“我的孩子现在是xxx，他/她能够上xxxx类型的大学吗？”想必大家都习以为常的是，每场讲座的尾声，教育专家都会不可避免地被家长轰炸有关自己孩子的这类问题，最起码我整天要面临这种问题。如果你也是众多家长中的一员，那你务必要仔细阅读本文啦！

我特别理解这样的家长——尤其在中国，孩子简直就是他们的全世界，他们想把世界上最好的东西都给孩子，就像我的父母也曾为了我的未来不惜一切下血本。但说真的，有些家长因此变得越来越疯狂，这恐怕不是什么好事儿吧。

如果家长已经有了教育顾问，问专家这些问题只是为了更多的选择，那他们真的应该住手了！为什么？因为每个人的答案都是五花八门的，也不一定能适用于你孩子的情况。所有的教育专家，包括我自己在内，都无法在几分钟的时间内，只通过家长只言片语的描述就能把情况弄清楚。既然你已经掏了腰包请了顾问，为什么你不利用这个资源，还要到处去寻求其他的解答呢？开句玩笑，这和脚踏多条船有什么区别？（哈哈哈）

所以如果你身为一个家长，还没给孩子找顾问的话，未免也太偷懒啦，赶快行动起来！而且找一个合适的顾问并不意味需要一笔巨大的花销，事实上有很多顾问的价格都在你的接受范围内，甚至是无偿的。家长不惜一切代价地想要帮助孩子，但是如果想提升那些课堂上学不到的软实力，比如沟通交流、面试技巧、团队合作等等究竟需要怎么做呢？正确的答案是要找专业人士来给孩子量身定做培养计划。而且一旦有了提升，这些软实力一定能让你的孩子从工作、学习和生活中脱颖而出！

因此，找一个有专业背景的顾问来出谋划策至关重要。归根结底，我相信每个孩子都是独一无二的，都需要专业的培训来扬长补短。但经验之谈，有超过半数的顾问不仅没有半点作用，而且还可能毁了孩子的未来！毕竟这些人要么毫无经验，要么懒惰至极，然后试图将所有的孩子塞进同一个模型里批量教育，这绝对是不可取的！而且对于那些为了给学生创造一条更好的道路而孜孜不倦地努力工作的顾问们来说，这也是极大的羞辱！家长在学校或者比较值得信赖的公告中找到经验丰富的专业顾问来为孩子定制培养计划，这是家长可以完全主宰的事情，不是么？只要你有了合适的顾问，就暂时不要急着再去寻找更多的建议，选择太多有时候只会适得其反，尤其是当这些建议相互冲突的时候，因为就算是你随便一个亲朋好友都能抛出一个建议。许多人都想当老师，但说到底，只有其中一些人能够胜任，更不用说那些更专业的顾问了。如果你还相信那些无良顾问所给出的计划能够让孩子改头换面，提升各方面核心技能，走上成功的道路，我的天，这让我这种培训教育顾问的专家都很不爽！

以下为英文原文：

EDU Stop being lazy and get customized help for your kids

I understand that parents are very eager to ask about their child at the end of every speech that an educational expert gives. Think about it, this happens all the time! "Hey, my child is XXXX and will he or she be able to get into XXXX type of university?" Don't you see this happening all the time?

I fully empathize with parents - their children mean more than anything in the world, even more true in China which is why they want the best for them, just like how my parents were heavily invested in my future. However, when parents become frantic, this is where the problem begins.

If parents are only asking these questions to get further opinions when they already have their consultants/counselors for the kids, then they really need to stop! Why? Because you can't have so many people telling you all sorts of different opinions, I mean after all you are indecisive as it is already and furthermore you are now getting all types of opinions that may not even be applicable to your child's circumstances because there is no way any educational expert, myself included, can understand that in the space of a few minutes just by parents grabbing us at the end of a speech. Since parents spent money on them, then why are you not utilizing them and still seeking other opinions. In a very joking way, this is akin to having a quick affair haha!

As for parents that don't even have their own consultants/counselors for their kids, then stop being lazy! Getting customized help DOES NOT always mean having to shell out a fortune, in fact there are plenty of counselors that provide this sort of help at an extremely affordable price or even pro-bono (e.g. the child's teacher). As much as parents have the best of intentions to help their children, building these additional soft skills, which your child won’t necessarily learn in the classroom, such as communication, interview skills and teamwork, requires tailor made training which requires expertise to formulate and deliver. This is why parents who don’t have a counsellor need one. These soft skills are what is going to make your child stand out among employers, universities and generally in life!

Therefore, the role of the well-trained consultant is extremely important in delivering this critical piece of advice. At the end of the day I believe your child is unique and requires training necessary to build up strengths but also cover your child’s weaknesses. However, in my experience I realized that more them half of counselors and unexperienced consultants are being incredibly lazy and trying to fit every child into one mould, which is simply unhelpful and even hurting the child’s future. This is a huge disgrace to those consultants and counselors that work tiredlessly to create a better path for the students. It is up to parents to work with schools and credible advisories to pick a consultant with the necessary experience and skill who can formulate you a tailored-made program for your child that is going to lead to sustained skill growth.

Once you have the right consultant, delay that urge to keep seeking further opinions because having too many opinions is too convoluted and overwhelming, especially if they are conflicting, because it is so easy for even your random kin to be dishing advice out. Everybody wants to be a teacher, but only a few are barely qualified, let alone qualify as a professional. If you trust in this plan and advice they will provide your child with life-long, measurable change in core skills that will help your child succeed in later life, or else this even demotivates the likes of myself who train consultants yet their advice falls on deaf ears!

Andy老师简介

- Multicultural and multilingual: Grew up and lived in a number of countries,  American-born Chinese and Third Culture Kid (TCK) 多文化和多语言: 在多个国家成长和居住；美籍华人， 典型第三文化人士(TCK)

- Leader in empowering corporate training and recruitment professionals with assessment methodologies and project-based learning andragogy 为企业培训和招聘人士提供领先评估体系和游戏化的项目式学习的职场教学法领袖

- Decade of experience in education and training, and expert in China 十年以上的学生教育和企业培训的经验: 并被很多本土和国外人士称为“中国通”

- UC Berkeley Alumni Club Ex-Leader and Recruitment Ambassador 毕业于世界名校加州伯克利大学并担任校友俱乐部前任负责人和前任招生大使

- Third-party Interviewer for College Admissions 美国第三方面试官 (很多大学现在需要学生在提交申请书与第三方机构进行面试)

- Helped build a number of college admissions counseling departments 负责搭建多个海外升学指导中心

- Unlike most “education experts”, personally attended more than a dozen schools growing up and personally went through the AP, IB, British, Singaporean and Hong Kong education systems相比其他所谓的“教育专家”，从小上过十几所学校，亲自体验过AP、IB、英国、新加坡和香港的教育制度