A wonderful article recently on ChinaDaily said that spending for education increases annually by about 20%. As a foreign teacher here, I'm wondering how it is spent and what are the results. You can spend more money without being effective.
One of my biggest questions is this: Why do children in the USA go to school 2-3 hours less each day, have very little homework, no weekend classes and still excel in education in comparison to most Chinese students?
Now, in my humble opinion, Chinese students are smart. Very intelligent. I know. I teach them. More than 1,000 so far. They know how to study hard and for long hours. They know how to endure long classes (I've witnessed classes as along as 3 hours for primary school students). Children in the USA wouldn't sit through a class of over an hour. 40-50 minutes for most classes at most in the USA.
When Chinese students attend college/university in the USA, their success rate is nearly 100%. Very, very rare does a Chinese child fail in the USA. Why? The answer is the same. 'They know how to study hard.'
So, compared to Chinese children, American children get far less classroom instruction and far less homework at night. Yet there are over 200,000 Chinese college students attending schools in the U.S. and that number is growing by 25% annually. In 3 years, there will likely be over 400,000 Chinese students studying in the USA.
Now, I can reason and reconcile why Chinese students want to attend college in the USA. But, in my year and half here (I've taught more than 1,200 classes and over 1,000 students in 4 separate schools including every grade from primary grade 1 through the MBA program at the university), I've met parents whose children are in middle school and the parent is wanting to send them to the USA. (By the way, I discourage them from doing this. It is a waste of money in my opinion. Parents in China sacrifice too much for their children's education needlessly. Again, only my opinion.)
It seems to me that in China, long hours, extra hours and extra days of classes is perceived as better education. Schools I've taught at here, take pride in adding classes and oftentimes, longer classes. In the West, parents, teachers and students would never tolerate this. They wouldn't think of sending their children to school on Saturday or Sunday. However, in China, it is very common.
Given these observations, am I to conclude that Western education is really that much better? Can we teach more in 6.5 hours of school per day in the U.S. versus 9 hours a day in China? Can we accomplish more (in the USA) in education with less school hours?
I honestly and sincerely don't know the answers to these questions. IF Western Education is THAT much better, then, shouldn't Western styles of teaching be adopted in China? Again, I'm seeking reasonable and intelligent objective answers.
Tags:Teaching & Learning
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"IF Western Education is THAT much better, then, shouldn't Western styles of teaching be adopted in China?" But haven't you heard? China had the Cultural Revolution, which makes its people culturally superior to foreigners. They are only interested in copying the advancements the West made in its Industrial Revolution, after which the Chinese will benefit from the best of both worlds. That's the mindset, and that's why Chinese will not listen to any suggestions or opinions about how to improve education. You'll hear Chinese politicians emphasizing how China must find its OWN path toward social improvement, and not take over any western habits. They're the smart kookies; we're the remnants of colonial imperialism who are enjoying our ill-gotten gains for a short while longer. As a teaching professional let me assure you that western education is absolutely better, as it is tailored to children's needs. In China, education unsuccessfully tries to tailor children to adults' rigidly high expectations. Besides the extreme emphasis on memorization as the primary learning skill, the only other things children learn are conformity, and the importance of making people happy.
Dec 14, 2013 13:40 Report Abuse
Parents send their 3-year olds to training schools like the one I work at; it's a far too young age to teach children. They won't even understand the games I play to keep students' interested until they are 4 at least. Why? Because prideful Chinese parents are driven to push their child at a too young age, thoughtlessly 'investing' in the newest family unit, and the training schools happily accept the high tuition fees parents are willing to pay for their young children. As parents become disillusioned and disappointed at how ineffective their investments are over time, less and less money is spent on learning as the kids grow older. It's why I'm teaching colours and numbers to 3-6 year olds, while teenagers and adults pay less for lessons, so marketing department allots them facetime with a Chinese teaching assistant instead. I can complain in indignation, or just accept that I do whatever fake BS they want me to, to feed my new family. But I'll be damned if I expose my little Owen to this ethnic education 'dance'. After the early start at 3 years (sometimes even 2), children are put into rigid and long daily schedules in primary and middle school, supervised by teachers and parents, with too much homework and not enough time to do it. This exhausting curriculum destroys their personal development, and gives them no time to play. It results in very selfish and materialistic adults who are too busy catching up with their lost childhoods (so I guess it's no major loss that I don't teach many adults. the few I've met weren't very interesting people anyway). Next up is university or vocational college, where children are finally released from their oppressing overseers (no parents and teachers to watch over them). Uni professors won't report on their absence in class, so they're on a tight schedule of FUN, and I honestly can't blame them. There are too many problems for the school if students don't graduate (their parents are entitled to what they paid for), and they know this. Since graduating is practically guaranteed regardless of their actual abilities, there is no incentive to spend time studying. Even intellectual curiosity was hammered out of them; they're nearly at the end of the childhood conditioning, which dulls curiosity, ingenuity and creativity. Perfectly honed to conform with the collective consciousness. Focused singlemindedly on facesaving, money and family, as they should.
