Early education is too early and too much

Last week, my friend Lily Peng proudly shared a photo on WeChat of her 3-year-old son sitting opposite a native English speaker in a colorfully decorated classroom. It was a one-on-one English learning course in which she enrolled her son at a cost of 70,000 yuan ($11,300).

I understand the importance for Lily of having her son learn a foreign language. But how much a child can really learn when, outside of the classroom, he doesn't have a chance to use this knowledge, is questionable.

But the mushrooming of early education institutions makes it not only "necessary" to do this, but also leads to a competition among parents and even parents-to-be.