hong Kong people’s
minds, resulting in people working harder to distinguish themselves from the
peer. Thereby, the considerable resistance from society would make it arduous
to be successful.
The third measure of the government can be canceling the ranking students
before senior primary level. According to Morgan (2014), Finland’s education
system never ranks their students. Hong Kong can imitate this strategy as well
by equalizing students’ education opportunities step by step – making
competition before senior primary education to be less imperative. It can
cultivate students’ self-motivation but not forcing them to study for the ranking
which raises parents’ interest in forcing their children. Moreover, students can
be fostered with creativity and independent thinking since there is no
comparison among them in a specific aspect (Strajn, 2014). Without the explicit
goal, the ranking, parents would not keep concentrating in compelling their
children to study for proliferating their competitiveness. Without the ranking,
happy education can be promoted – students would not be coerced to chase the
ranking when they start their studies. This measure could be an antidote of the
opposition of assessment guideline aforementioned – motivating students to
discover by themselves, parents would feel more relieved despite narrowed span
of control on their children. Nonetheless, as amending the education system is
not easy, the government should spare no pains to realize it for the sake of the
next generation.
All in all, the best solution comes from equalizing education opportunity. With
equality improved, the problem of helicopter parenting can be solved from the
crux due to the clarified mindset of the next generation. Hence, the effect can be
long-lasting and the situation can be better in the future. Only through educating
our future with the correct method can the fruit be sustainable. Be that as it may,
we may have to wait for the harvest; therefore, we should carry out some
immediate actions to support it. After all, for all that it cannot be done in a short
period of time, it is my earnest hope that the government can take the initiative
in tackling this problem at any price.
References
Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong (2011). A study report on children 's self - care
ability
in Hong Kong [In Chinese]. Retrieved from
https://www.breakthrough.org.hk/ir/youthdatabank/fa/fa_01.htm#G-558
Church of United Brethren in Christ Social Service Division (2012). Facebook’s
parent - child relationship survey report [In Chinese]. Retrieved from
https://www.breakthrough.org.hk/ir/youthdatabank/fa/fa_01.htm#G-558
Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers (2016). Over 40% of teachers have
been complained by parents, the Association will promote better parent
education [In Chinese]. Retrieved from
http://www.hkfew.org.hk/listdetail.php?cid=157&aid=2306
Lee, I. F. (2012). Global childhoods: portraits of living and literacy learning in
Hong Kong. International Journal of Learning, 8(10).
LeMoyne, T., & Buchanan, T. (2011). Does “hovering” matter? helicopter parenting
and its effect on well-being. Sociological Spectrum, 31(4).
Leung, T.Y. (2013). CityU study found that young people in Hong Kong was
narcissistic [In Chinese]. CityUNewsCentre. Retrieved from
fttp://wikisites.cityu.edu.hk/sites/newscentre/ch/Pages/201304231600.aspx
Manuel, J., & Llamas, C. (2006). Technologies of disciplinary power in action: The
norm of the 'Good student'. Higher Education, 52(4), 665-686
Monster parents make youths lack motivation [In Chinese] (2016). Sky Post.
Retrieved from http://skypost.ulifestyle.com.hk/港聞/要聞/20160725/001/怪獸
家長%20 逼出無動力青年/224033
Morgan, H. (2014). Review of research: the education system in Finland: a
success story other countries can emulate. Childhood Education, 90(6), 453457
Okun, M., Fellner, W., & Greenspan, A. (1973). Upward mobility in a high-pressure
economy. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity,1973(1), 207-261
RTHK eTVonline (2016). Monster parents [In Chinese]. Retrieved from
https://www.liberalstudies.hk/relationships/pdf/ls_relationships_46.pdf
Vinson, K. E. (2013). Hovering too close: the ramifications of helicopter parenting
in higher education. Georgia State University Law Review, 29, 423-423;
Suffolk University Law School Research Paper No. 12-05. Retrieved from
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers2.cfm?abstract_id=1982763
Strajn, D. (2014). The PISA syndrome: can we imagine education without
comparative testing? Solsko Polje; Ljubljana, 25(5/6), 13-27, 147-149, 169