China students who go to the United States for undergraduate or graduate studies are often surprised by the reading volume of American students. In fact, one of the characteristics of American education is to attach importance to reading since childhood, and to guide students to write research papers in combination with reading from middle school. These abilities eventually become the greatest advantage of American students.

I have been a graduate student in an American university for two years, and the most surprising thing is the reading capacity and reading ability of my classmates. In the methodology course of oral history, the reading assigned by the professor is one or two hundred pages. Later, the teacher pointed to a book of about 300 pages and said, "If you have spare capacity, you can finish reading this book again." At that time, I was shocked by the reading requirements in American education. Three people in the class have finished reading this 300-page book except hundreds of pages of reading materials. 30% of the class.

Later, I chatted with my American classmates and found that American education paid more attention to reading ability since childhood. So their reading ability comes from long-term cultivation.

From primary school, Chinese teachers will provide all kinds of reading materials for everyone to read, and then write all kinds of interesting papers according to reading. In high school, the research papers they made greatly opened the students' critical thinking. And this kind of thinking is what China students lack most.

I have come to understand that American teaching methods do not simply focus on reading speed and quantity, but on establishing the relationship between reading and thinking.

The teaching quality in the United States is closely related to the school district where students live, and the teaching quality varies greatly from school district to school district. But in general, the entire American education system attaches great importance to reading.

Ivy has been studying in FortLee, New Jersey, and belongs to a very good school district. She told me that reading and writing are very important learning directions since primary school.

For example, primary and secondary schools in the United States never have summer homework. But the teacher will encourage everyone to study in the summer vacation. You can read any book you want, and then hand over your reading experience. Some students will read dozens of books in a summer vacation.

Reading English books will be very important when you go to school formally. Ivy told me that there are several books in her ninth grade book list, all of which are masterpieces. Besides modern English, teachers sometimes ask students to read some classical English.

Lucy is now a freshman in an art college in Florida. She told me that she was also assigned a lot of reading-based writing in high school. But there are also many optional movements, which greatly stimulate students' desire for innovation. This stems from teachers encouraging innovative writing. She once wrote an article, which was quite strange. It's called "Is dandelion edible?" 》

"Because this article is somewhat different, it is highly valued by teachers. I found many related reports and even documentaries to support my argument. Can you write this topic? The teacher thinks it can be a topic as long as it doesn't violate the law. The more novel, the better. "