Have you ever read or heard about the book The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman? Well, this Wall Street Journal article only reinforces the fact that, as this world become more integrated, it will get more competitive.
Bob Compton, a Memphis-based venture capitalist, ran into many kids like Jack when he was traveling in China and India. They were two and three years ahead of his two teenage daughters — not just in math and science, but in almost every other subject, too. That discovery prompted him to make a documentary called “2 Million Minutes,” which followed students in the U.S., India and China to show how they spent their four years of high school — which works out to about two million minutes. The film’s conclusion: Chinese high-school students spend almost twice as much time on schoolwork as their American peers. (Indian kids spend half again as much time as Americans.)…Mr. Compton agrees that China and India push it too far sometimes. But in the U.S., he says, “we don’t push intellectual and academic achievement far enough.
I tend to agree. I really do wonder if other countries, especially Asian countries, have their high school students involved outside of academics in activities such as sports or social events like dances or proms. I just can’t see it — I’m sure American students have a more balanced and enjoyable high school experience, but will this be enough to be competitive in the future in the global economy? I’d be curious if there have been any high school exchange students from either side of the Atlantic or Pacific who could comment on the quality of an American K-12 public education.
Send to: E-mail - del.icio.us - digg - Facebook
Other posts you might be interested in:
Blog RSS Blog Comments RSS
darkmoon wrote:
Raised through American K-12 public education , I can say that my parents’ education far exceeded my own during the same years. In fact, my roommate from college actually thought that the collegiate level work was a joke (no, I didn’t go to Caltech or MIT though).
There are actually good trends out there that show that when Taiwan took their K-12 and copied American education, their international test ranks faltered.
This basically stems from the basis of American education. The idea of individualism and creativity. While this does provide for the whole Yankee ingenuity, it also doesn’t provide the training for the reinforcement of basics. From a social standpoint, there’s a really good reason why Asians are better overall at math and science. Has nothing to do with smarts, and more so to do with repetition work.
Posted on 18-Mar-08 at 5:56 am | Permalink
Yvespaul wrote:
Yup I agree, growing up in France the school work has been quite relaxed, students were encouraged to use calculators at a young age. Imagine my horror when I go back to Hong Kong for school at the age of 10. There were 10 to 20 home work assignments every single day. Backpacks with heavy books that causes spinal injuries. No time to play or relax and then your parents wants you to go learn piano or swimming on top of that. It’s not made to be a happy childhood.
Posted on 18-Mar-08 at 6:16 am | Permalink
Xxxtine wrote:
^^ I agree … because isn’t the main issue with Asians not being able to hold leadership roles among their American and European peers IS because they lack creativity and individualism. I remember while in high school, all my Asian classmates excelling in math and sciences - and while they could ace tests and exams … putting them on the street interacting with people was a completely different issue. To them, everything was black and white, but on a social level, things are grey and require finesse, flexibility and diplomacy. That’s learned through self-expression - not from some textbook.
Posted on 18-Mar-08 at 6:21 am | Permalink
Bo wrote:
I attended American public school for my entire K-12 and attended a magnet high school (Stuyvesant). College ended up being ridiculously easy for me because of my intense high school experience - proabably more on par with what Chinese/Japanese/Korean kids deal with than the typical American kid deals with. However, Stuy did have a healthy dose of American “creativity” embedded into it’s philosophy - this just basically meant that I had to kill myself academically and still belong to 5 different clubs, participate in the school musical, and do some sort of sport.
Funny thing about the supposed “superiority” of the Asian educational system is that when I was getting my MBA (in the US) I and many of my classmates were heavily recruited by foreign (predominantly Asian) companies (think on par with Samsung) to go and work in Asia and bring our “American thinking” to their companies.
Posted on 18-Mar-08 at 1:14 pm | Permalink
stan wrote:
I spent the equivalent of elementary and middle school in Singapore public schools. When I came back to Puerto Rico to finish high school at what was considered one of the best on the island, I definitely felt like I didn’t really learn anything new, and I would joke that I cruised through high school with stuff I had learned in Singapore…
i always cringe a bit when i look at the US school system, especially when standards slip in the name of letting people get ahead. “Curve” is a five letter word.
Posted on 19-Mar-08 at 10:27 pm | Permalink
DJKuulA wrote:
Do Asian public schools have the same anti-intellectual leanings as American public schools? Do Asian kids have the same motivation to avoid being too studious and thus labeled “nerds?”
In US inner-city schools, kids who do well are often accused of being “too White.” Is there an equivalent elsewhere?
Posted on 24-Mar-08 at 10:30 am | Permalink
John wrote:
As far as I know, Asian schools - i.e. in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, etc… do not have “anti-intellectual” leanings. In general, I think education is far more highly regarded in Asia than in the U.S. Also, there are a lot less opportunities and spaces in college in Asia for the demand. And if you don’t get into college, your professional choices are quite limited.
There is also I think less economic inequality in Asia for countries like Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, etc…. and those countries are quite racially/ethnically homogeneous , when compared to the U.S., so the idea of being “too White” probably does not exist.
The more west you go in China, the poorer the region. So I’d say that there are economic and educational disadvantages the more you go West. All the more reason why those kids in those regions want to do well in school.
Posted on 24-Mar-08 at 12:11 pm | Permalink
darkmoon wrote:
I’m not sure if it’s still like this, but in Taiwan between each major shift (elementary to middle, middle to high school, high school to college) there are national exams. Each of the national exams place you into a ranked school. If you don’t make the grade, then you must go to private school. That’s why public schools are so distinguished such as NTU.
In China, as John said… the more rural, the more that these kids want to do well. Unfortunately there isn’t much they can do (we’re talking about writing characters with sticks in dirt type of teaching). Many of these children are from poor farming communities or what not and so they sometimes have no choice but to forego education.
That’s why there are nonprofits like Zigen, based in NY, that actually go to China every year and help these kids out. They basically are signed into an agreement that if Zigen pays for their room/board/books into college, then they will in turn take what they learn and go back to their village and become teachers.
I’ve heard from a family friend that the Chinese government does try to help do outreach, but there are so many small villages that it’s difficult to get the necessary resources out to them since some of these places are only accessible by foot or donkey.
Posted on 24-Mar-08 at 12:40 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » Immigrants just want to blend into the crowd: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] Pacific. But it does raise some interesting thoughts. Do those of us Asian Americans then have the best of both worlds? I believe it’s very [...]
Posted on 29-Mar-08 at 9:00 am | Permalink