Article from WeChat public account:Fudan Financial Review (ID: FFReview), author: Xu Jin (young scholars, FT Chinese net editor of Finance, economic man Book Club founder), from the title figure: TV drama “tiger mother cat dad”

What is the biggest reason for the intensive parenting style?

The essence is that we have to raise children in an era of increasing inequality.

Education can be said to be a national topic, both at home and abroad.

From childhood to early childhood education, and even further extended to prenatal education, Chinese middle-class parents or parents of “soft class” have been paying high attention to their children’s education and constantly creating new standards. Parent stories such as “Tiger Mother”, which are devoted to education, are not special cases of individuals. They can even be said to be the collective portrayal of the current child-rearing. The most popular among the middle-class parents in the north and the north is the chicken blood. The word “chicken baby” came into being.

People who don’t have children often don’t understand this. Even the parents who are in it always can’t help but recall their childhood. When I was young, everyone seemed to be not so anxious. What happened to the world? Are the “chicken blood” parents really so irrational as outsiders? The answer is that the world is indeed changing, and the way parents are raising children is changing, not only in China, but also in international perspectives. There is economic rationality behind all this seemingly wrong and even some crazy changes.

Childcare behavior under economic projection

Social stratification gives birth to education “armament war”

“Tiger Mom” ​​Cai Meier and two daughters

What is the biggest reason for the intensive parenting style? The essence is that we have to raise children in an era of increasing inequality. This is the case in the United States and the same for China. In the 1970s, when the level of inequality was the lowest, the way of tolerance and childcare was veryPopular, and in the 1980s, social inequality began to climb, and the culture of winners became popular. Robert Putnam, former academician of the American Academy of Sciences and former dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, (Robert D. Putnam) thinks that in the 1950s Social stratification is not obvious, and things are changing now. “Private families strive to give their children a foothold in society and isolate them in the upper middle class communities where schools are generally good. Poor children are because of opportunities. Reduced and damaged.”

In this case, the parenting style has also begun to shift to “intensive education.” Even if the author himself grew up in an equal and tolerant parenting environment, they had to admit that their attention to children was greatly increased compared to their parents.

Educational research is difficult to do comparative experiments. Fortunately, the author’s international background helps them understand and observe global education from a personal experience level. Both authors are not born in the United States, and have traveled the world, so their perspectives are more diverse. They found that parents in the US, Sweden or China are indeed raising children in different ways. Traditionally, everyone thinks this is due to cultural factors, but in fact, research shows that there is also economic motivation behind this.

They found that in countries with a relatively equal society such as Northern Europe, parents and children are more equal and parents are more relaxed, while in more unequal countries, parenting styles impose more intervention. This can be understood as the difference in the return on investment in education. In countries with relatively unequal conditions, individuals may indeed get higher returns after paying for their efforts in education. Therefore, it is very rational to increase investment in education. In countries with relatively equal, individual differences are not so obvious. Increasing investment in education has a marginal rate of return that is not significant. Interestingly, people who grew up in relatively equal countries are more supportive of redistribution, and those who grew up in relatively unequal countries do not support redistribution.

What is the motivation of parents behind the evolution of educational competition into a similar arms race?

A few years ago, under an article about education in the FT Chinese website, a reader from Shenzhen commented: “If I have the ability to make my child a good university, I will not consider how to make him grow even more. Well, sacrificing the children’s childhood in exchange for a class-enhanced pass can only be said to be worthwhile.” This idea can be said to be representative in China. The question is, what is the probability of success for this exchange? Can you get a pass at the expense of your childhood? From the reality, in the “game” where the results are scheduled, if the winners are reduced, the future of many children is destined to accompany the runners, and even face the fate of the class moving down.

What is more interesting is the gambler mentality behind this kind of commentary, that is, the mindset that knows that hope is small and must be beaten. I have analyzed the destruction of Chinese society by the traditional imperial examination system. On the surface, it seems that the content of the four books and five classics is not reliable. It will be beneficial to reform, but in fact, no matter what the test is done, the results will not change much.

In essence, this highly competitive selection system may cause the whole society to fall into peer competition. The essence is that the emperor gets a group of bureaucratic echelons who are completely surrounded by his power. Up to now, the university entrance examination has a lot of characteristics of “one test for life”, which actually caused a lot of waste to the society. In this case, parenting has become an arms race, and the middle class has directly opened up a constantly overweight race. In this respect, China and the United States can be said to have many commonalities.

Because of the competition for education, it is actually class competition. I have been paying attention to the issue of the Chinese class in recent years. In the future, what may happen in China is that the class moves down rather than jumps. I have summarized the middle-income group, which is unstable in China’s cities, as a “soft class”. What is the growth trajectory of a typical soft class? It means that his (her) success, most of them have no family roots, mainly from the past self-struggling, especially the promotion of education, a friend In my community, “The young people who are floating in the first- and second-tier cities have not yet taken the first place.” However, the situation of the next generation may be different. His child, although the starting point is higher, does not mean that he can succeed if he struggles. It is likely that he has no such opportunity and he is difficult to surpass the class he inherits.

Where is the change, where is the key? I think there are two dynamic factors. First of all, under the “L shape” of the economic ladder, it is difficult for the Chinese economy to maintain a high growth rate of more than 8% as in the past three or four decades, which means that opportunities in the economy are becoming less; at the same time, in the new To succeed in the economy depends not only on capital or human capital, but also on the individual’s social network. The so-called social network is your circle or social capital – that is, gold money and struggle are no longer It is the only factor of success. In what environment and in which you are friends, it is actually more important.

Soft class parents are babysitting

The “Tiger Mother” eldest daughter Sophia at the Harvard Graduation Ceremony

The story of the “Tiger” prototype Cai Meier (Amy Chua) is a lot of intriguing places. Cai Meier’s ancestors were from Fujian. She graduated from Harvard Law School in 1987 as an honorary graduate and is now a tenured professor at Yale Law School. Cai Meier has two daughters, not only outstanding in school, but also a “music prodigy.”

The success of her childcare has often been attributed to strict discipline in the past. But if we think carefully, the success of Cai Meier’s children, from Ivy, to the assistant of the judge, Brett Kavano Article from WeChat public account:Fudan Financial Review (ID: FFReview), author: Xu Jin (young scholars, FT Chinese net editor of Finance, economic man Book Club founder)