We visited my friend's alma mater in Duan. This is the typical high school, at least in Guangxi province. Zhou Yan Shi is sitting where she sat in high school many years ago. 
Chinese high school students make American high school students look completely lazy. Most high schools are also boarding schools. Students may live 30 minutes (by bicycle) away from their high school, but only go home on weekends. (In very remote areas even the elementary schools are boarding schools.) Their school day is several hours longer than those in the US and it is not unusual for them to have classes on Saturday.
The back wall of the classroom had a big bulletin board with a page from each student posted on it. These are the students goals. They specify what scores they want to get on certain exams, what they want to study, and (I think) what career they want to pursue.
The classroom is obviously very crowded with each student's books taking up half of their desk space. The aisles are very narrow and the seats look uncomfortable. Unlike US high schools, students in China stay in the same room all day and their teachers move from room to room. Curriculum is regulated by the central government so it is the same everywhere. Everyone takes the same level of math, science, etc.
All the schools I have seen are multi-story buildings with open balconies and stairways and are only one classroom thick. Sub-tropical climates certainly allow for very open architecture.
2 comments:
I would respectfully suggest that while learning and gaining education and knowledge is important-- there is merit in a child being able to be a child and savor childhood.
Children also need down time, free time, play time, time for imagination, and to not have to endure the stresses of adulthood and pressures at such an early age, with so little respite.
Those photos cause me to feel a deep sadness for the children who must live that way. Behind a wall of books, away from their families
for the time of life when children need the presence and love of their families the most.
I agree that American education could improve, and that our children sometimes wind up on the short end academically speaking. I don't however believe that the cause (or the answer) inherently lies within the educational system of America. We have to look elsewhere for the root causes. . .
how our children are raised, what needs are neglected. . .what we show them through our society they should value.
It's very interesting to learn about other cultures and find the things that work and would improve our own. . .I would never want to trade a child's childhood in for
the commodity of stuffing more
facts into their minds, however.
a homeschooling mother's perspective ;)
Lotus
your blog is so good
Post a Comment