This is a funny video about a author who had lived in HK for a while and talks about Chinese education and American education.
Yes, there are lots of difference between the HK education and mainland education, but HK education could still be a window to learn about Chinese education.
Krassel mentioned that Chinese students know more about America or the western world than the American students do about China or other parts of the world. I get to realize this after I have started studying in the U.S.. When Americans asked about China, I was always surprised that they seldom knew any history of my country. On the other side, I do know almost all the basics of American history. This is sort of the result of the arrogance of the Western dominance. Americans, being in a country with the largest economy and many other dominant powers, don’t put much attention about learning other cultures, and whenever they have encounters with them, they perhaps assume that other cultures will adapt to them. So I do suggest eliminating this kind of arrogance be embedded into American education, and be humble.
Another surprise is that how bad Americans are about math, even basic mathematical logic. I’m double majoring in economics, and I’m always frustrated by the questions from American students about the basic math. Funny it is, many Americans don’t even know how to count from 1-10 using just one hand! Chinese education puts a lot of effort into making students sharp in math and logic. Whenever some piece of new knowledge being passed along, teachers always would give out exercise questions, mostly not following exactly what the teacher has taught, unlike what many American teachers would do, just to train students to utilize what they’ve learned to solve different types of questions.
However, Chinese education maybe has gone too far about training students about “logic”. It’s the “logic of unity” that Chinese students have been repeatedly being trained. There’s usually only one answer for those exercise questions, and students are punished for stepping out of the box. Most students below university level are required to wear uniforms, and some schools even require girls to wear short hair to avoid them from being distracted by their long hair while studying.
Also, schooling in China is hard work, seriously hard work, well, before university. Thousands of students have to study usually 12- 16 hours a day in order to get a good grade on the college-entrance exam. But whenever they enter the college, the effort they would put into studying drop significantly. Mostly because the teachers in Chinese colleges care more about their status in the school than they do about students. Teachers are usually busy about publishing more papers or taking other outside-university jobs, so when it comes to teaching students, the standard usually is pretty loose. There are some exceptions in those top ranking universities in China, but there are too few like those to make a difference.
