Before I came to China, I was increasingly concerned about the state of the educational system in the United States. After attending University at the age of 28 in Pullman, Washington, I quickly discovered that there were some significant changes in not only the level of energy on the college campus, but that there was a general disconnect among students and their education. I frequently ran into immense apathy at Washington State University--a culture of middle class students who thought that by either having parents who were fortunate enough to be able to afford for their offspring to go to college or they were made the decision to chose debt over debit, who seemed to feel that they might be entitled to the piece of paper.
They do a little work in order to make it, but since the workload rarely, if ever, interferes with their drinking, it is all okay. Instead of education being the last moment in your life to suck up the free flowing thoughts that were supposed to so token of the University experience, people seemed to be more interested In ways to forget about them and escape the realities of getting up late and studying. There is more emphasis in what kind of financial success it is going to bring them in the post graduation world than what they are learning.This rings true in the types of graduates that WSU and many other institutions like it throw into the population--more communications students (which I once was) than biology or neuroscience. (Although, the Sciences get more research funding from than any of the other disciplines). Liberal Arts at a conservative University like Pullman is a total figure of speech. When I left college, I had a plethora of college experiences that few could match, especially at my age. I seem to bridge the gap between ages and be somewhat accepted by a large group of students, even going so far as to live in a fraternity house which was not my own and help advise these boys to try to think and be like men. It was a struggle at times, moreso with me trying to act my age, but we there were few complications along the way. Some of them will no doubt do some good things with their lives while most will get out into reality and realize that the real world is a different and abrasive place and you need to be very careful about the choices you make. For me, coming out into reality for the second or perhaps third time in my short life is a crazy time. I found myself much more out of shape from the epic nights of drinking than I had previously thought. I immediately felt withdrawals of the freedoms that the college life brings and I felt depressed at how the marketplace for work not looks, even though the news is constantly trying to tell us all that the jobs rate is rising, yet all I manage to see is gasoline going up.The American workforce is in deep shit--especially in Seattle, where it took me several months just to find a job that paid more than 10 dollars an hour--not quite the college graduate experience that we are dubed into thinking when we begin to sign off the student loan checks for thousands and thousands of dollars each semester of college. During the time I was in college (and W. just happened to be in office) I watched my fees for school increase by 18, 21, and 15 percent every year I was at University. The price tag when I was finished is close to $50,000usd, yet when I got out of college, the only jobs to be found, paid about 22,000 a year. The point of throwing all those numbers out there is that perhaps America needs to begin to consider if it is worth our money to get the education and more importantly, if that piece of paper is actually worth the amount that you pay for it? Are we getting fair market value for our education dollars or is it just another cost of being an American? Does the world still think that the American educational system is at the top of its game and is worth the security issues and the hassle to send their children of privilege to these learning institutions?Part of the reason why I chose to come to another country to teach is that I could find opportunities abroad that I cannot get in the United States. Here, I am a University professor who is beginning to develop lesson plans and curriculum for Chinese students who are majoring in English. This is an opportunity that I could not have in the United States without more schooling, so teaching in another country became of immediate interest to me.
Thinking about education has always been a pastime of mine.
For the people in the world that benefit from the University system in America, the system works well. However, as the richest country (in some minds) in the world, it would seem that our higher educational system could use an overhaul. It would seem that Universities have begun to discover what the private medical groups and hospitals have been doing for years—charging people the most you can for something of value doesn’t keep people from still buying it, it just makes it unavailable to all that need it.
In China, which is, for all intents and purposes, a quickly developing 3rd world underdeveloped country with over a billion people that has a desire to become wealthy enough to compete in the global market, the higher educational system is not equipped to handle the demands that the newly developing marketplace will have ready for them in the next decade. (That may very well be the longest sentence I have ever written) Upon my hasty arrival here to teach for the term, I arrive to discover that classes for the term are postponed for a week because most of the chairs of the departments are in charge of translations and arrangements for a diving competition to be held in the city the next week after classes are due to start. So for one week, no students had classes, then the next week for three days, about 25% of the students still served as volunteers and were excused from class.
As class begins, I am happy to be here, taking in all the new experiences that go on daily. I do, however, notice quickly that the students are not as advanced as I thought they were going to be. In fact, after a couple of weeks, I begin to feel badly for this country in how behind the students actually are. I teach students who are working to get their degree in English, one that carries a lot of weight for certain jobs in this country—one that I also think is an important one for the Chinese because as the markets continue to open up, so will the need to have the right kind of translators around for the important business decisions that take place between these different companies. Engineers who will help China build into the powerhouse that it will eventually be need to have a premium education so that China protects itself from tragedy—in short, people here need to be brought to the next level and study the mistakes the west is making and make the adjustments to its infrastructure while it still can.
What boggles my mind especially here is the amount of pure study that students undertake—they should, by the amount of time that they spend on their studies, be walking geniuses, philosophers and be capable of accomplishing greatness. Students who attend primary and middle school attend from 5-6 days per week, 6 hours a day. The rest of the day is spend studying for their classes. Most students even have classes on Sunday, but everyone is off on Sunday afternoon. This is the time when students shop or spend time with their friends. Amazing.
Yet for all of this, when they leave their education behind, most of them will go to low paying jobs, so there is not the false reality that Americans have. There is no credit system, so if you don’t have the money, you don’t have it.
Starting teachers at this University makes 1,000rmb (I make about 4 times that) per month, are given a small room, a toilet and a thermos to boil water in, and are required to sign a minimum 5 year contract with the University where they will not be paid more of given any more opportunity. My flat is two rooms with a dvd player, plasma television, computer, two bathrooms, a western style and the Chinese one as well as a shower room and a working kitchen among other things. These University jobs are still highly sought after and the competition is very high. The average peasant makes about 100rmb per month.
This is relevant to education because although these students do not have a large amount to be thankful of on the post grad set, they still work their very best to learn about everything, they spend countless hours in the library going over their materials but in the end – what they are being taught is dated and doesn’t have any real time meaning—something that I think the Chinese, given their penchant for electronics and gadgets, are not liberating themselves.
What all of this means is that I think both countries are suffering from the same cancer—the United States sits happily at the food chain and doesn’t pay close enough attention to the education and lessons its children are being taught—its got other things to worry about. The Chinese, still paranoid about too much western influence both from paranoia as well as wanting to control its populace, are not looking at other systems of learning to help its children to be taught to be competitive in the world market—it has other things to worry about.
02 October 2005
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