Comparing and ranking nations on any basis is a sensitive issue, especially for those who don’t come out on the top. PISA is an international comparison of students’ knowledge and skills in three major fields (reading, mathematics and science), published every three years. Out of the 65 nations that participate, the U.S. comes out towards the middle of the list, behind many smaller nations (31st in math, 23rd in science.) The best performers are the students from Shanghai, China, clearly leading in all domains. Singapore and Finland are also on the top, so the attention gets focused on their education systems: what makes them perform so well?
Inside the U.S., we might also wonder about where all the inequality in academic performance comes from. There is plenty of anecdotal (and also some statistical) evidence that students of Asian background tend to excel, and also that ‘inner city’ high schools tend to lag behind. We all might remember a provocative article (What Makes Chinese Mothers Superior?) by Amy Chua, who became famous a couple years ago as the ‘Tiger Mom.’ She argued that the better school performance of Asian students comes from different cultural values and practices, and starts in the family. The article became a hot spot on the internet, and attracted a record number of comments in the Wall Street Journal.
The PISA results show that some education systems perform better than others, and this is not only a question of finances. It is also possible that some cultures encourage and value high academic performance more than others. Where exactly the difference in academic performance comes from is a complex question, and cannot be answered just based on personal experiences, opinions and anecdotes.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/education/07education.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://ourtimes.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/oecd-education-rankings/
I read most of the article about chinese parenting and I have to say how shocking it was to read. I know the overall outcome was a sucess for the 7 year old but personally I could never go that far with my child. Telling her child she couldn’t eat or use the bathroom until she got the piano piece right. The mother talked about how we as parents give up to easy. Her daughter, when finally accomplishing the piece, snuggled with her in bed and was fine with the scenerio. I believe they are fine with it because they always grow up that way and it is “how they are made”. We grow up differently so that is why we are they way we are. Both sides complain that each other is wrong, or the worse. We aren’t wrong, we are just different.
This is not at all surprising to me that the US ends up in the middle. If you take a look at some other countries and their education policies this fact will not surprise you. In some countries children go to school year round and have longer school days. Here there are always, half-days, in service days, some type of holiday, not to mention the children don’t really go to school a full day. Also, take a look at the vacations they get, Thanksgiving is quite a few days, then we have Christmas or winter break, then comes February and April and they are done in June! Oh and don’t forget the snow days they are to be made up at the end of the year but who are we kidding, nothing is accomplished then. School then takes a ten week break and we still hear some teachers and students complain. So no, I’m not at all shocked where the US ends up!
In an article from one of the links above it states that chinese kids spend more time with academics than U.S. kids, who spend their time in music, sports and other activities not geared towards exams and core learning. It is true that all well rounded education comes with all of that, so the chinese are missing out on a more creative side of learning. They can be good at academics but having a skill is also important along with a level of street smarts rather than just book smarts. Kids need to explore their creative or athletic side as well.
Great topic! My family has hosted several foreign exchange students from China and it is very interesting to learn about the way they were raised and what their customs are. Especially the girls. I will have to say I’m thankful I was born here! There is constant pressure from their elders to do better, even if the grades are very good already. One of the students we hosted took the TOEFL test almost every month for a year (paying for it each time) striving for a perfect score when she never did bad on it- she just wanted 100%. China tests better but in other areas they don’t do as well. They seem to focus on memorizing information in a race to the top and in America we take more time for creativity and innovation.
Two points:
As far as American parents giving up too easily, I can see that. My husband is a stay-at-home dad and I’m not criticizing him at all because it is a really hard job, but when it came to potty training our daughter, it was always “easier” to just use diapers. When she was about 18 months old, I stayed home for 3 days and had her 90% trained. But when I went back to work, she went right back to diapers because she had an occasional accident. After that she learned that she “didn’t have to use the potty” and it took us till now (3 1/2) to get her back to where she was at 18 months. But that is the mentality that we have in America. We do what is easy for ourselves and our children and that sometimes means staying inside instead of playing outside or not doing schoolwork.
If you look at professional sports, our athletes are not encouraged to succeed in academics to make millions of dollars as an athlete. In press conferences, athletes often sound ignorant with the way they speak and there is no pressure to learn how to speak correctly and sound professional. This also ties into socio-economic status. While watching RGIII (Robert Griffin III, a quarterback in the NFL), my husband noted how well he spoke. After Googling him, I pointed out that it was because he grew up wealthy.