Interest in nonacademic activities a welcome trend

While participating in a speaking competition at my primary school years ago, despite reciting the speech fluently many times, my mind went totally blank on stage and I ended up crying because I did not know what to say. I knew that my nerves had gotten the better of me.

Therefore, I could relate to the students at Miaoxi Primary School who once had trouble speaking and performing on stage.

In fact, Miaoxi reminded me of the school I went to some 20 years ago, as they are both in rural areas and many of my classmates were also left-behind children.

However, the school I went to was bigger, and there were more students because it was a township school rather than a village school like Miaoxi. But my school had no band.

Back then, I think it would have been laughable for teachers to form such a band, as the most important thing in the minds of students, teachers and parents was academic study.

I envy the students at Miaoxi who are being exposed to different musical instruments at such a young age, and I wonder whether my life would be different if I'd also had such exposure.

No one can deny the power of music. Whenever I have a long day at work or experience something bad, I like to take a long walk while listening to different songs. It is a soothing technique and can help me regroup.

However, the education system still overwhelmingly puts more emphasis on academic performance. Despite the government's continuous efforts to reduce the academic burden and the amount of homework on primary and secondary school students, achieving high grades on important tests remains the top priority for many students and parents.

I understand why they choose to do so, as it can be said that I am also a beneficiary of the exam-oriented education system. I achieved high grades on important exams, so I went to good universities and got a decent job.

Yet, I did not have much of a choice, as my family could not afford any extracurricular music classes, and there was no volunteer teacher at my school.

With the financial situations of Chinese families seeing significant improvements in recent years, more parents have paid attention to the overall development of their children and have allowed them to access courses to help them develop different hobbies at an early age.

It's a good trend, and I hope more people can truly realize the benefit of such courses.

Contact the writer at zoushuo@chinadaily.com.cn