American education can be said to be one of the biggest monsters in the world. If we only look at the first-class universities, academic achievements and the number of Nobel Prizes, American education is undoubtedly the first in the world. But if you look at basic education and high school students who can't read or write but only play basketball, you think that the education in the United States is at least the worst in developed countries. But even in famous schools like Harvard and Yale, most students and professors are Americans, which shows that their basic education is still cultivating a large number of talents, and their higher education is not maintained by money and foreign elites alone.

American democratic education system

In America, voters are God, and politicians regard ordinary people as their parents. Every presidential election, no matter who challenges the incumbent, no matter which party he comes from, they all say the same pattern: we are Americans, so we should live a better life than now; Now all the problems are because the current president screwed up. American political discourse can be summed up in one sentence: it's not your fault, it's someone else's (government's) fault. Sovereignty lies with the people, but responsibility does not lie with them.

The core of this democratic political culture is not to recognize the authority above. Ordinary people are used to flattery, but they don't listen to criticism, let alone learn a lesson.

American high schools are funded by ordinary people's taxes. Who dares to say that taxpayers are wrong?

We should also be very careful when dealing with students. A Chinese-American female teacher who works as a teaching assistant at Yale University gives her students a mid-term exam result. Nearly half of the students got more than 90 points in the exam, but one student was really outrageous. She could only give him 62 points. In the comments at the back of his paper, the teacher wrote: "You don't seem to understand what you are discussing. You need to study harder. "

I don't want the professor to call the teacher to the office immediately after reading it, saying that the teacher's comment on writing is totally unacceptable. He warned female teachers in China: "This is the United States, and such comments are insulting to students. You can say that he did something wrong, and your achievements are beyond reproach. But you can't say that people don't understand and don't work hard. " (about things, not people)

Where do American high-quality talents come from?

American education, which can't even maintain the basic level, can cultivate high-level talents. The reason is simple: good students will study hard without urging, and the United States provides them with unparalleled learning conditions.

More importantly, the pluralistic and free education system provides the most adequate development space for outstanding people, enabling them to master excellent skills to cope with extremely complex society. When enrolling students, American universities should pay attention to the diverse collocation of students in ethnic, cultural, economic and other backgrounds, not just the scores. This policy is not only to take care of the problems of blacks and the poor, but also to improve the quality of education. Education should cultivate independent citizens, not "obedient people"

American college students generally don't have to decide their major in the first two years, and even their major in senior year is not directly related to their future career. I have a classmate who majored in history and went to medical school after graduation. Such examples are common on campus, and no one will feel a little surprised. Once, my wife went to see a doctor. The doctor met, introduced himself and talked about his family. When he knew that she was a China native studying Japanese literature here, he immediately discussed the Nanjing Massacre with her, which made you feel that there were many languages on both sides, and there was a sense of trust between patients and doctors.

How about East Asia? Not to mention the doctors in China. Even in a developed country like Japan, when you go to the hospital, you can never expect the doctor to take the initiative to shake hands with you, let alone talk about home. Japanese doctors often remind people of the gendarmerie captain in the movie. You are just a problematic thing under his authority, not a person. As soon as my two-year-old daughter passed the American hospital, she cried to go in and see a doctor. But in Japan, she cries when she sees a doctor, and even has some psychological problems. By American standards, if you can't trust such a young child, what kind of doctor are you!

American society is made up of citizens, not "obedient people", not "parts" and "screws" of social engineering. Education should first shape people, know what human rights are, know what everyone is equal and equal opportunities, and then talk about majors and knowledge, otherwise you don't know how to apply professional skills to people. Therefore, students should cultivate how to make choices about their own lives from the beginning, instead of mastering the skills that others need them to master under the highly specialized authoritative education system and concept.

The biggest difference between education and training is that education is not only imparting knowledge, but also gestating a steady stream of human resources. In his speech in Tsinghua University in 2002, Bush said that "universities should not only train technicians, but also train citizens", expressing the basic concept of American education, which should inspire Tsinghua students and even China students who have received highly specialized training of "obedient" in the former Soviet Union.