It was an ordinary sunny weekend in the middle of November 2014. In a city called Canton, somewhere in South China, Jing got up early as usual at 7 a.m. After cooking breakfast, Jing put a CD of classical music into the player, then woke up her 7-year-old daughter Kitty. Kitty had a concentrated study schedule to make up her Sunday — writing class from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., painting class from 10:40 a.m. to 12:10 p.m., music theory class from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., and an additional English class from 7 p.m to 9 p.m.

Kitty is a well-behaved kid who gets along quite well with the other children in her primary school. Now she’s spending her spare time taking some extra classes after school such as math, English, painting, dancing and writing. In addition to those courses, Kitty is going to learn piano next spring.

The first thing Kitty does every day after school is her homework. During the holidays, Jing will take Kitty out for some sightseeing.

But if Kitty does not finish her homework in time, Jing will cancel all reservations. Jing said: “For a student, you should realize studying is the most important thing to your daily schedule; it’s your responsibility to be hard-working. And it’s good for children to explore their interests and potential by studying. Once you decide to take part in the extra learning class, you must stick to it. Quitting is never allowed in my family.”

Kitty spends over five hours every weekday at school. She loves Thursday because it is the “homework-free” day, a treat set by the headmaster. Jing didn’t arrange any of Kitty’s extra classes on Thursday in order to create a care-free day for her daughter.

When Thursday comes, Kitty always has tons of fun with her friends, playing hide-and-seek around her apartment or doing some co-ed play at home. Jing cooks dinner for her family every day and after that she checks Kitty’s homework.

If something needs correction, Jing would point it out to Kitty and let her do the revision by herself. Before going to bed, Kitty listens to some children’s songs or short stories in English, which were downloaded by Jing.

On Wednesday night, Kitty has Chinese calligraphy class; she also has ballet training class on Thursday night and Chinese speaking class on Friday night. “If there’s going to be some great events out there during the weekends, I have to ask for the permission to take a day off for my daughter and take her to enjoy them. Courses are able to be rearranged but the event only exists once.

“There are a lot of kids in Kitty’s school who are learning even more than her. I won’t give her too much pressure; I won’t push her to be the straight-A student in her classes, but I do wish she could discover her potential through these extra courses.

“After all, she’s just on her second year of school; she still has so much time. What happens when she’s an upper-class student? She might get more courses and spend more time studying at school instead of taking other extra classes like now, or maybe she could at least take one.

“Living in China where people evaluate a student’s diligence and talent only by the grade-ranking-system, we have no idea of making a change but only trying to fit ourselves in as well as making a self-improvement.”