It seems it’s a common belief that, in modern society, if you want to achieve your success, you had better develop your ability from childhood. This is why so many parents suggest, “don’t let your children lose at the starting line.” However, this kind of belief is groundless because there is no evidence to prove that a child who falls behind at an early age will ruin his or her life in the future.

    To be honest, this kind of belief is the result of the mistaken psychology of parents in our present society full of competitions. We live in such a prosperous world, where every year the total number of newborns is on the upswing. Due to limited resources, opportunity per head is getting less and less to some extent. As a result, in order to stand out in the violent competition, children have no choice but to accept numerous extra math lessons, sports lessons, dancing lessons and so on at weekends, which are all decided by their parents.

    Without a doubt, it is natural for parents to have high expectations for their children. They hope that their children can be brilliant figures, not only making lots of money but also known by the public.

    In addition, school education should be blamed. In school, teachers take the rank of every student seriously. According to children’s examination marks, teachers list a column and give recognitions to those who are in the top five.

    Consequently, parents are afraid that once their children fall behind teachers won’t be fond of their children. Parents are also worried that their children will have a sense of disappointment and dejection.

    Whatever parents do for their children, I believe their starting point is trying to enable their children to succeed in the future. As far as I am concerned, the starting point is good enough, but the belief that parents hold is still groundless, because there is no necessary relationship between achievements at one’s early age and success in one’s old age. Many big potatoes today, like Li Ka-shing and Steve Jobs, didn’t have access to so many extracurricular classes and competitions when they were young.

    Sometimes they were even defined by people, and told that they would not attain great achievements, at a young age. But with their passion, ambition and perseverance, they ended up finding the field they were adept at and proved to be very successful.

    What’s more, the real interest of the children, which should be justified, has been ignored by most parents today. Placing too many burdens on children’s shoulders will not help them develop their potential and creativity, but will ruin children’s interest in learning.

    In a word, for the sake of children, it is high time that parents alter this groundless belief and attach more importance to the needs of children. It’s better for parents to ask themselves, “What are my children really interested in?” Only when parents understand the real strengths of their children can children grow up healthily.