The most vital lesson: Teach students to live

'Teach me, brother, how to live." This line from Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin should be a footnote to what is the most important education for Chinese students.

After the high-stake gaokao (national college entrance examination), new students in college face a new test: surviving on their own, away from dads and moms. The new independence may be a blessing or a curse based on how well their parents have prepared them for the new test. In the excitement for new beginnings, opportunities and friends, some students are annoyed to attend to mundane tasks such as washing dishes, doing the laundry or finding their own bus schedules to commute.

These seemingly petty tasks used to be performed by parents, grandparents or nannies who unwittingly created a buffer between the children and life while they focused on the top priority: getting into college. Some worried parents escort their children to campuses to smooth some of the rough edges of transition, but they cannot hover around forever. And after they leave, life could explode all around the students.