China and the US admire each other's lawns
Re-education, a recent article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, illustrates a classic case of the grass being greener, with the future of two countries at stake.
The article describes how Chinese educators, "concerned that too many students have become the sort of stressed-out, test-acing drone who fails to acquire the skills — creativity, flexibility, initiative, leadership — said to be necessary in the global marketplace.... are trying to blend a Western emphasis on critical thinking, versatility and leadership into their own traditions."
Meanwhile, on this side of the planet, "American educators seek to emulate Asian pedagogy, a test-centered ethos and a rigorous focus on math, science and engineering."
Not to put too fine a point on the matter, but if the Chinese are not happy with their system, why are we trying to copy it? And vice versa?
Maybe, just maybe, neither system is working. Perhaps it is time to experiment with an entirely new type of education system. What might such a system look like?
Well, my research group is asking that very question. Check out our website, epistemicgames.org to see some of our potential solutions.
The article describes how Chinese educators, "concerned that too many students have become the sort of stressed-out, test-acing drone who fails to acquire the skills — creativity, flexibility, initiative, leadership — said to be necessary in the global marketplace.... are trying to blend a Western emphasis on critical thinking, versatility and leadership into their own traditions."
Meanwhile, on this side of the planet, "American educators seek to emulate Asian pedagogy, a test-centered ethos and a rigorous focus on math, science and engineering."
Not to put too fine a point on the matter, but if the Chinese are not happy with their system, why are we trying to copy it? And vice versa?
Maybe, just maybe, neither system is working. Perhaps it is time to experiment with an entirely new type of education system. What might such a system look like?
Well, my research group is asking that very question. Check out our website, epistemicgames.org to see some of our potential solutions.
posted by Gumshoe at 3:06 PM
2 Comments:
a friend of mine out here is a game designer for leapfrog. would you want to meet up with him to discuss this stuff when you're out here?
I agree with this sentiment wholehearttedly. I actually believe more efficient education systems are already out there, even quite archaic. But first we must look at why we have systems of "educating" massive populations of people. The buddhists say that intention defines the energy of a thing. Here the intention is to housebreak a millions of people to make them viable middle management, hard labor, free labor (prisons), or soldiers of imperialism. With that intention, we can only expect a very limited set of outcomes.
Y'all are PhD students and probably know him by now, by if we, as A.S. Neill put it, are intending to create self governing communities of happy, independent thinking individuals, then that is what we will get.
If you haven't read it, "Summer Hill School" is a fine example of a model unlike both the Chinese and American Systems that has had proven success, except the U.K. has tried to shut it down for seventy years because if every school in the U.K. were a Summer Hill school, a "Monarchy" could not possibly exist.
Just a thought
-Toro
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