Under the background of "double subtraction" and "five-five diversion", the countdown to the middle school entrance examination is more than 140 days, and many middle-aged and elderly mothers direct their children's further education and preparation with one hand; the other hand supports the family's eating and wearing. They silently endure the adolescent rebellion of their children, and even the marital relationship of widowed parenting. The fate of the family is firmly tied to the child's further education, and the tragedies and joys of their respective human beings are performed...
Text | lot
| Tianyue
"Bang bang bang, wake up!"
Chen Li was awakened by her son tapping the car window, only to find herself lying asleep on the steering wheel. She started a car to send her son to the next "little black class" - a house hidden two kilometers away from Huangzhuang, Haidian, Beijing. Passing through the Renmin University Affiliated Middle School, it is still unknown whether it can "go ashore" the dream school.
More than 140 days later, Chen Li's son and about 90,000 junior high school students in Beijing will compete in the middle school entrance examination.
More than 140 days ago, the "double subtraction" thunder attacked, and the era of education and training ended; the general high vocational high school "five five diversion", the competition in the middle school entrance examination intensified. In the "center of the storm", Chen Li is like a Tonga volcano. Where do children go? This "inner torture of the soul" was exactly the answer she was desperately waiting for 140 days later.
01 top 30%: Pinwa, "Little Black Class", Hengshui Middle School
In the middle school stage, especially in the third year of junior high school, both teachers and parents often lock their children in a certain "dan position" according to their grades, the first 30%, the middle 50%, and the last 20%, just like the king, diamond, gold, silver, bronze in e-sports, and then plan the child's path to further education.
Judging from the data of Beijing's mid-year examination and further education, the top 30% of the children in each school can generally go to the key points, "six small strong", district key or public international departments through admission methods such as high score selection, school quota to school, district ranking or separate additional examinations, early signing, etc. However, the ferocious inner volume of the "parent circle" behind the "cow baby" has always been worthy of the name.
From the first day of the winter vacation in 2022, Chen Li took annual leave from the unit and became a full-time driver of her son's "little black class". Accurately grasping the information of further education is the basic cultivation of "Haidian Mother". Before the "double subtraction", they studied "which make-up class is stronger"; after the "double subtraction", they knew "where the little black class is hidden"——
9:00-12:00 a.m., Xizhimen "Middle School Entrance Examination English Full Score Sprint Class"; 1:30-3:30, WeigongCun "Physical Chemistry Intensive Class"; 6:00-8:00 p.m., Wudaokou "Mathematics High Score Class". Saturday half-day online class "Language, Politics Problem Solving Skills". On Sunday, Huilongguan "Secondary Examination Physical Training Camp".
From early autumn to the end of the year, various kinds of beanies became the only decorations for Chen Li when she went out, not to appear "age-reducing", at least to cover the new patches of white hair on the top of her head.
Born in 1977, she entered a central enterprise after graduating from graduate school and settled in Haidian. My son attends a middle school in Zhongguancun. In the main battlefield of "Chicken Baby", mother and son were once "old cannons" who had been mixed in Haidian Huangzhuang for many years. My son's grades in school ranked in the top ten of the class, in addition to IQ online, it was also inseparable from the deep processing of the "Cosmic Tuition Center".
New Oriental, Learning and Thinking, Giant Education, Gaosi Mathematics, Gaotu Classroom - In those years, Chen Li had long been accustomed to working to earn money, saving money and using money to "work" for education and training institutions. There, the mother and son took "reassuring pills", paid the "IQ tax", and conducted a "human flesh assessment" on the education and training institutions.
In the first winter vacation after the "double reduction", there will be rectification actions against illegal make-up classes. Chen Li and the junior high school mothers around her, while paying close attention to the news, carefully covered the difficult operation of this "small secret circle". Chen Li can understand that the teachers of the original education and training institutions had to take risks after losing their jobs and temporarily maintaining their livelihoods.
Teachers need to rent a house to run classes, resulting in an increase in the cost of class hours. Teachers are worried about being investigated and punished at any time, and can only open short-term small classes, collect fees for four or five classes, or collect money for one class for one class.
"No break, no standing, the new education policy has landed, the future has just come, but our present is still there!" In Chen Li's view, education reform is easy to break the mountain and difficult to break the thief in the heart of the parents. Academic qualification inflation, employment difficulties, and social stratification with academic qualifications as the core are still unavoidable.
