(CNN) -- When five-year-old Xiao Ge starts primary school in Guangzhou next year, she won't endure strict discipline and mountains of homework. Unlike the school life of most children in China, her days will be filled with art, music and creative learning at a private Waldorf school. Xiao is part of a fast-growing number of Chinese children whose parents are turning their backs on the state-run education system, which is based on rote learning and limited critical thinking. Instead, they are choosing independently-run schools that use the Waldorf, Montessori, or Reggio Emilia pedagogies. Despite a lack of regulation over these schools, parents prefer the humanistic approach of these classrooms and the perceived softer learning environment.
@highlight
Chinese parents seeking alternatives to rote learning in state-run schools for their young children
@highlight
Holistic education philosophies affect not only the student, but the student's family lifestyle as well
@highlight
Lack of regulation over new alternative schools may become a problem
The biggest fear is that opting out of the state-run system will lower their child's chances at passing the notorious "gaokao," the national college entrance exam that determines which @placeholder university a student will enter.