Yes, Spelling Counts
link In PISA Test, Top Scores From Shanghai Stun Experts – NYTimes.com.
As my good friend exclaimed when reading this piece, “who knew and how shocking!” If nothing else, the logical conclusion would be to get new experts. If the experts are genuinely shocked that Chinese students are good at math and science, they’d better peek out from their ivory towers and have a look at the constituency of college enrollment.
On sheer numbers alone, this article is thought provoking. It states that the city of Shanghai has a population of 20 million. That would be 2/3 of the entire population of the State of California, or the country of Canada. The thought of kids excelling at math or science at a rate only comparable to that of those two places mentioned is daunting enough. The fact that they excel is truly intimidating. This has enormous implications for economic and military power going into the next 50 years, or longer. This much has been documented many times over the past 10 years by scholarly papers. The founder and co-CEO of Research In Motion, Mike Lazaridis, famously stated in 2008 that:
“…The number of PhDs the Chinese plan to graduate within the next 10 years is greater than the entire population of Canada…”
So the issue is, why and how do they do it? Well for one thing, the attitude towards education in most Asian nations, but especially China, is much different than the West’s. There is a cultural respect for eduation that borders on reverential. Great sacrifices are made by traditional Chinese families in order to secure good education for their children. In turn, the kids are hardwired to succeed and diligently pursue studies, competing for academic recognition as kids here in the West compete for spots on the Varsity football team.
Here in the West, at least at the pre college level, we observe anecdotal evidence of failures of the education system, of the low test scores relative to comparable nations. It’s hard to imagine why that would be given that the West probably has the most money to spend on education. Something’s amiss. It may be a good idea for the ‘experts’ to import some of the ideas and techniques from China and implement them here.
Without knowing firsthand exactly how their system works, I can say that their academic system is a competitive meritocracy. It’s unlikely little Pan Pan would get passed onto the next grade if his marks were substandard. Rather than chastise the teacher or school for failing their child, more likely the kid gets a stick on the butt from their own parent. It’s unlikely that kids are allowed to be disruptive in class. Smart off to the teacher and they’ll be cleaning washrooms with toothbrushes and then do additional homework. Of course, the worst punishment for the student would be facing their own parents. They will not likely console him/her and then blame the school for picking on the innocent kid.
Attitudes at the colleges are also different than here. It’s unlikely that kids go to schools based on their rankings in the party index. The possibility of going to a ‘girls gone wild’ school would be remote. I suppose there may be courses offered such as “Appreciation of Modern Art In The Age Of Apple” but I would give that a big As IF. It would be easy to concede that the Chinese are better students, but I would argue that they simply have a more conducive environment. The West had better learn that. If we think the Chinese dominance in the field of manufacturing is overwhelming, wait until they take over the inventing as well.