From the mouths of babes...

Last week we talked about the pros and cons of the American education system. I then asked my students to write a letter to an American student explaining the Chinese system. In a country where negative comments about anything Chinese are rare, their candid responses were very surprising. See for yourself:

"I feel I haven't enough time to do other funny activities, such as play the instrument, draw Chinese traditional picture and so on. Particularly during the summer or winter holiday, children aren't feel happy and lots of pressure. I want to say children haven't a really happy childhood."

"As a student of China, I feel tired. In middle school and high school we must pass the examination. I wake at 8am and must study until 10pm. It is bad for health."

"Students who are bad for study will be leave out in teacher's eyes. It doesn't mean there is fair."

"American education have more free time to students to learn some new things. It makes they become creative. Chinese style is different, this style make student only pay attention to the study not society and theyself think. Although every student can learn, this is not point to a man who want to be creative. As far as I'm considered, I like American education more because it can make people open they mind and not have so much stress like China education."

"I think our education system is bad. When we begin studying in primary school we have too much homework to do and we only learn the knowledge on book and never to practice. So Chinese students lack the creative thinking and is inflexible."

"And in high school, every students want to get a good grade. So they have to study harder and harder, even they usually sleep very little time one day. Surely they don't have enough time to rest and have a good health. They don't have freedom."

(There was only one hold-out:)

"In China being a life-long learner is common for us. So our country has a perfect education system. And everyone can learn wherever they are. Do you think our country set an example in this area?"

I am very pleased with how open my students have become with sharing their opinions with me, something that didn't happen at the beginning of the semester. It definitely makes my job much more interesting since they never cease to surprise me with their views.

Anyways, I'm off to Chengdu (aka the city of pandas) on Friday. Looking forward to a weekend of cuddly animals, sight-seeing, and hopefully some Western luxuries like cheese...