It was very interesting to see how different China’s education system is from that of the US. It is so complex and is still developing in many ways. True all education systems should evolve over time to better prepare students for entering the work force, but china’s seems to develop in short bursts interspaced with times of stagnation and even regression. What I found the most interesting is how ideology affected the education system. I was really interested in the whole Confucianism aspect. To me it seems counterproductive to perpetuate the past to the degree that the Chinese did and that it would have n adverse effect on the education system. In reality the system that the Chinese had at the time was truly remarkable. They used the Confucianism belief to create a severely structuralizes government and education system. It is, at least to me, very impressive how long this system lasted and how aspects of Confucianism still influence the Chinese government (and education system) today.
The aspect of the Chinese education system that interested me the most is how competitive it is. Throughout China’s history competition has played a large role in the education system. There have been some times where this was not true, Mao’s Cultural Revolution of 1966, on a whole the Chinese have been and still are extremely competitive when it comes to education. I don’t think I could handle the stress of being in a Chinese school. They are far too competitive for me.
Being a psychology major, reading about the competition in Chinese schools made me think about how anxiety-provoking the environment must be (not that the U.S. school environment is not anxiety-provoking). I believe that Chinese students probably have a difficult time balancing ideologies of individualism and competition with underlying beliefs of a collective societal identity.
ReplyDeleteI feel that with respect to the 'competitiveness' issue, India and China are on the same page. Having lived in India for a couple of years, I have seen countless tutoring facilities and highly advertised test prep courses. All grown-ups ask about are how studies are going etc... I think one of the reasons why places like these are so competitive when it comes to schoolwork is because everyone is trying to improve their quality of life. Because there are so many people in these countries, there is naturally going to be competition in order to gain entry into prestigious schools. The lack of resources and presence of high-quality schools reinforces the cut-throat nature of schooling, so if more were built, then perhaps we would see this mentality decline.
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