Education shouldn't just be about getting high exam scores

I was lying face down on a massage table, getting acupuncture and cupping therapy for my aching waist in a hospital in Beijing last week. In the room were a male doctor and two women patients.

By the time I walked into the treatment room, the two women patients were already talking with the doctor.

The doctor and one of the women patients, who had a shoulder problem, were talking about their children's scores in a recent examination. From their conversation, I learned their children, both boys, were first graders in the same junior high school.