But the underlying point is clear: "This is really instilling the idea of effort — that children have to learn to consistently practice in order to achieve a certain level,"
My take on the underlying point of that story is quite different: conform or be exterminated.
You didn’t persevere to the end:
“And lest you've been worrying about the fate of that cat — Cheung has reassuring news. Once the kids improve their handwriting, ‘the cat feels very hungry,’ says Cheung. But then the kids take pity on him — and write a few sloppy letters for him to eat.”
You’re overprojecting. They’re inanimate letters. The children are learning penmanship. In the end, out of compassion for the cat that was previously plaguing them, they bend the rules to be nice. It’s certainly cuter than the German fairy tales I was raised on.
Cats don't actually starve when they don't get to eat those.
And why only say that now? What does the "compassion for the cat" have to do with it it either way?
What German fairy tales about non-conformist things being destroyed were you raised on? And did your learning of penmanship involve any of that?
And they don't even bend the (part of the) rules (under discussion here), non-conforming letters still get eaten.
Not fairy tales but media for children in general: Pinocchio and Thomas the Tank Engine.