Chen Li was a child in the 1980s and 1990s, when she could become a policeman, nurse and teacher after graduating from secondary school, and an accountant, kindergarten teacher, and bank teller after graduating from vocational high school. Even if you graduate from junior high school, you have the opportunity to enter the "iron rice bowl" of state-owned enterprises or join the army. Even if she was admitted all the way from the provincial city key high school to Beijing 985 University, she never spent a penny to make up classes. Nowadays, a large number of masters and doctors teach primary and secondary schools, enter neighborhood committees as social workers, tens of thousands of undergraduate students deliver takeaways, and a large number of non-famous college students graduate or even directly "lie flat", similar news has long been overwhelming.
Compared with Chen Li's busyness and tiredness, Li Nan, the mother of the "North Drift" school bully, is in a dilemma that cannot be solved. "I was slapped loudly by reality!" In the past, he was blindly confident in his son's strength, and even self-intoxicated.
But at the moment, Li Nan was holding the transcript of his son's 8th grade in the final exam and the good news of the full score of the middle school entrance examination, but he could not be happy. In her eyes, the public international department is the only "life-saving straw" for "non-Beijing" children to land in the key high schools, and the mother and son have also set the impact on the "first echelon" Beijing Normal University experiment and the Beijing Fourth Middle School International Department as the goal of the middle school entrance examination, and even fantasized about "direct recording without additional tests".
At the beginning of January, Li Nan's son first participated in the early batch of the "second echelon" of the 80th Central International Department and the International Department of the Chaoyang Branch of the Renmin University Affiliated Middle School, thinking that he could prove his strength by "testing the bull knife" and considering going ashore in advance; however, in these two schools, his son was defeated, and "the English test questions were difficult to get out of the sky"!
Li Nan said that he did not expect that the contenders of the "second echelon" included a large number of top students in public schools in mathematics, physics and chemistry, many of whom had a TOEFL score of more than 90, or IELTS reached 6 points. Although Li Nan's son's English has the strength to impact the full score of English in the middle school entrance examination, he is only 40 or 50 points at best with reference to the TOEFL level, which is not competitive. Even if you find a training institution to temporarily hold your feet, it is too late.
Li Nan knows very well that the failure of the two schools of the "second echelon" means that the "first echelon" is hopeless. Affected by the epidemic overseas, the number of variables in studying abroad has been frequent, and rumors of the public international department reducing the number of enrollments have been heard endlessly.
However, comforting his son to fight hard to hit the high score of the middle school entrance examination and continue to "rush one to protect two", Li Nan quietly found another life-saving straw - Hengshui Middle School. "Wait for the middle school to get the score, if there is no public international department to ask us, we will go to Hengshui Middle School, fully enclosed accommodation to study and fight the college entrance examination 985, 211." Our household registration is in Hebei, and the child just meets the application conditions. She said.
▲Hengshui Middle School "net red xueba" speech
50% in 02: Puwa, temptation, choice difficulties
Compared with the top 30% of the "Puwa" who study the gods, learn the hegemons, and cow babies, have clear goals and firm steps, and the results are in the middle 50%, the path to further education is inevitably unpredictable. Rushing upwards, it is likely to go to the key or "second echelon" international department of the shore area; a small step back is likely to fall into the general high school, private general high school, vocational high school, and technical school in the last stream area.
Han Yan, a post-70s mother, said that her child's further education has caused her to suffer from "severe selection difficulties". Dream school and home, rushing high and bottom, blind obedience and firmness, in the face of this difficult "indefinite choice problem", it is inevitable to be stirred by various temptations, and choose around in the chaos.
"Dad, my mom is nervous again!" When Han Yan's son Xiaotian, who was in the third year of junior high school, had a video call with his father who was traveling abroad, he complained about his mother's "confused behavior". In the past two or three months, too many things have happened, and the amount of information is huge, which makes Xiaotian overwhelmed-
- One weekend, Xiao Tian was sent by Han Yan to a "little black class" make-up class secretly recommended by his parents to improve the score of mathematics, physics and chemistry. Subsequently, Han Yan took Xiaotian to a "study abroad institution" to conduct a TOEFL mock test. He also sent three private international schools to participate in the transfer examination, visited the international education joint exhibition twice, and Han Yan consulted private schools from booth to booth.
- Mother and son once drove a few hours to the outskirts of Beijing to visit a vocational college of "vocational high school + college + undergraduate", which actually has an e-sports major, practicing games in the classroom every day, and even being an e-sports commentator blogger to earn tips.
- At the end of last year, Han Yan took Xiaotian to a non-mainstream innovative high school to participate in open day activities, parties, performances, micro-movies, education salons, and lively. In addition, they participated in a "Global Admissions Pitch" event on private boarding high schools in the UK. Han Yan also planned to give Xiaotianbao online oral language one-on-one.
