China bans toddler palm-reading assessments

by **KitKat** on Mon 06 Feb 2012, 1:23 am

BEIJING | Wed Feb 1, 2012

China has banned kindergartens in a northern province from offering palm-reading tests that the schools had claimed could predict toddlers' intelligence level and potential, state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

Although many parents in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, eagerly brought their children to be tested, some later complained about the high cost and raised questions about the testing method, which test-givers said could reveal the children's aptitude in music, mathematics and languages.

"We have issued a circular to criticise the three kindergartens that offered palm-reading tests for 1,200 yuan (120.80 pounds) per person," Xinhua quoted Ma Zhaoxing, the local education bureau chief, as saying, adding that the practice had been banned.

Authorities were investigating whether the company that designed the tests, Shanxi Daomeng Culture Communication Co., Ltd., had violated any laws, Xinhua said.

Fortune-telling, including palm-reading, has deep roots in Chinese tradition, although China's leaders have discouraged and punished devotees of the practice which they brand superstition.

by **Umberto Cocopop** on Thu 09 Feb 2012, 11:10 am

It's a good job that we don't encourage such nonsense in our schools.

No, our schools pay for things like this: http://www.braingym.org.uk/

They teach things like pressing water into the roof of your mouth helps with brain activity because it hydrates the brain. And yes, degree-wielding teachers actually take this nonsense in and teach it.

by **KitKat** on Thu 09 Feb 2012, 11:53 am

Umberto Cocopop wrote:It's a good job that we don't encourage such nonsense in our schools.

No, our schools pay for things like this: http://www.braingym.org.uk/

Some also advocate things like this: 13-year-old girls given contraceptive implants at school

What's your opinion on that, Umberto?

by **Umberto Cocopop** on Thu 09 Feb 2012, 2:12 pm

KitKat wrote:Some also advocate things like this: 13-year-old girls given contraceptive implants at school

What's your opinion on that, Umberto?

Wey hey! A moral/ethical issue to grapple with!

Obviously, if the legal age of consent is 16 then offering contraception to under 16s seems inconsistent. Why is policy at odds with the law?

If young girls are given contraception and believe that they are immune from pregnancy, does it encourage them to have sex more readily and if so, are they using other safe sex practises? i.e. the threat of pregnancy could at least encourage condom use, for example.

Then again, sex is a powerful drive and if youngsters want to do it, they will. So there's a practicality argument here too. Given that youngsters will have sex is it not more practical and realistic to offer them contraception - particularly when the rate of under-age pregnancy is so high (and all of the associated problems that causes).

On balance, I'm for this. Simply because youngsters will have sex no matter what. Of course, if the goal is to reduce under-age pregnancies I'd like to see the evidence that a) it works; and b) it doesn't cause other problems (STDs or an increase in cervical cancer later on).

We need a solution to the problem that is actually occurring rather than moralising about the problem because we think it ought not to be happening.

China bans toddler palm-reading assessments

China bans toddler palm-reading assessments

Re: China bans toddler palm-reading assessments

Re: China bans toddler palm-reading assessments

Re: China bans toddler palm-reading assessments