education in different countries.

Education is good, but somehow the education system is a threat to our creativity. More evidently seen in the Asian culture.

 

Education in China

(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/world/asia/27iht-letter.html)

China produces many clever people but few geniuses.

Children in China are very capable at a very young age, being able to play the piano, calculate fast; they have many skills. But when they grow up, they are lost because they don’t know what they want. They have been taught to be obedient from young and would follow their parent’s wishes, and to be the top scorer in a prestigious school in China would bring honour to the family. Parents would follow the formula of sending their children to school and eventually entering an elite school so that they can rely on their elite network to a smooth path through life. When children find the long hours and constant studying pressurising, they have been taught that tough is good because they need to learn the ability to resist pressure. However, this system produces mediocrity. Chinese people are clever but only academic brilliance because they are “not allowed” to grow. Teachers are told to scold the students if they are not doing well, if not people think they aren’t doing their job. There is little pressure to change because after all, this system is producing a generation of clever people. But what they do not see or are not bothered about is that the young Chinese struggle to think for themselves. Society has taught them to conform from such a young age unknowingly that they just follow whatever people say that it is right. This obedience system also produces a herd instinct. They don’t know what they want, but they hear bankers make the most money and everyone else is doing it, so that’s what they want to do. Freedom exist only around profit-making and personal consumer choice, money is more than king – it is the biggest determiner of destiny. Creativity is a nuisance and China doesn’t need a Bill Gates. What it needs is cheap labor and factories, and no one to rock the boat.

 

Education system in Japan (http://japanese.about.com/od/japaneselessons/a/061000.htm)

Similar to China, the Japanese control the individual by observing group rules creating group behaviour.  This explains the Japanese characteristic of group behaviour.

 

Education in Finland

However education in Finland is different from Asian countries. Its teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around. There are no mandated standardised tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school.

“We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test,” said Pasi Sahlberg, a former math and physics teacher who is now in Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/#de1R8ZSYVlY2USUM.99
“If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.” Many schools are small enough so that teachers know every student. If one method fails, teachers consult with colleagues to try something else.

 

 

video about how the education can affect the students they produce.

https://www.facebook.com/attn/videos/1133559323346192/

 

Leave a Reply