Intensive make-up classes, school visits, tests, activities, coupled with the school's massive homework and examinations, Xiaotian was completely overwhelmed. "In an instant there are a million possibilities, and this song is my mother!" Xiao Tian was puzzled, he did not know where he would be sent to school by his mother in half a year. District Pugao or Private Pugao? Small Innovative High School or International School? Vocational high school or foreign high school?
"High school vocational high school five five diversion, the country's more than 8 million students are not eligible for high school, junior high school is strictly forbidden to repeat, this series of combination punches have hit the weakness of middle school students." Han Yan and her husband are one with a master's degree and one is a doctorate, "the child is likely not even to pass the high school examination", which is what they are afraid of but thinking about.
Xiaotian is currently enrolled in the old public middle school in Xicheng District, the class has 36 students, according to the situation of the past years, the children who scored before 15 are generally expected to be admitted to the municipal key, district key, and public international departments. And Xiaotian has long been in the awkward range of 16-25. For children in this range, the middle school entrance examination is various: district general high school, private general high school, vocational high school, international school, going abroad to study high school, repeating the middle school examination...
Han Yan said that when she was in elementary school, she sent her son to learn football, tennis, piano, guitar, drum kits, taekwondo, swimming, Go, painting, programming, but the child did not show any talent. In the face of the upcoming middle school entrance examination, children do not have their own ideas.
When han Yan filtered and screened various possibilities for further education, he found that middle schools and Puwa families were entangled and anxious on the one hand, while resisting various temptations, enrolling students, planting grass, and robbing babies...
The principal of an international school in Beijing likened that middle-achieving students in public junior high schools are like "rugby belly.". At the junior high school level, she said, public schools tend to focus most on the first 30 percent and the last 20 percent of the kids. The former is a decisive factor in achieving the results of further education; the latter has hidden dangers in school spirit, study style and discipline, and requires key education management. Yet most children in the middle 50 percent have a chronic lack of attention.
She said that the number of children is huge and the learning potential is acceptable. Among them, there are many "partial science type bully" and "late mature type bully", some children have the same potential compared to the top 30%, but the junior high school stage is not revealed, and the middle school examination has fallen off the list. She believes that it is not uncommon for "Puwa" to attack overseas famous schools from international schools, but this does not mean that all children are suitable for international schools as an ideal "retreat", and a large number of parents choose international schools blindly.
When the child's way to further education was directed into a "suspense drama", in the face of the child's ridicule and her husband's incomprehension, Han Yan described her current state - I mistakenly entered a bad circulatory system and did not know what I really wanted. Wrapped in various choices, he twisted his twist into a rope and tied a knot.
▲A large number of parents participate in the international school publicity activities of education and training institutions
▲At an international education exhibition, Wang Hong, principal of Lingke (Beijing), introduced the British curriculum to parents
20% after 03: general high, vocational high, money and three views, ineffective planning
In recent years, a large number of middle-class families in the "North Drift" have "moved south" and settled in other first- and second-tier cities where the settlement policy is relatively relaxed, getting rid of the various troubles of "non-Beijing" children's further education. "Parents who love their children will have far-reaching plans for them." Wang Gang, 49, felt that this was somewhat ironic to him.
Four years ago, Wang Gang ended his company in Beijing and settled in Shenzhen to start a new business in order for his daughter Yunduo's successful future education. Yun Duo also successfully entered the local high-quality junior high school. The middle school arrow is on the string, but the father and daughter have become sworn enemies. "No matter how bad the grades are, I'd rather repeat the grade, and you will honestly read me a general high"! As a result, Yun Duo asked his father: "The english mathematics, physics and chemistry of the exam questions are my weaknesses, do you want to force me to run away from home?" In your eyes, is there only one way in the world? ”
Last week, Wang Gang received his daughter's final report card: more than 30 points in English, more than 40 points in mathematics, and only Passed Chinese in the main subject. Yunduo's school is divided into fast classes, general classes, and slow classes, and Yun Duo has been sitting in the slow class.
The school occasionally recommends some vocational high schools and technical schools to students in slow classes. The teacher focuses on introducing nursing, kindergarten teachers, baking, medical aesthetics, crew, graphic design and other majors to the girls. As a japanese manga "two-dimensional" iron fan, Yun Duo is optimistic about a major: anime design + Japanese. After three years of study at vocational high school, you can take the vocational and technical college entrance examination or study in Japan. Admission to this school does not require a high school entrance examination score, and the tuition fee plus accommodation is less than 50,000 a year.
