What can you say to that?

Yes, Chinese students in high school have to work everyday “from 7am until 7pm”(honestly,until 11pm) in order to go to a good college.We have no weekend, nearly no holidays:(

posted by robaggio at February 27, 2005 10:11 PM #

What do you say to that? I’d start exercising, just so I could justify my complaining. :)

posted by Rich at February 27, 2005 11:29 PM #

And still, take a look at this ranking:

http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/top500(1-100).htm

If the chinese work 12 hours+ every day, why are all the best universities (according to this ranking) US/UK? I can think of several factors, like brain drain and biased comparison methods, but one that worries me is the english theory: That it’s the native english speaker’s advantage, through superior control of the language that is used, and the fact that he/she doesn’t have to read or write articles in foreign languages to the same degree.

One way to test this would be to compare areas where language plays a big role (psychology, medicine) to areas where it plays a smaller role (mathemathics).

posted by Harald Korneliussen at February 28, 2005 05:33 AM #

Is how much time we work every day the most important factor to determine the future of the education in a country, or the efficient ways to use our time and energy on the right things?

Yes, for most of the Chinese students, they work hard like that every day, but the truth is not necessary to be we are that dedicated at and concentrated on our work: it seems we, the students and teachers, have been trapped in the system, in which the general public have shaped a strange environment: It makes us take pride in this kind of self-torture,(take kk as a good example.) and in fact, most of the educators take it as big success of our elementary education, but they never know it may be the cause of the fact of no Nobel Prize for China till now.

Anyway, as far I know, the most excellent students in China are all exceptions of that pattern. They have realized living the reality, feeling the beauty of science, is much better than diving in the AIMLESS education.

posted by Gill at February 28, 2005 06:25 AM #

Well, it depends what the exercises are. Maybe he’s just ‘buff’.

posted by Robert Brook at February 28, 2005 07:16 AM #

And summer is not school time because the crops gotta be brought in. What crops do you bring in, Aaron?

posted by skeeter2 at February 28, 2005 02:54 PM #

I am a Chinese student too,like robaggio.We are classmates. In China,if we want to go to college,we have to work very hard at high school. I woke up at 5:30 am. ,and we would be studying until 23:00 or later. There is no good idea to deal with that hard life.Because we want education.In China ,there are 4000000++ students join the clollege entrace exam in my province,but only 17% of them can go to college.So we have to work harder and harder. I want some change ,but I have no idea…

posted by skipper at March 1, 2005 10:02 PM #