Educationally, our kids have got it good
I am often dazed by the international school education our children are receiving here in Beijing. Every time my kids come home from BSB spouting another brain-enhancing, creatively-astounding part of their day, I cannot help but repeat the same phrase over and over in my mind: "When I was a kid"

When I was a kid, we didn’t have interactive whiteboards or a bottomless internet that could flood any project with information at the push of a button. No no. We had to wade through brick-like encyclopedias and possibly make a trip to the local (gasp) library. When I was a kid, we didn’t make short films using plasticine figures and digital technology. We didn’t create entire planets, reporting on the flora, fauna and social infrastructure of Planet Zim Zum. We didn’t hold weekly assemblies demonstrating how Egyptian mummies had their brains pulled out through their noses. We didn’t read at a grade two level when we were only 4 years old. It just did not happen.

Could it be that I am a little jealous?

Yes. Yes I am. I want to play too. I want to pull brains out through noses and make short films with blue screen technology! Alas, I will never have the early global exposure our kids are having in Beijing. The cultural saturation. The language skills. These things are changing the very composition of our children’s brains. It is preparing them for life in unparalleled ways-ways we’re unlikely to achieve in our home countries.

My children will not receive this kind of education in Australia. They will attend a regular school when they go home, with a class size double that found in Beijing, and no teacher’s aid. It will also be a school that is horrendously under-resourced-like most public schools worldwide.

It worries me. Will my kids’ brains wither if they aren’t exposed to the level of stimulation they’ve been introduced to in Beijing? Will we be compromising their very future? Have we set them on an educational trajectory that will forever remain unparalleled? What could compare to ISB, WAB, DCB, BCIS et al?

For now, I’ll be devouring and delighting in every educational morsel, and so will my children. Lucky ducks.

Tania McCartney