ROA 3 - Little Brains

Oh no, I'm not referring to dwarfs giving blowies.

"DAMN!" shouted Burgs, slamming his fists onto his mahogany desk.

I am referring to little Chinese tots.

During my visit, I hung up my hat in the suburbs of Shanghai. I say suburbs quite loosely here, as the Shanghai suburbs are busier than any Canadian downtown city core I have ever seen. Across from my stay was an elementary school, and I was able to see a glimpse of what a typical morning was like for little Chinese tots. These kids wake up, put on little blue and white uniforms with red-coloured neck pieces and then march around for a good 30 minutes.

"Just another Monday..."

The march begins with an anthem, powered by an outdoor PA system. Then, like orchestrated Tetris pieces, these blue, white and red tots come filtering out from the school building onto the parade square in unison. They make their loop around the square, dress (military word for line up) and then stand still with eyes front. The anthem stops, and a gym teacher takes over the PA. He yells commands, and the tots respond. They dress, dress some more, and scream in unison.

After the gym teacher is satisfied, exercise music takes over. A few 'gifted fitness tots', or 'GFTs' ---

"Please tell me more about these fitness tots!" said Sitch.

Don't fucking interrupt my stories, EVER AGAIN, Sitch. Anyways, a few GFTs run up to preassigned podiums while the rest of the tots look on. The music continues and suddenly all tots, with the guidance of their GFTs, exercise in unison. They clap, they squat, they lunge, etc. Now, I must admit these so-called fitness moves would make any westerner grin; I would say these fitness moves were more an eighty's dance than a fitness routine. But the point is, they are all in unison, and they all start and finish at the same time.

"At the same time - that's the best way to finish," chimed in Tree Bone.

The GFTs finish their moves, jump off the podiums and then redress themselves into the group. The anthem comes on again, and the tots file back into the school and begin another day of study (comprised mainly of science, math and technology).

I was impressed with this discipline. These kids may look funny while they march around and do an eighty's dance, but they are in unison and they listen. They understand order, authority and obedience. Nothing should be taken away from their training.

What I will say though, as an outside observer, is that I did feel sad that these kids are so disciplined. When you live in a densely populated area, with many hardworking bright minds around, competition becomes fierce. How do you gain an edge? You train, you study, and you repeat. What do you sacrifice? A childhood. I heard the PA system run a routine broadcast every afternoon which apparently was an 'eye relaxation cycle', commanding tots to sit at their desk, close their eyes and massage them. That, in itself, shows you how much stress and work these tots go through day in and day out. It's so much that the school board has a special 'eye relaxation cycle' programmed into every single school day. Can you imagine that?

"Rub counterclockwise, little tots."

I also visited Taiwan during my trip and the tots there had similar lifestyles. I spoke with a little tot in Taiwan, asking her to tell me what her schedule was like day in and day out. She said she wakes up at 5:30AM to get ready for school. School starts at 7:30AM and runs until 5:00PM. Her mother meets here at school and drops off dinner. The tot then walks to her tutoring class, which begins at 6:00PM and runs until 9:00PM. She returns home at around 10:00PM and begins her regularly assigned homework. She gets to bed, on average, by 1:30AM.

I stress that this is her routine; it is a typical day. And, she informs me that this is four days a week. She (luckily) does not have tutoring on Fridays, but she spends half of the day on Saturday attending a separate tutoring class.

Does this give her an edge? Perhaps, but perhaps not, as she also told me that this is the routine for most kids, so extra study cannot take you far if everyone else also engages in extra study.

Think about your childhood; how do you feel about it now?

Cordially,

- the Fucking Randy