by Brian
This summer I was able to go to China on a trip sponsored by the NEA Foundation and the Pearson Foundation. The trip was part of an Award for Teaching Excellence, given by the NEA Foundation to a teacher from each state who is nominated by their NEA affiliate. I was chosen by the Washington Education Association to be the 2011 nominee. Cara Haney from Kent, WA, is the 2012 nominee, and the NEA Foundation is planning another trip for Cara and her colleagues next summer. (Tom White, one of the contributors for Stories from School is a previous ATE recipient.)
We travelled to the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong and were able to visit schools in each city. We also did tourist things, like visit the Forbidden City and the Great Wall (it really is pretty great, especially with vendors with coolers selling cold drinks on hot days.)
Now I'm trying to figure out what to say when people ask me: "How was China?" The only answer that works is inadequate, but true: China is amazing.
First, there are a lot of people in China. They are buying cars as fast as they can (and there is no visible evidence that there is any test required for getting a driver's license). The blue-clad workers I expected to see in "Red China" weren't there. There are cell phones and MP3 players and teen-agers preening. There are McDonalds and Ikea. As a matter of fact, even though China lags behind in personal freedoms, and has troubling human-rights issues, if you were dropped into Beijing tomorrow with no prior knowledge it would be hard to guess from visual evidence that the economic system is, at least in name, communism.
Second, the schools we visited were eerily familiar. They had playgrounds, auditoriums, classrooms with desks, cigarette butts in the urinals (in the vocational school in Beijing). The teachers looked like us, and sounded like us when they described their job and their expectations for their students. The speech that the principal of a middle school in Shanghai gave us was very similar to the speech that my superintendent is going to give us in a couple of weeks to kick off the new school year. But under the surface there are some huge differences too.
In China public education is free and compulsory for 9 years, basically through middle school. To go on to high school students must pass a test, and pay a small tuition fee. If they do not pass the high school entrance exam there are vocational schools for different trades; these also require tuition. Because education is seen to clearly lead to more material wealth students seem to be highly motivated. (The high school drop-out problem virtually disappears, too.)
There is also the one-child-per-family rule. Although this rule is not absolute, and does not apply to everyone, it has been in effect for over thirty years and there are many single child families, especially in the cities. This has led to what is referred to as the 4-2-1 problem. After two generations an only child in China has two parents and four grandparents. By tradition it is the responsibility of the child to care for the elders, which places the older relatives at risk. But looking at it from the other direction, every single child is the focal point of six adults that are vitally interested in their success as a student. This also has an impact on student motivation.
When we asked the teachers what they did when students did not do their homework, they looked at us quizzically, as if they didn’t understand the question. They said of course the students do their homework, why wouldn’t they?
So what I learned in China was that if we want to give our students the best chance to succeed in a world where they will have to compete with everyone (remember The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman?), we will have to convince them that they are competing.
Any ideas how we might do that?
The Asians’ high regard for education is truly impressive. We definitely should improve on some aspects of our educational system but I don’t think that imitating their policies would be the right track. I believe we should come up with a system that better fits our culture which would give us an edge in the job market but necessarily compete head on against these Asian countries.
There is an interesting article published by Reader’s Digest that might be relevant to the issue. If memory serves me right, the title is “The Tiger Mom”.
Oh and, by the way, congratulations for winning the trip. You definitely deserve it. Thanks for sharing this, it has been a highly enjoyable read.
Comparing systems from different cultures is always so difficult. I’m glad that you acknowledge the cultural differences which change the way China’s schools work.
There would be some who read your experience and say “let’s do it that way in the U.S! They are seeing results, let’s copy them!” And thus the next edfad is born.
Maybe it’s the August Effect, but I’m growing pessimistic that modern American political, family and youth culture even permits a functional system of compulsory state-provided education.
@Tom: It was a cold drink. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it 🙂
Fascinating post, Brian. I’ve always enjoyed a little healthy competition in school. I still remember Andy Davis in 4th grade, being the first to finish the multiplication facts test. Every time he did, he’d set down his pencil loudly, so everyone could hear. And just to make sure that everyone knew he was done, in case they didn’t hear his pencil slam on his desk, he’d say, “Done!” I found this to be very annoying as a 10-year-old. But, I also saw it as competition. And, Andy was mine! It’s true that I never beat him. But, my lag time decreased considerably.
Kids love a little healthy competition. I do the occasional “girls against boys” and table group competitions in class, and the increase in motivation and student engagement is huge. But, I recently saw pictures of a kindergarten classroom with oral reading fluency scores, knowledge of letters and sounds, and how high can you count graphed out in student-friendly posters, which each students’ scores visible for all to see. I can’t see how that helps. We have to be careful not to take competition too far.
I know these examples don’t fall under the “Darwinian sense” of competition. One last thing I like to do, that doesn’t seem like competition at all, is share stories about amazing kids – kids who have started movements, accomplished great feats, and have been problem solvers that in some way have benefited others. This has the effect of inspiring kids and opening up their minds to what’s possible.
Brian, I have to ask: Are you actually having a beer on The Great Wall of China? Seriously?
I think the structure of the school system you describe is what would motivate many kids….have to apply for high school and trade schools. Then middle school would really mean something whereas right now most kids know that their grades in middles school aren’t going to have much impact on their lives. I wonder how many Chinese kids do not go into either of these (highschool or trade school) after middle school though? And what becomes of them?
Sounds like a great trip. I’ve never been a big fan of competition in schools, either, but maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Perhaps the current economic crises might teach us to take school a little more seriously.
I was thinking of competition more in the Darwinian sense. I agree that comparing international test scores is pretty useless. But the global competition for jobs and markets is very real. Friedman’s point was not that we need better test scores than China or India, it was that our students need to be more creative, innovative and flexible.
Maren’s right – international competition certainly hasn’t worked for educators, and it’s even less likely to work for kids. It’s abstract, unreliable, and, frankly, dumb.
Far better would be to show students the results of a good education. Have people who look like them and come from their neighborhoods in front of them, teaching, and in the main office as administration. Have schools actively engage parents in as many ways they can, so there’s a link between home and school. Get kids who live in undereducated homes stressed by poverty get out into the community to see what an affluent, professional life looks like.
I think it would work better than comparing my fourth period’s scores against some classroom in Shanghai.
Brian–an informative and entertaining post! Thanks for writing. The competition issue is interesting as well. Can competition help learning, or does competition hinder learning in many students? I’ve been wondering about that. It does seem as though the idea of competition on an international level is very different from competition within a classroom, and also that international competition is a very abstract an idea for many students, perhaps too abstract to be an immediate motivator.
Competition is very motivating for athletic events, but can (or should) it work for learning?