But besides this impression, there are other stories. When I was working in a UN agency, I especially disliked my local American colleagues calculating the timetable for going home every day, which was almost the pace of life. I was curious and asked him, why don't you go back to work? He said that the most important reason for staying here is that the United Nations can reimburse two-thirds of the education expenses of employers' children, and returning to China is just an ordinary professor, so it is difficult to afford the tuition fees for children to attend private secondary schools. I asked again. "Then why not go to a free public school?" This colleague's smiling expression is very similar to that of parents in China who borrowed money to buy school districts. A few years later, I went to the United States and found that the local primary school finished school at three o'clock in the afternoon, and only the children of black neighbors ran home. At this time, most white and China children are carrying schoolbags and taking musical instruments to various cram schools.
There is also great competition in schools. It is not what many people in China call "happy education". That kind of education does exist in English-speaking countries such as the United States, but it is limited to public schools. Public schools in the United States have low fees and low quality of education, so the family conditions of students who come here to study are not good. One-year tuition in private schools is equivalent to the annual income of ordinary families, which is difficult for ordinary people to afford. Of course, students' life destiny and future are also different. The number of students enrolled in five private schools, including the British Eaton Project, by two universities in Oxford and Cambridge is equivalent to 1800 of the total number of students enrolled in these two schools by public schools. Students in private schools study very hard, not only learning English, mathematics, history and other subjects, but also reaching 10 or above! How strict are the students here?
They have textbooks, but teachers usually don't use them. The teacher will directly recommend several original works to the students, so that everyone can look at the thick original works and find information in the original works. Many China students who have just come to study in the United States are "crying" for this "teaching self-study" learning method. Private schools are very different from public schools. Some educational courses have high requirements and collocation, a large amount of homework and strict requirements, and many parents are also very concerned about their children's grades. Moreover, extracurricular activities are not less than those in public schools, and it is also necessary to train and cultivate students' personal abilities. On the surface, the difference between Chinese and western education is the difference of methods, but in essence it is the difference of educational function orientation. Education in China is a bottom-up ladder. As long as you get good grades, you can go to a prestigious school to change your destiny. Western education is a hierarchical system. Mass education only provides basic and limited education. To become an elite, you must buy a separate degree in the market, and those who can't afford it will naturally be eliminated.