Not all kids attend school. Some are learning at home, under parents who believe as Mark Twain, 'I never let schooling interfere with the education.' Ming Yeung reports..

Hong Kong parents have been called "monster parents" infamously, and so it should come as no surprise that competition for placements has worked its way, progressively down from high schools, to primary schools, kindergartens, pre-nursery classes and even playgroups.

These controlling, ultra-competitive parents who insist on seeing their children as extensions of their egos, seem compelled to meddle in every aspect of their children's lives, leaving kids with no chance ever to be kids. Yet, these overzealous parents are also victims of a pressure cooker system that functions on academic achievement and test results. It's a system that regards those without university degrees as losers.

"The 'evil' of public examinations is not due to their nature per se, but due to the use of examination results," said Cheng Kai-ming, emeritus professor and director of Education Policy Unit at the University of Hong Kong. The exam-oriented culture in which university admission plays an essential role, is discriminatory, he added.

"Students are all-round and our society requires people who are all-round, but education tries to narrow things down like an hourglass," he commented.

Educators agree, learning is about understanding, and the test of understanding is to apply it. "Effective examination about learning should be about application, about creation, about production. And it should be group work," Cheng said.

Then there's the other way. For some people all this cramming and examining is too much. And they just don't want their kids to go through it.

Cam Highfield, mother of two girls, believed early on her children would not likely benefit from the type of education proffered in schools. To her, childhood is a time of life for learning, and the joy that learning affords, is fundamental. So, in 2005, she and her husband took their daughters, aged 4 and 6, on a cruise. They started in Florida and sailed their catamaran "Jade", for a few months short of five years, before coming home to Hong Kong.

The first motivation was to fulfill her husband's dream to sail around the world. She confesses she wasn't really thinking much about education, but about taking the girls, Molly and Nancy, on a dream vacation that covered 19 countries, across the South Pacific.

Her husband, Arni, searched out educational materials for the girls that could be studied on board. They settled on a century-old curriculum published by Calvert Education, which appeared to offer comprehensive schooling. Some subjects, like Art History, are non-existent in the local curriculum, Highfield noted. "Homeschool is all about learning together," she said. "The most appealing feature about homeschooling is flexibility that fits the learning progress of a child."

Beside the need for English proficiency, Highfield doesn't agree that homeschooling requires parents to have high education level. There are teaching manuals that give step-by-step instructions to help parents teach their kids. Elusive answers can always be found on the internet when worse comes to worst.

"When a child starts learning this way from a young age, his or her self-directed learning ability is enhanced. This is different from the school setting where the teacher uses most of the time teaching, leaving little time for students to finish their homework. Homeschool lessons rarely go on for more than three hours a day, five days a week," Highfield explained.

Molly and Nancy learned from the Calvert curriculum, and they learned first-hand from the different people and cultures they met during their travels. When they stopped in New Zealand and Australia, they attended local schools for a few weeks.

Their academic level was higher than their peers in regular schools.

Highfield's least concern was her daughters' social adaptability. Her girls made new friends quickly and were not the least bit shy about interacting with other children or adults. "Although we didn't speak their language, they got close very easily. Without an open environment in Hong Kong, however, they found it hard to do so."

From heaven to hell

Molly and Nancy enrolled at local schools when they came back to Hong Kong in 2009. The girls found their two years of formal education in local schools unbearable and boring.

Except for a great improvement in their Chinese proficiency, the stiff regimen left them feeling drained. Molly adapted well enough to the regimentation at school, although she had to set an alarm at 5 am to finish her daily homework, before going to school. Her passion for sailing had to be sacrificed because the demands at school were too great.

Highfield had become head of the school's parent teacher group by that time. She understood that teachers tried to ensure learning by overwhelming kids with homework and countless exams. Still, she couldn't accept that approach, so she withdrew her daughters and started homeschooling again.

This kind of measurement of learning outcomes, said Professor Cheng, is unreasonable because learning itself is holistic and cannot be graded separately. Students, as a result, have to second guess what the teachers want for an answer, defying the purpose of learning.

Cheng cites the initiative, "Turning the Tide - Making Caring Common" introduced at Harvard University, which advocates that universities consider expanding admissions to include high school students, not only holding excellent academic records, but those who focus on ethical meaningful engagement with their community.

"Education is about institutions; learning is about individuals. Education is what adults set as a systematic way of learning for younger generations," Cheng said, adding that to bring learning back to basics, educators have to consider whether the learning process benefits students.

He says homeschooling can be a choice for parents but it is not a replacement for regular schooling. "It's an alternative not fit for everybody." It is important that the family understands that the learning is essential, he added.

A choice not for everybody

Highfield agrees, recognizing that homeschooling is not feasible for everyone. For one thing, most parents couldn't devote the time and energy needed by their kids for effective homeschooling. Some may just feel unhappy with the current education system, without knowing what homeschooling is all about. What worries the administration most, she reckons, is that in some cases de-schooling takes place, where there is no curriculum at all.

"If you are not well-prepared, the Education Bureau (EDB) believes many parents are ill prepared for homeschooling, and may tighten the law to plug loopholes," Highfield commented. Some children for example might be abused or neglected while kept under the guise of homeschooling.

Homeschooling in Hong Kong is in fact tolerated under certain circumstances, but the EDB is unwilling to permit an official application or registration process for homeschooling.

"The EDB holds that it is in the best interest of children that they go to school. The school provides a more balanced and structured curriculum as well as extra-curricular activities, and opportunities for interaction with peers and teachers, all of which are essential for all-round development of children. Therefore, the EDB would not approve homeschooling in place of formal school education and there is no application procedure for homeschooling. Special cases of home education are handled on a case-by-case basis," according to its spokesman.

The Education Ordinance empowers the permanent secretary for education to make enquiries concerning any student not attending primary or secondary school, without reasonable cause. The secretary is also empowered to issue an attendance order, directing that the child be enrolled at a school and attend regularly, once the enquiries are complete.

Attendance orders are rare. The EDB spokesman says as of September 2015, there were about 30 cases being monitored by the bureau.

One of the criticisms of homeschooling, Professor Cheng pointed out, is the lack of learning in a community. In "chopsticks culture" societies like Chinese mainland and Japan, homeschooling is generally not preferred.

Learning in a community requires a parent to garner other homeschool parents to create an interactive learning environment for their kids on a periodic basis. However, Highfield admits, this ideal scenario is hard to achieve as different parents may aspire to different learning goals from homeschooling.

Molly is 17 now, and would like to study Psychology in the UK. When she passes her first year certificate and second year diploma courses, she can enroll in a degree program in her third year. She can suspend school for a while after completing each level of accreditation. The multiple entry system allows her to put more time into sailing, her first love.

Nancy, at first, rejected traditional schools, until she enrolled at HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, last September. It's the only direct subsidy scheme school in Hong Kong dedicated to promoting art education and nurturing creativity.

The school also offers diplomas in creative arts, equivalent to the Diploma of Secondary Education qualification. Highfield is delighted that Nancy has taken the initiative to consider studies in acting.

Professor Cheng believes the Hong Kong government should encourage other non-mainstream education approaches that make learning an enjoyable journey. "It's not only good in terms of education and learning, it's also what the society now deserves."

Contact the writer at mingyeung@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 06/15/2016 page10)