The Next Big Thing

Freshmen Grade 1 Class 4

 So although my reasons are great and varied for going to China, teaching is the reason I was able to stay as long as I did.  I didn't think I would care as much as I did, but weeks after returning, I still think of my students.  There are just so many little things about American life that I wish I could teach them---show them.  I wish I could show them that life can be something else. It's not always regimented schooling, battered buildings, and the looming divide that gao kao---the college entrance exam creates for those left behind.

The average Chinese student is a robot.  They might as well live at school with the amount of time spent in the classroom studying and memorizing. Volunteering in the classroom is discouraged as it might create a disruption and so students wait to be called on.  Because most schools are over-crowded anyways, it is more orderly for students to remain in the same classroom and have teachers rotate.  I am assuming because the education levels of parents may vary that students are made to finish homework at school while supervised by a teacher.  All in all, students are in school probably a total of 10 hours a day Mondays through Fridays and usually Saturdays.  Furthermore, although my school was public, uniforms and short hair cuts were required and dating was forbidden.

High school is an awkward enough time as it is for teenagers, but to have all these restrictions is to create a prison for the mind and spirit. So much of their youth is encircled within the walls of academia.  It impedes independent thinking and creativity.  What does this mean for a generation of only children that already have two sets of grandparents and parents doting on them? I worry what this means for the country's desire to innovate and become the next super power.  They will need thinkers, activists, artists.  China needs to move beyond this mimicry and cultivate differences; innovation; change.

Most young people I think see this but are powerless to change it. They continue on this path established for them and those that can afford it choose to study abroad.  However in select students I see such hope and determination for a better future that I know something is stirring. While many will be limited by bureaucratic restrictions, I hope even more will find a way to surpass them and get to the other side.

Sophomore/Junior Grade 2 Class 5