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One thing important that many people ignored about China is its K-12 education system. It is much better than the US in a number of ways, especially for the ord

One thing important that many people ignored about China is its K-12 education system. It is much better than the US in a number of ways, especially for the ordinary students, which accounts for the majority of the student body, myself included. - For starters, teachers in China are responsible. They care about the subjects they teach, and spend countless hours finding challenging problems for students as well as grading students' solutions with detailed feedbacks. Parents could just leave the education of their kids to school. They didn't have to worry about tutoring at all, because they knew that their kids would be sufficiently challenged in school. This is true equality, isn't it, as financially challenged families did not have to worry about not being able to afford tutoring. In contrast, teachers in Cupertino, a town known for good schools, asked parents to grade students' homework. - Second, they believe in their students. No no no, I'm not talking about this "every student is unique and therefore it's okay to not doing well in academically" crap. When I grew up, my teachers were tough, but they were tough by being honest, by telling me that I didn't do well in exams because I didn't try hard enough, because I didn't use the right techniques to study, or because I didn't focus on the right things. In other words, we truly believed that I could excel in school work. They didn't give up on me or other kids just because we did poorly in homework or in exams. They were truly happy if their students did well in school, and then they told the students that they could do even better by assigning more challenging problem sets. That is, they believed that their students could grow by keeping themselves in their discomfort zone. In contrast, Why did the US schools keep lowering their standards just to keep students happy? The K-12 education systems in the US are great for two types of students: those who are really challenged academically, and those who know how to push themselves. For the former, they enjoyed the love from teachers or the policies like "no kids left behind". For the latter, they got excellent resources, such as taking advanced classes in universities, and participating in all kinds of competitions. It is the students in the middle, the majority of the students like me, who will lose, big time. The students in the middle will not be challenged enough, who will falsely believe that they are good at STEM and then get shocked or even defeated by not-really-so-hard courses like calculus or organic chemistry, those who could've had a wonderful career in STEM but bail out because they didn't get enough training in high school. How sad is that? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Chinese K-12 did everything right. I spent way too much time preparing for the national entrance exam. I spent way too much time mastering all kinds of problem-solving skills that are not needed in college. I didn't learn advanced subjects like calculus or stats until college. That said, my teachers truly prepared me, like they did millions of other ordinary students, for advanced STEM subjects. They injected passion and a sense of pride of studying STEMs. I wouldn't be able to do what I do today without my teachers' dedication and caring. That's what matters, isn't it?

flukus 8y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong and/or out of date, but isn't rote learning still the heart and sole of their education system? That's great if you want to churn out factory workers but it's not going to cut it if you want to lead in technology and innovation.
- g9yuayon 8y ago
  True for liberal arts. The K-12 education in the U.S puts a lot of emphasis on critical writing and research in liberal arts. I see much less rote learning there. And China's education on liberal arts, especially history and economics, resort to a lot of rote learning. I feel sorry to say this, but there is really not much rote learning of STEM subjects in Chinese K-12. How can you rote learn when you need deep and intuitive understanding of fundamentals to excel in your math exams? That's what my teachers tried hard to instill in us every day. On the contrary, there's a lot of rote learning in that of the US. The reason is simple: students resort to rote learning because it works, and it works only because the problem sets they deal with are so simple and mechanical. That's not the case in China.
groceryheist 8y ago
Thanks for this effortful comment! I really appreciated your point about how the US system is good for those who push themselves. It makes me curious to consider the myth that the US system produces "creative" individuals in a way that China supposedly fails to do. I agree that the US's academic and intellectual culture is good for the intrinsically motivated, but, speaking as a graduate student who teaches classes at a top public US university, most undergraduates arrive thoroughly institutionalized and are primarily motivated by their grades. I believe in project-based learning that gives students an opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge to problems they are personally interested in, but it is difficult to do this effectively when students have been trained to be motivated by their grades. I am not trying to focus here on criticizing the grade-based system (with which I have many qualms), but the broader culture that we see in early education. I think your point about teachers offering concrete feedback to students in terms of study skills and dedication is important. Much of the US middle class seems to expect success without feeling that they have to earn it, even as they expect others with less privilege to work harder. The US is experiencing the downside of an individualistic culture: those in secure socio-economic positions do not feel the need to work hard in order to help provide to the collective good.

flukus 8y ago

Correct me if I'm wrong and/or out of date, but isn't rote learning still the heart and sole of their education system? That's great if you want to churn out factory workers but it's not going to cut it if you want to lead in technology and innovation.

g9yuayon 8y ago
True for liberal arts. The K-12 education in the U.S puts a lot of emphasis on critical writing and research in liberal arts. I see much less rote learning there. And China's education on liberal arts, especially history and economics, resort to a lot of rote learning. I feel sorry to say this, but there is really not much rote learning of STEM subjects in Chinese K-12. How can you rote learn when you need deep and intuitive understanding of fundamentals to excel in your math exams? That's what my teachers tried hard to instill in us every day. On the contrary, there's a lot of rote learning in that of the US. The reason is simple: students resort to rote learning because it works, and it works only because the problem sets they deal with are so simple and mechanical. That's not the case in China.

groceryheist 8y ago

Thanks for this effortful comment! I really appreciated your point about how the US system is good for those who push themselves. It makes me curious to consider the myth that the US system produces "creative" individuals in a way that China supposedly fails to do. I agree that the US's academic and intellectual culture is good for the intrinsically motivated, but, speaking as a graduate student who teaches classes at a top public US university, most undergraduates arrive thoroughly institutionalized and are primarily motivated by their grades. I believe in project-based learning that gives students an opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge to problems they are personally interested in, but it is difficult to do this effectively when students have been trained to be motivated by their grades. I am not trying to focus here on criticizing the grade-based system (with which I have many qualms), but the broader culture that we see in early education. I think your point about teachers offering concrete feedback to students in terms of study skills and dedication is important. Much of the US middle class seems to expect success without feeling that they have to earn it, even as they expect others with less privilege to work harder. The US is experiencing the downside of an individualistic culture: those in secure socio-economic positions do not feel the need to work hard in order to help provide to the collective good.