Can ancient Chinese philosophy help improve education?

Daoism and Confucianism suggest educators should guide children towards finding meaning in life rather than gaining material success.

This should comfort teachers in both the East and West, as most countries have public school systems that are geared towards stress-inducing exams—the results of which broadly determine the kind of jobs students can get.

This system handcuffs teachers to “teaching to the test” rather than helping students gain real-life skills and mastery over different domains. The question this raises is: does viewing spiritual fulfillment and personal wealth as mutually exclusive states help students flourish?

To live a meaningful life, you need a certain level of material comfort—there’s no getting around it. And how do you live a life of comfort? You usually need to pay for it with the money you earn at your job. How do we ensure our children get good jobs? Yep, your guessed it—we help them succeed in their exams.

And so continues the tension between personal growth and the demands of a competitive job market…