On International Changes In Education

[Suji to Seoul]

I consider myself a fairly decent educator. I am by no means perfect and I am by no means horrible. I teach to the best of my ability using the skills seven years of teaching has given me, as well as the guidance of a 25 year veteran in the field (my mother) and the skillful hands of fellow teachers with more experience than me. I feel blessed and honored to have these people in my life.

I am not the perfect educator, but I do my best to honor this sacred and noble profession. I have been given a timeless opportunity: Educator in three different countries at three different levels; Public High School History Teacher in The States, English Language Instructor at a “for-profit” education “institute” in Suji in the Republic of Korea and at a Public High School and University in Shijiazhuang in the People’s Republic of China. I feel relatively assured in my experience to say the following thing: DO NOT COMPARE OUR EDUCATION TO THAT IN ASIA!!!

Professional public education bashers point to China, Japan and Korea and use them as the models to smear educators and our schools. I am here to debunk most of their arguments.

1: The students in (enter country) are better behaved than American students: This is relatively true, however, here in China, misbehavior takes different forms. Yes, the students do not sell drugs, have weapons or bad mouth their teachers. However, they do hide behind their family’s influence, sleep in class, and violate the rules of the school as regularly as American students. They do misbehave, but it is a different form of misbehavior.

2: (enter country)’s students work harder than American students: This is completely untrue. In Korea, the students work harder, but at the end of the day, they sleep because they have been at school or hagwan for over 14 hours. In China, the students barely work, or only work on the subjects that are on their Gaokao, their college entrance exam. As a result, non-tested subjects get ignored.

3: (enter country)’s students are better because they are in school longer. Longer school days make smarter students: Here in China, the school is 13 hours long. At #1 Middle School of Shijiazhuang, students arrive at 8:00 AM and leave at 9:00 PM. This is extremely deceptive, as they are not in class 13 hours straight. Between each of their nine classes is a 15 minute break, including two 30 minute breaks during morning and afternoon session. They have a two hour lunch break and an hour dinner break. The last two hours of the day are “self-study” time. So, while the students are under school care for 13 hours a day, they only have, at most, 6.5 to 7 hours of actual class time. . .the same amount as American students.

4: (enter country)’s test scores are better: This is because teachers here only teach the material on the test and drill it into the heads of their students every day of the week. They do ONLY the pages on the test.

5: (enter country)’s teachers are better quality: Well, all teachers are good or bad. However, here in China, if a student sleeps in class, then the teacher ignores them. They only teach to the students who care. Unlike in America, they only teach to the bright kids, not the ones who lag behind or don’t care.

I have taught in Asia for going into my third year. They are looking to move out of teaching only to the Gaokao here in China. I am fortunate to be in a position where the company my family, my friend and I are starting can help influence a change in Chinese educational policy; having Party contacts in high places helps. They are moving away from test-based instruction to more of what we, in The States, had before that abomination of NCLB.

At the same time, we are moving toward the system China is trying to scrap. Does anyone see something strange here?

[tonysam]

1. Thank you for your post.

It's too bad the neoliberals are out to destroy ALL education systems throughout the world because education is one of only two ways for upward mobility for the masses. The other is unionization.

Both must be killed, according to these neoliberals.