Job Discussion Forums

[garbotara]

Have you ever heard Chinese students say this before? I have heard this a few times now. May be they are told this to make them feel superior, even though their textbooks are bad and they never have to write any term papers.I always correct them about how much homework I had to do when I was a little girl and all the term papers I had to write later on. This really makes me giggle. Children in other countries don't have to do homework, yeah right.

[latefordinner]

I don't get it from the students, but from the Chinese teachers.
I explain to them that when I was in school, (and dinosaurs ruled the earth) HW came in two varieties; there were long term projects, which were part of the grade scheme, and the occaisional page or two of problems from the back of the textbook. That as we progressed through the school system, there were more of the former and fewer of the latter. And that the latter were generally assigned because people weren't working in class. If you got it in class, you didn't have to do homework. In my day, if people took a lot of homework home, it was for a reason. It wasn't something you boasted about.
I sometimes add that the assignments the kids in middle school have to do look a lot like the pages we had to copy when I was in grade 3 or 4 primary. I don't often add that, however. It's too much like piling on.

[garbotara]

I remember study hallls quite well, thank you very much.I would usually get my homework done there. But on the off chance I didn't , I would have to do it at home. At the schools I went to we had classroom assignments and then some homework.
Yes I have seen the textbooks for middle school students, I agree.

[Roger]

I have met a number of Chinese who enjoyed zero exposure to Chinese classroom English exposure; right now I have the company of a 28-year old person who left school after completing her primary school years (no English at all).
She taught herself English, and was so stunningly successful she got a job at a number of western-owned businesses where English was a major requirement.
People like this prove eloquently that the longer you are forced through the Chinese school loops the more stulified you get.
Incidentally, this woman is a total freethinker who saw through the smokescreens the authorities put out over the anti-Japanese protests. She went to take pictures that she showed me - you could think she is a "dissident", but she isnt'. She simply is a mature, intelligent and natural person - like so many could be if there was no government effort at controlling the minds and time of Chinese citizens!

[struelle]

Perhaps an ideal education system would combine the opposing extremes of what we see in China and the West. One option would be to cut the Chinese high school day to around 7 hours a day, a little more than average for Western countries, while also retaining the evening study sessions, say 3 hours of homework per night. Also, cut all weekend classes and studying.

These are very superficial ideas though, you'd also have to find ways to reform the testing systems and deal with major curriculum and social issues.

In terms of hours, however, those would be considered ideal in my opinion. Not the 12+ hours which is bootcamp in the mainland system, but not like the 6 hour slacker days in Western countries either.

Steve