They don't screw around with education in China - GoFuckYourself.com

kane · 02-21-2007, 06:45 PM

A friend of mine has a Chinese exchange student staying with his family and I had a chance to hang out and talk to her. It's interesting to see the differences in our cultures. She is from a city of 400,000 and says it is "small". I was asking about education and got an eye opener.

Where I live the average class size in schools is 25-35 with most schools around 30 kids per class and people are flipping out about that being too many. Her school has 75 kids per class. In China when you get done with 8th grade you take a test. If you fail you don't go on to high school. If your family has money they can pay to put you through high school, but if not, you are done. The government decides that if you are not focused enough to get through 8th grade they aren't going to waste resources on you and you will most likely end up in a low paying production job. They have very little teacher to student 1on1 teaching. They teach the classes and have study groups for those that need help and you are expected to seek out help if you need it. If you decide it is too hard and you don't want to try they fail you and move on to kids that want to put forth the effort.

I couldn't help but think that this could actually be good for America in some ways. Our schools now rarely fail anyone. My brother's son is in 8th grade and is failing almost every class and the school will still let him go on to high school. Everyone gets points for trying. Nobody loses in the games they play. It's a culture of coddling and I have always felt it really doesn't help prepare kids for the real world. Maybe a little Chinese kick in the ass would do them good.

02-21-2007, 06:45 PM	#1
kane Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: portland, OR Posts: 20,684	They don't screw around with education in China A friend of mine has a Chinese exchange student staying with his family and I had a chance to hang out and talk to her. It's interesting to see the differences in our cultures. She is from a city of 400,000 and says it is "small". I was asking about education and got an eye opener. Where I live the average class size in schools is 25-35 with most schools around 30 kids per class and people are flipping out about that being too many. Her school has 75 kids per class. In China when you get done with 8th grade you take a test. If you fail you don't go on to high school. If your family has money they can pay to put you through high school, but if not, you are done. The government decides that if you are not focused enough to get through 8th grade they aren't going to waste resources on you and you will most likely end up in a low paying production job. They have very little teacher to student 1on1 teaching. They teach the classes and have study groups for those that need help and you are expected to seek out help if you need it. If you decide it is too hard and you don't want to try they fail you and move on to kids that want to put forth the effort. I couldn't help but think that this could actually be good for America in some ways. Our schools now rarely fail anyone. My brother's son is in 8th grade and is failing almost every class and the school will still let him go on to high school. Everyone gets points for trying. Nobody loses in the games they play. It's a culture of coddling and I have always felt it really doesn't help prepare kids for the real world. Maybe a little Chinese kick in the ass would do them good.