Every year at this time, the media gives copious coverage to the phenomenon of clusters of adults escorting their newly enrolled children to university. Commentators also satirize the loving parents who do everything for their children - from going through the registration process to making the bed - while the youngsters look on lethargically.

Although cited by critics as an example of the degeneration of our society's educational ethics, the phenomenon has continued year after year. This evokes a question: Why do parents continue to do so even though they know of the problem with such pampering?

A man who drove hundreds of miles to escort his son to a university in Beijing said: "I know it will be more helpful if he goes to the school by himself, but I still cannot stand seeing him trekking all the way alone, hauling the heavy luggage." Other parents also cited an "unsafe social environment" as a reason for their worries over their children's safety on the way to universities.

I used to frown at the phenomenon because I could not help but remember the day when I went to university in late August 1964. None of my schoolmates' parents accompanied them when they registered at school. Everybody, including the female students, carried their own luggage on their way to the school by train, bus, boat or on foot.

But after giving it some thought, I have developed a different understanding of the matter.

To answer the question of whether parents should accompany their children to school, one needs to consider the social conditions. Contemporary times differ from that of my generation in at least two aspects.

First, society is much less safer than what it was in the 1960s. Cases of robbery, abduction and violence are reported frequently, while they were nearly unheard of in my time. Our parents at that time never worried when we traveled away from home. Second, people today can afford the costs of accompanying their children to school. During my time, even a ticket for a train ride from a southern provincial city to Beijing was expensive enough to cost nearly half of an average family's monthly budget for food.

Given these reasons, it is understandable that today's parents insist on accompanying their children to universities. It is a natural decision.

What merits our attention is the attitude of the children. They do not necessarily all hope to be escorted by their parents. According to a survey conducted by the Beijing News last week, 35.2 percent of the students polled said they did not want their parents' company.

Such parental companionship is not undesirable, given the safety concerns. But it is more important that parents teach their children the correct values about happiness and hardship.

To that effect, a father in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region set a good example recently.

The man urged his son, who had passed this year's national examination to enter a university in Beijing, to go to the capital by bike. The father and son rode 24 days to cover 3,500 km to arrive at the Beijing Union University on Saturday. The grueling journey was a test of willpower and physical endurance.

A girl from Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, also chose the tough way. Accompanied by her father, the newly enrolled student of the Beijing Forestry University rode a bicycle for 14 days, covering a distance of 1,200 km, to become the university's first person to realize "zero carbon emissions during the journey from home to school" - a goal the school set for its new students. The girl said the journey also prompted her to join the school's volunteer team to promote the concept of a low-carbon lifestyle.

Such a way of registering with new universities is unique and meaningful. The two students did not relinquish their parents' company but turned their journey into a way to toughen their willpower and develop character.

Hopefully, more parents will also come to realize the importance of their children's first stride toward university.