Word: schools
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What initially attracted me to the idea of attending boarding school and college halfway across the globe was the vast range of opportunities that educational institutions in the U.S. offer to students. There are so many different courses that I can take and such a variety of extracurricular activities that I can choose from. In high school, I had time to play in the orchestra, do Model U.N., and learn squash, all in the same semester. I was given the chance to develop not only within the classroom, but also outside...
Chinese high school students do not have access to such luxury. Most students sit at their desks all day, doing practice math problems or memorizing lines from ancient Chinese prose. I remember visiting a 12th grade classroom once and seeing students buried in huge piles of practice tests and reference guides, hunched low, and writing frantically. It was not a fun scene...
...suspect that there is a deeper and more fundamental cultural difference between American and Chinese education. Historically in China, going to school was about acquiring knowledge. Students memorized passages from ancient authors like Confucius over and over again until students fully grasped the underlying meanings of the texts and were ready to take the Imperial Examinations—which were first instituted in 605 CE—to become a member of the Chinese bureaucracy. It wasn’t about doing community service, learning leadership skills, or building social networks. This tradition was so strong that even Mao could...
...that the Chinese system still has many advantages. Chinese students excel at math and science because they do a lot of practice problems and become good at it. Socially, because everyone takes the same classes, students are in one classroom with the same fifty classmates for most of high school. Classmates bond with one another in this close environment and establish life-long friendships. In comparison, American students can meet more people in their different classes, but it is much harder to make a large number of close friends because you spend less time with them...
...Sometimes I just cannot believe that it’s been five years since I first stepped on that flight to America. Of course, I miss my family and friends back home, as well as the food (no offense to HUDS). Nevertheless, I have never regretted coming here for school. I have had access to resources and opportunities that were unimaginable in China, and thanks to American education I have been able to develop both personally and intellectually. I hope that in the future, more and more of my American friends can take a journey in the opposite direction...