Merging educational approaches from the US and China could optimize learning
December 27, 2007
Outside the Box – Juliann Talkington
Almost all parents want “the best” for their children. However, “the best” and how to achieve it is very different in China and the US.
This fall Qinglan Liang, Deputy Principal and Senior Teacher in Chinese Language Arts at the Lu Cheng MIddle School in the Jiu-Long-Po District of Xipeng, Chongqing, China was a visiting scholar at the Panama City Renaissance School (Panama City, Florida, USA). According to Ms. Liang, in China there are so many people, only children with outstanding academic records are assured good jobs. As a result, Chinese parents do everything they can to give their child a competitive edge in school. In this culture, the majority of the parents follow the teacher’s requirements for study. They make sure their kids complete all the homework and do not complain about the amount or the difficulty. In addition, parents generally do not make excuses for their children, if they perform poorly.
To provide their children with an even better chance for success, Chinese parents are willing to make many personal and financial sacrifices to get their child into the best schools. In addition, parents teach or hire tutors to teach extra content to assure their child is ahead of the class. If their child is behind, they work many extra hours at home or hire a tutor to bring their child up to speed.
According to Ms. Liang, in recent years Chinese parents have become very concerned about new facilities and equipment, because there is the belief that “new” means “quality”. This perception is creating problems, because resources are being moved from the classroom to facilities and equipment which means the quality of instruction is suffering. Also, Chinese parents do not encourage many extra-curricular activities (after school music, art, sports, theater, community service, etc). As a result, most Chinese children only have a few diverse experiences.
The US is very different.
Until recently, it was easy for a young person in the US to get a good job with average academic preparation. Even though the information revolution has radically changed the type of academic background required for a good job, the changes are still not well understood. Many parents still believe their children will have a good standard of living no matter how well they perform in the classroom. As a result, schooling is way down the list of priorities — behind vacations, second homes, recreational gear, etc.
Many US parents believe educational experience is more important than how much their child learns. For these parents, homework is a low priority and poor grades are a reflection on the teacher rather than on the student and the parents. To make matters more challenging, a large number of US parents spend a lot of time and energy analyzing why their children cannot learn and little time taking action to make sure they do. On the positive side, US parents are very interested in the broad exposure offered through extracurricular activities and encourage their children to participate in many of these activities to gain an understanding of the world. Also, US parents are tend to be more concerned about what a school offers than the appearance of the facilities or equipment.
Even though we live half way around the world from each other and speak two completely different languages, it is amazing how we can help each other. If we could combine the extra-curricular exposure and lack of concern with facility and equipment appearance from the US with the high academic performance expectations and personal responsibility from China it would be amazing how much the children in both countries could learn!
