Every morning when I wake up at Song Gang Middle School, my ears are greeted by the sounds of music playing during the flag raising ceremony. The music contains an innate military quality, with a strong rhythm and loud blaring horns. Meanwhile students have there daily athletic exercises which seem more like Marine drills and afterwards make a lap around campus. By the time I get to my classroom, it is evident that school life in China is not like it is in America. Besides the books, homework, and classrooms everything else in the experience renders school life unrecognizable. At Song Gang Middle School, every student is treated like a juvenile. It is the quintessential corrupt prison school.
Song Gang Middle School is unique for its very diverse student body. A large portion of the senior high school classes are from the Xinjiang Autonomous region in China's Northwest. For these students, life is particularly hard. Not only are Xinjiang students trapped in an isolated school in a city thousands of miles away from home, but they are also looked upon as different from the rest of the student body due to their ethnicity. The administration institutionalizes this isolation by segregating the Xinjiang students into separate classes, dormitories, and even cafeterias. The reason why they must eat in a separate cafeteria is because they have a diet that is strictly dictated by religion (no pork). But nonetheless, they don't really have a choice to eat in another location, thus further isolating them from the rest of the student body.
Furthermore, during the weekends Han Chinese students have the ability to go home and visit their parents. The Xinjiang students obviously don't have this luxury. In fact, their ability to leave the school itself for leisure is strictly regulated and rationed. According to school policy, female and male students are granted separate weekends to leave the school. Therefore, the ability to leave the school gates is only granted once every two weeks for these students. However, it's not like they have much time to leave school anyways. Students have class 6 days a week and during week days class starts at 7:40 am and ends at 10:00 PM after the last study hall.
Song Gang's situation is only one example under the bigger picture that is the Chinese education system. Children in China are only guaranteed public education until the end of junior high school. To pursue their education further, students must pass a rigorous exam called the Zhong Kao which is the sole determining factor in their eligibility for a high school education. If they don't pass the Zhong Kao, these kids will start their career as a working class hero at age 14 or 15.
But the fun isn't over yet. After three years of high school (four for Xinjiang students), high school students will take another exam called the Gao Kao which is far more difficult and important. It is the outcome of this exam that determines not just whether a student can go to college but what colleges they can apply for, and the competition is every high school student in China. The odds aren't very good for the average Chinese student, whose high school experience is completely dominated by practice examinations and lessons geared towards passing the exam. A whole 3 years of studying will culminate in one several hour exam, and it's that flimsy piece of paper that will dictate the career, status, and quality of life for these students; and Americans think the SAT is stressful! The response to this oppressive education environment is a widespread feeling of depression and helplessness, which results in an obedient populous with no ability to think for themselves.
Such a system benefits from the ability to exceed in math, science, and test taking ability. But it completely eliminates the blossoming spirit of the Chinese imagination, a spirit which China desperately needs to combat the challenges of economic development and social changes from massive urbanization and mass consumerism. By the time they break out of this brutal system, I'm sure Chinese college students feel a sense of relief. But I also believe they feel a sense of apathy towards their society. They have been treated like a soldier for their whole life with nothing to believe in but grades and tests, unlike a real soldier which at least has the love of country and camaraderie to hold on to.
No wonder China is the country of copies and opposed to patents. Such a system scares away the few that have critical thinking skills which lead to creativity and innovation. Every week, I talk to one Xinjiang student who is exceptionally intelligent for his age. He will take the Gao Kao this year, but he wants to make sure he doesn't go to college in China. He has big dreams to go to MIT in Boston, but any American college or university with a physics program will do. As long as it gets him out of China. It's students like him that can find the solutions to China's numerous problems, and it is these students that the Chinese education is weeding out by not fostering creativity and mental autonomy. As for the rest of the students at Song Gang Middle School, in my humble opinion, they are all just bricks in the Great Wall of China's schools.
No comments:
Post a Comment