As soon as the US invasion of Iraq began, Taiwan's own problems of social order, education, and military corruption were virtually squeezed out of local newspapers. Of course these problems have by no means disappeared. As a mother of two-a seventh grader who I send out the door at 6:30 a.m. and a first grader I drop off at 7 a.m.-I can testify that education issues are like a constant shadow hanging over our minds.

Can it be we are just inured to this situation in our society? Adults rush to get the kids off to school every morning, and family members don't have the time to exchange even an extraneous sentence or two. And after school? It seems that the ideal of "pluralized education" has become more like "pile-it-on education." In the books kept by every school child in Taiwan for notes to go back and forth between parents and teachers, you can see your child's schedule. For today's homework, my first-grader has to review English listening comprehension (covering three CDs!) and Lesson 2 of his Taiwanese language book; tomorrow he has an exam on Lesson 6 of Mandarin Chinese.... Meanwhile, on every page of my seventh grader's book there is a place to fill in test scores, and each day appear the grades from three or four more exams.

Part of the problem is that education reform has been conducted without a clear objective, with schemes adopted helter-skelter, and with countless cooks ending up spoiling the broth. Also to blame is the simultaneous and zealous pursuit of globalization and localization by both local and central governments. The result is that the book bags carried by Taiwanese children have become enormous, and the psychological pressure equally weighty. Believe it or not, even in first-grade physical education class there are written homework assignments!

Besides this "piling on" of assignments, given the commercialization of learning, children are also under siege after school hours. Of course there have always been "cram schools" in Taiwan, but with advertisers flooding the media with promises to turn kids into English language competition prize-winners or geniuses at mental arithmetic, few parents can sit by without feeling a rising sense of panic that their child is falling behind. So parents encourage their kids to join more and more of these classes. Meanwhile, this form of "education" is extending its talons to ever-younger children. At the end of March a Chinese chess competition for 1000 children was held at the Taipei gymnasium; was it not disheartening to see that even a game which was formerly for relaxation has become something kids diligently prepare for and compete in?

Perhaps not every child is "lucky" enough to have such "rich" educational opportunities. And perhaps some children respond well to such programs. But with their heads stuffed with facts and skills, is there any room left for imagination? Is there any effort made to teach children how to live, so that when they grow up they can have more fulfilling lives? Will even those who are now leading their peers really have lives without obstacles and without regrets?

Many of those interviewed for our cover story this month expressed concern about the lack of "life education" for modern children, which is to say education in being human. Life education does not mean reciting dogma, nor is it giving children some particular capabilities. It means, in an age in which children have few role models besides Bill Gates and Britney Spears, will they have the ability to think carefully about what life means? Will they know that the key to happiness is not what model of cellular phone an advertisement tells them to have? While outcompeting others, will they be able to maintain their own psychological well-being? In the future when they are standing on their own, will they give any thought to family, friends, society, or strangers far away?

And where will children find the resources to cope with the enormous pressure they are under? What is their breaking point? Will they be able to maintain any sense of autonomy given the reality of market forces? Can they retain some freedom of spirit when they are bombarded with sensory stimulation from all sides? These are questions that need to be seriously considered by teachers, parents, education policymakers, and indeed all adults.

On a spring day with flowers blooming, the shadows of war and of a new form of fatal infection hang over mankind. The book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond discusses the three greatest threats to our world. Today two of them are already making inroads on human civilization. Even if both can be quickly brought to heel, the lives of many people will have already been changed, homes will have been destroyed, and even people far away from the battlefields will have suffered from spiritual fallout. As we pray that people far away can enjoy lives that are slightly less harsh, perhaps also the children at our knees can receive a little more genuine warmth that isn't tied to their latest exam grades.