A few days ago I met an old friend. In primary school he was my best friend and initially we went to the same highschool, the most prestigeous one in town. Yet as Latin was an obligatory subject there, and back then I wasn't so fond of languages as I am now, I dropped out.
Now he is a succesful financial adviser and makes an enormous lot of money (compared to other people his age). The secret of his succes? His dad.
In those days, when we were kids, I came home, tossed my bag into a corner and started playing computer games. He on the other hand was brought up with Hindu values: First study, then play. He didn't just have to do his homework from school, oh no... His dad had made copies of all math books and he had to make extra exercises every day.

Similarly for another good friend, who was brought up with Chinsese values and went to that same prestigeous highschool, just like all his brothers and sisters. His mum taught him math and at satudays he had to learn how to write characters. They lived in a small appartement and had to share their bedrooms, but eventually all of them went to university and became doctors and programmers.

With me it turned out all right too, as I got two master degrees now. I should also thank my parents for that, for my dad kept telling that if did not get good marks, I'd disgrace the family. He was always the best at school, and in China, oh in good old China, kids who failed their tests were humiliated. They were placed on a red chair right in front of the class so the whole next year they'd feel the shame of not having passed.

The fish which swam up the river and could not jump over the waterfall... In turn it had to wear a red dot on its forehead as a symbol of its failure... Later on I met people who had had their entire educational career in the PRC. From 6am till 10pm they were in school and then made homework till sometimes as late as 4am. And with good reason, for every university had quota and one had to belong to the top. Imagine that: Hundreds of millions of competitors to beat!

Here in the West, we hear stories about young people killing themselves or getting mad from the pressure, but I wonder: Is it realy so bad?
Of course one cannot always be the best of the best, but at least one can try to... Some Western people are terribly competitive too. What to think of Americans? And I once had a (Dutch) girlfriend who was told to 'win' every morning. She ended up with two MSc-degrees and a PhD, a further scientific career ensured.

Yet when I look around me and listen to the news, I wonder... Are children nowadays encouraged to be dumb rather than smart? Studying is for nerds, brainy people are geeks and the youth rather watches MTV than that they go to the library. Teenagers brag about not studying and who fails is a tough guy. Kids take gangstas and whoes as their role models and the government is slowly deconstructing the educational system.

They wonder why society is deteriorating... Well, I can answer that: Many Dutch kids aren't taught to study anymore and they aren't taught discipline.

Some call more traditional societies backwards because they haven't lost their traditions and values, just as they laugh about those native Dutch who cling to their Protestant or Catholic roots... I wonder... Is losing your core values not a sign of a civilization in decline? So who is the backward civilization here?