Nov 23, 2013 10:14 Report Abuse
Many Chinese english teachers in senior high schools taught their students how to memorized pass english papers instead of actually teaching them the proper way of passing an english entrance exam. With saying that, American kids do well because they have teachers that are aware of the fact that the human mind can only focus on one thing for no longer than 10 -15 minutes, after that concentration goes downhill. So, to have a child sitting in a classroom learning the same thing over and over without small breaks in between is not beneficial to the child. It is also a fact that the average human brain can only remember 25% of what it learns, and since most of these students don't take notes in english classes, its guaranteed that lack of practice will force them to forget that 25% of what they have learnt. Now, sitting in a classroom for three hours where the brain can only focus for 10 -15 minutes nothing goes in the long term memory...unless of course, that child is a freaking genius.
Nov 16, 2013 06:54 Report Abuse
The reason for a 100% success rate is due to two things: Cheating in exams, and the fact that the teachers contract renewal is based on student pass rates. Most students I have encountered do the bare minimum work to pass, or they 'study' very hard without absorbing and processing the information they get. It is mostly about regurgitating 'facts', not original work.
Nov 16, 2013 01:45 Report Abuse
You are missing the point here. Chinese teachers supplement their income by conning parents into paying for their children to attend private classes in their homes. My step son used to attend extra classes every night from 6.00 pm to 10.00 pm and all day Saturday. The teachers would tell my wife that if he didnt attend the extra classes he would not pass.
Nov 14, 2013 10:31 Report Abuse
Like most things in life people should adopt the maxim of "everything in moderation". This applies to education as well. Going to school for 6 - 7 hours a day and depending on your level a few hours of homework in the evening is moderation. Going to school for 9 - 10 hours a day, attending weekend classes and homework for 3 - 4 hours every evening (including weekends) is excessive. Social skills and interests in things other than your next exam make for a better adjusted individual. Given the choice I am sure the kids I teach would opt for a less gruelling regimen of study and school because in English classes at private schools they take every opportunity to be naughty, be distracted....be entertained. And English teachers....let's not kid ourselves, if we didn't make the lesson entertaining it would soon be known and your classes would more than likely drop away. By the way, nothing wrong with mixing a bit of fun with classes. A simple answer to the question of whether Western education is better than Chinese education is by asking another question. How many western families are tripping over themselves to send their kids to a Chinese school? Seems Chinese parents also know the answer to that one!
Nov 12, 2013 08:18 Report Abuse
Chinese ed is not about the learning, it is about receiving the certificate.
Nov 11, 2013 22:31 Report Abuse
As for "why they don't do it like in Western countries". Well, I bet on a mix of face saving, ignorance, head-in-the-sand attitude, and because it's self-sustaining. The teachers come from the system, they teach as they have been taught. Current China's job market is adapted to this education style. Of course, it's at the price of a ruined childhood, some worrying lackings and a terrible inefficiency.
Nov 11, 2013 13:25 Report Abuse
I've been teaching Comp. Sci. at a top Chinese uni. I take one class I taught for 4 semesters as example. All my students came through this regimen you mention. I speak for 90% of my students. All of them where middle-class kids, overall nice folks. For most of them, they are passionless, work for the mark, not to learn something. They are scared of anything involving something not in the book. They show a rather low care for doing things nicely. They are scared of anything that remotely looks like a failure : learning yes, but without any failure. It's more about the face value of things "look, I completed the programming assignment. It will crash, it might not even run, but I sent you an answer. I will get a B+, right ?" All work is done in the most shoddy, lazy ways. For 20-ish years old folks, they are fairly naive. They show very little knowledge of anything outside of China. No initiative. Even in Chinese, a big difficulty at writing something coherent with a beginning and an end. Emails with titles like "HO HAI IT'S ME. MY ASSIGNEMENT". "You *who* ? I got 50 students in that class." Things as basic as "name this file with this naming convention", more than 75% of them could not do it correctly. After 2 lectures on how to do assignements, still 25% did not get the memo. I got students complaining to the direction of the university they got bad grade, students who never ever came to the class. Soooooooooo. Yeah, they work damn hard, there childhood is filled with work, work and more work. But with which efficiency ? To finish on some good words... Those students were kind folks, and most of them, after much pushing and ranting from me, would catch on quickly and show great level of self-initiative and inventive spark. This experience is congruent with others foreign teachers and Chinese educated abroad teaching here. All the negative I mention and the positive aspects makes for a very bitter-sweet experience. Some students put some tears in my eyes by writing "Thank you, we for once *learned* something with your class.", after the exam.
Nov 11, 2013 13:17 Report Abuse
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