educate

"In fact, 15-year-old Chinese students in Shanghai out-performed all students internationally in all three categories, including math, science, and reading. According to Time Magazine, this is the first time China participated in a PISA study, and the results are stunning because researchers did not expect the country to do as well as it did." - Ana Kasparian of Young Turks

Full article here: http://www.examiner.com/politics-education-in-national/china-beats-the-u-s-education-1

I really don't think these studies mean too much. Definitley that Math, Science and Reading are the foundations of a good education. But the quality of education is not and should not be defined by these basic building blocks. As far as I can see, the building blocks are there, but no one knows how to put everything together in the right way.

So what if the 15 year old kids in your country can do advanced calculus? if they're not going to pursue a career or life that will utilise their education, then it is useless.

Kids in China are not given a choice of specializing in their secondary education and only recently were tertiary electives introduced.

I asked my parents a question, I know many people that excel in areas that my parents do not consider as part of a traditional education. Now some of these people chose to drop mathematics and sciences in favour of subjects like Visual Communications or Studio Arts, they excel and gain recognition and proceed to have a prosperous career doing something they love, should they be forced to do Mathematics and Sciences instead?

I think the problem with the Chinese education is a completely different problem from what we face here in the "Western World", its more so that people are being shoved into jobs that they never had a passion for and thus mediocrity breeds more mediocrity and new ideas are always one step behind, because that person who had a passion to be innovative and creative in a field they love was forced to do subjects they didn't like and is probably in a tertiary course they have no love for and is now stuck in a job they hate.

Now this doesn't just apply to professions that require artistic creativity, but a good example is indeed jobs that require artistic creativity. During my time working with designers in Shanghai, I have never seen such uninspired work coming from profession designers. The skills are technically all there, but there is no passion. This is mainly due to the fact that most of these designers did not get into design as part of their passion, but as a last resort for a career due to failing at something else they were forced to do.

To demonstrate the macro-effects:

When you think of America, you think of Apple, Ford, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Google etc

Japan: Honda, Sony, Nintendo, Toshiba etc

Germany: Mercedez Benz, Volkswagen etc

these are some of the world's largest economies, China ranks above all except America...yet there are no brands (at least that we know of, Lenovo would be closest) that has become synonymous with industry defining innovation, possibly due to lack of creative marketing skills or possibly because that most people in the workforce are uninspired. If China's education system is not revamped, then China will be stuck with copying the rest of the world forever.

(however, I am also aware that the Japanese schooling system is also very strict and arbitary, I am not familiar with the details, but its interesting that their schooling system can produce so many talents and innovative companies...curious)