Wang Gang inspected but found that the admission threshold of Shenzhen's public high-quality vocational high school is no less than that of high school, and students have the opportunity to sign large enterprises during school, and they can also successfully participate in the college entrance examination. Other vocational high schools are uneven, and the source of students generally comes from migrant families with low cultural levels, and there is no shortage of "six small stores". When Wang Gang saw a girl smoking a cigarette outside the school gate, and the girl with thick makeup and dyed hair hooked up with her male classmates and even kissed her in public, he was even more determined: "You can't go to such a school if you die!" ”
Wang Gang, once a "small town youth" in the northeast, finally dreamed of the famous harbin institute of technology after the two wars of college entrance examination. He firmly believes that a pure and safe learning environment is more important for girls at the high school level. Even if you don't have access to key high schools, even if you go to private high schools, at least it is not easy to make bad friends. "Repeat the grade in the third grade, take the middle school exam in the late year, and take a better high school." Wang Gang's idea was rejected by both the school authorities and his daughter. The school believes that even if the students in the slow class repeat the study, it is impossible to counterattack.
Wang Gang also inspected international schools with tuition fees of 200,000 to 300,000 a year, and most of the children came from high-income families. At the end of school, the school gate is assembled into a "luxury car exhibition". In the face of the company that has been maintained in the past two years of the epidemic, Wang Gang recited the old saying: "I don't know less money when I don't go to Shenzhen." ”
After Yun Duo's animation project failed, he occasionally sent WeChat to chat with his old classmates when he was in elementary school in Beijing about the current confusion. Xiao Wu, who used to be at the same table, dropped out of school in the second year of junior high school and now attends a Chinese medicine school in Hangzhou. Although he was a high-ranking official, Xiao Wu became fascinated with the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, the Compendium of Materia Medica, Gua Sha, acupuncture, tea ceremony, and also gave up drinks and sweets.
Yunduo's little girlfriend Tao Tao also loves Japanese comics, and last semester, she transferred to an international school in Beijing that specializes in studying in Japan, and also joined the animation club.
Tintin, a kind-hearted and helpful "super scumbag" in the primary school class, is also about to quit school to bypass the middle school entrance examination and go to a small innovative high school next semester. He plans to study special education abroad in the future, and serve as a teacher for deaf, mute and mentally handicapped children.
Tintin's father, a professor at a university in Beijing, had been struggling for many years for his son's academic performance. He advised Wang Gang that when the mainstream school is not suitable for their children, parents must not trap their own ideas in place.
Learning of Wang Gang's plight, the founder of the "Shenzhen National Friendship Mother Circle" and the senior group leader of the Shenzhen Parent Community warmly shared his views. She said that there are differences in cognition among parents in different areas of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Beijing's parent circles, whether "Haidian Mother" or "Shunyi Mother", generally pay more attention to famous schools, fight for success on the mainstream road to further education, and enter Tsinghua, Peking University, 985, 211, Niu Jianteng "Hayep masi". Shenzhen parents pay more attention to the degree of matching of further education with their children, as well as the input-output ratio of education.
Warmly believes that the belief in Pugao, the resistance to vocational high schools, and the blind obedience to international schools all originate from the parents' own life experience and the formation of cognition. First open your own horizons, change your cognition, find a balance with your child, form a consensus between parents and children, and then plan to choose a school, in order to get out of this insoluble dilemma.
epilogue
This is the last winter vacation of the children's junior high school era, less year-old flavor, more smoke. But every family is incredibly tenacious, trying to find the beautiful answer that they take for granted.
Chen Li often recalls that in the afternoon of the end of her college entrance examination in 1997, the single looped Ren Xianqi's "Heart Is Too Soft", personally destroyed all the test papers and exercise books, and cut the same short hair as Liang Yongqi. At this moment, she fantasized that the afternoon after her son's middle school entrance examination, let her son and classmates go to the carnival, she ran to the barbershop to make a age-reducing "collarbone hair" dyed dark brown, completely covered the white hair on the top of the head, and then put some lipstick on the mirror.
Li Nan's mother and son occasionally chatted about Hengshui Middle School, and the introverted and shy son was instantly possessed by the "drama essence", ridiculing the speech video imitating the "net red scholar" in Hengzhong: I am a rural native pig, inspiring to arch the cabbage of the big city. Are we pretending? Is it a show? We're going to change our lives!"
Wang Gang quietly searched for international schools with Japanese language and art characteristics in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. If Yun Duo could end the torment of slow shift "running" a day earlier, he wanted to give his daughter a surprise before the middle school entrance examination and end the cold war and stalemate as soon as possible.
Han Yan ended the rush everywhere, suspended all selection, and handed over the entanglement and blind obedience to time. She sent a circle of friends: "After recognizing the truth of life, we still love life." ”
* The characters in this article are pseudonyms
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