The classic Chinese parenting playbook won’t survive the AI age

Like many Hong Kong parents, Ms Ng spends her weekend shuttling her eight-year-old son from one tutoring class to another across the city, hoping to strengthen his academic performance. Across Chinese communities worldwide, parents travel the same journey, investing time, money and energy.

But as we enter the age of artificial intelligence, we must ask if such striving is still worthwhile. Industry leaders predict that AI will replace swathes of white-collar work in finance, law, accounting and computing, whereas blue-collar jobs such as plumbing, electrical or construction work remain largely irreplaceable.

The reasons for this may not be what you think.

Psychologist David Geary distinguished between two classes of cognitive ability. Biologically primary abilities such as speaking, counting and basic social understanding develop in all human children with minimal formal instruction. Biologically secondary abilities such as reading, writing and formal mathematics require sustained learning and only develop in specific cultural contexts.