High School Education in America and China Research Paper

High School Education in America and China - Research Paper Example American education system emphasize on students’ ability more than score whereas Chinese education system focus on student’s own knowledge more than his capabilities. In other words, American high school education system is more flexible than the Chinese educational system. It can give more individual care to the students since it focuses more on individual abilities. Although both China and America learn from other’s strong points to offset their weakness, differences still exist such as time schedule, educational style, and extracurricular activities. Heavy workloads are the major problems in Chinese education. High schools in China expect that there are twenty-five hours a day so that the students can have one more hour to study. Moreover, even Saturdays are working day in Chinese schools. In other words, Chinese students are not getting any opportunity for leisure activities. The over emphasize given to education is actually demotivating Chinese students. During my high school years in China, I could not travel around during school holidays because the school does not give long break time even on holidays. The schools believe that the long time study can help students to improve the skill. However, students need time to take a break. For example, I asked my younger cousin who finished his college entrance examination last month that what was his plan for vacation. He told me that he wants to stay home and seep in order to retrieve those sleep which he lost in the past three years. On the other hand, American high school educational system is giving more freedom to the students. American students are getting enough leisure time for playing, watching television or movies, surfing internet etc. Some American parents are of the view that American school system should follow the Chinese system in order to generate a sense of urgency about education in the minds of students. However, they are forgetting the fact that an external observer cannot judge Chinese education properly. American students have four classes per day and each class is of two hours. Students always do the voluntary labor on Saturdays after the class. Also, school will never construct barriers in front of students during vacation time. Many of the American students do volunteer jobs in order to get college admission without any hassles. Volunteer job is very important for getting admissions in American colleges. Not only the time schedule, but the education style also is different in China and Ame rica. Entwistle (1986) has classified learning into three major categories; deep, surface, and strategic