Opinion piece from The Wall Street Journal.
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In China, my son had to study hard. Here in the U.S., he just needs to bring a ‘healthy snack’ to school.

By Habi Zhang

As a Chinese doctoral student raising a young son in the U.S., I am mystified by how American elementary schools coddle students. In China, schools are run like boot camps. What do the therapeutic comforts America showers on its youth portend for a growing competition with China?

I recently registered my son in the third grade at a New Jersey public school. Hattie had recently finished two years of elementary school in Chengdu, China, where he trotted off to school each day with a backpack stuffed with thick textbooks and materials for practices and quizzes. Here he leaves for school with little in his backpack other than a required “healthy snack.”

The first day he came home with a sheet of math homework: 35 addition problems. He finished in about a minute. On the second day, he was asked to write 328 in different configurations. He first wrote down 300+20+8, following the prompt, and then 164x2, 82x4 and 656÷2.

My son is not a genius, but he started studying math at an early age. When he was 5, I taught him fractions. Two years later, I introduced him to algebra. It is a core belief in Chinese society that talent can be trained, so schools should be tough on children. Chinese students score at the top of international math and science tests.

This is not a philosophy shared by American schools. On Friday night my son came home announcing in bewilderment that he didn’t have any homework. In China students tend to receive twice as much homework on the weekend, given the two days to complete it. How will America compete with a China determined to train the best mathematicians, scientists and engineers?

Unfolding now are two Maoist cultural revolutions, one in the East and the other in the West. The former is a jingoistic nationalism enforced by party loyalties and ubiquitous secret police. The latter is an anti-Americanism enforced by progressive mobs seeking to defund the police. Both are about limiting expression, controlling thought and regulating behavior.

Xi Jinping has been cracking down on everything from finance to entertainment to whip his country through a “national rejuvenation.” China’s nationalism is explicitly anchored in Maoism, with Mr. Xi representing the new cult of personality. Meanwhile, woke America—which, consciously or not, deploys Maoist tactics—is destroying the core traditions of Western civilization with identity politics.

In both countries, control must extend to the very young to mold them in the image of the official ideology. In fall 2021 Chinese pupils returned to school with a new requirement to study “Xi Jinping Thought.” Schools must “plant the seeds of loving the party, the country, and socialism in young hearts,” a government announcement declares. Across the ocean, American pupils are taught that white America is inherently racist, regardless of individual intention or action.

Chinese education pushes the young in directions that serve the party and the state. Youth are trained to be skilled laborers ready to endure hard work and brutal competition. Such political indoctrination is taught side by side with math and science. American education is supposed to be about opening minds but appears not to fill them with much. Worse, young Americans are not prepared for the demands of being an adult.

This phenomenon started in higher education. For years attending American universities, I have been disturbed to watch colleges fabricate “anxiety” and “depression” in students who are not mentally ill. Administrators have used grossly exaggerated terms such as “trauma,” and melodramatic expressions such as “I cannot begin to imagine what you have suffered,” to turn into a catastrophe what is best described as disappointment. This creates a culture of victimization.

The absurdity peaked after the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Students from elite universities claimed existential despair, finding comfort in cocoa, coloring books and therapy dogs. Classes were canceled and exams postponed, all in the name of soothing 20-somethings who need to be learning how to adapt to reality as adults.

Chinese citizens enjoy mocking the Western “snowflakes.” Less amusing is what this trend means for the U.S. as China no longer hides its enmity for America.

Ms. Zhang is a doctoral student in political science.

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Read that as well. Not that long ago,Khrushchev pounded his shoe on the podium at the UN and proclaimed "We will bury you!" Now it is China.

quote:

The absurdity peaked after the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Students from elite universities claimed existential despair, finding comfort in cocoa, coloring books and therapy dogs. Classes were canceled and exams postponed, all in the name of soothing 20-somethings who need to be learning how to adapt to reality as adults.

quote:

Chinese education pushes the young in directions that serve the party and the state. Youth are trained to be skilled laborers ready to endure hard work and brutal competition. Such political indoctrination is taught side by side with math and science.

I think we can find something in between. I agree we need to.

So then the question is, how much is Beijing funding commie in the US to undermine our system? Follow the money...

[/QUOTE]
I think we can find something in between. I agree we need to.[/QUOTE]

Keep everything except the party and state part. That sounds like the schools I went two a few decades ago before the experts "improved" our education system, and now society in general.

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Originally posted by sigfreund:
In China, my son had to study hard. Here in the U.S., he just needs to bring a ‘healthy snack’ to school.

It's worse than that.

He doesn't need to bring a 'healthy snack', the 'healthy snack' is given to him.

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Originally posted by Gustofer:
It's worse than that.

He doesn't need to bring a 'healthy snack', the 'healthy snack' is given to him.

Assuming they show up at all.

It’s only getting worse. “Equity” has become the mantra of those in power. In order to be “fair,” it’s necessary that no one be allowed to excel. When all students are performing at a fair, low level of achievement, equity will have been reached in that facet of American society.

The answer is obvious… Don’t send your kids to gooberment schools … ever.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
The answer is obvious… Don’t send your kids to gooberment schools … ever.

Well, money. The cost of private school is pretty high.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
The answer is obvious… Don’t send your kids to gooberment schools … ever.

Well, money. The cost of private school is pretty high.

They may have somewhat higher standards but the PC crap is still bad there.
The sad thing is to see how much we spend on a per student basis for this public school crap.

^^^^ Freaking TEACHER'S UNIONS.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
The answer is obvious… Don’t send your kids to gooberment schools … ever.

Well, money. The cost of private school is pretty high.

Priorities

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Originally posted by 220-9er:

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
The answer is obvious… Don’t send your kids to gooberment schools … ever.

Well, money. The cost of private school is pretty high.

They may have somewhat higher standards but the PC crap is still bad there.
The sad thing is to see how much we spend on a per student basis for this public school crap.

True … You have to care and be discerning… Shouldn’t be an unusual task for a parent

HOMESCHOOOL HOMESCHOOL HOMESCHOOL

ymmv

my kids go / went to an outstanding public high school.

calculus, physics, latin, chemistry, etc. AP / honors offerings. kids stay up til 1130 every night with homework.

(one kid went to college and it wasn't until she got to college calc 3 that she started to see 'new' material)

you have to know your environment. in any case we are happy -- so are they. i realize that is not the case in others places.

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Don’t forget CRT. Some media advocates claim it doesnt exist..

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
It’s only getting worse. “Equity” has become the mantra of those in power. In order to be “fair,” it’s necessary that no one be allowed to excel. When all students are performing at a fair, low level of achievement, equity will have been reached in that facet of American society.

It’s Harrison Bergeron.