Tag: Education
Photo of the Day 5/11
by Sean on May.11, 2009, under Photos
Wuhan, China
This picture was taken from my friend’s apartment in Wuhan. The street we’re looking out over is called Wu Luo Lu; Wu stands for Wuhan, Luo stands for the Luojia Mountain, and Lu means “road.” The interesting thing about this road is that it’s one access point to the bridge crossing over the Yangtze River, so traffic becomes heavy at times. It’s also interesting because it looks quite like something you’d see in Florida, plus the huge buildings on either side.
The point is that this doesn’t have to be China; it could be anywhere in the developed world, and that’s what people outside of China don’t know. Most of the people I know in America still think China is basically farmland and small villages, and they don’t realize that the city I live in is just as dense and developed as a city like NY or Chicago.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Education is in Dire Straits
by Sean on Dec.03, 2008, under China
Since I have had so much free time lately, I took it upon myself to jot down any thoughts that come into my mind about how to learn language (based on my Psychological education, common sense, and personal trial-and-error). When I was working at New Oriental all my students asked me how they could improve their English. I would give them a few tips but I never gave them everything because then how could I make this book (or whatever other thing I could turn my ideas/knowledge into)?
The problem with training schools like New Oriental is that they don’t care about students. They only care about how much money they make, when they make it, and how much they can keep for themselves. It’s a damn shame that this is the reality of the English learning industry in this country, but what can you do?
Mark and I are working on a plan to start a private tutoring service, and I want it to run in a manner that has the students and their progress in mind FIRST. I strongly believe that people want to learn, yet are kept in the dark about how to do it so that training schools like New Oriental can make them repeat customers. I spoke to a student of Mark’s yesterday (a student from New Oriental) and she said that she has friends who have failed the IELTS examination (which allows a Chinese student the ability to apply to a university outside of China) several times and went back to New Oriental each time for “more preparation” on the order of 20,000rmb per time they return. Now you make think this is an outrageous number (about $3000), and it is.. but this is called the “VIP Student Program.”
… As I’m still in the process of cutting off my ties and burning my bridges with that school.. I’ll wait a few more weeks to expose the reality of this place to the world.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Education in America
by Sean on Feb.20, 2008, under USA
I fear for the future of our nation. Our current belief system involves giving up on a child’s education before they are born! In my experience in the last two months, most of our children are very smart but when their teachers hold no expectations for them, they do not try as hard and thus do not succeed or just get by. We are also at a critical period in our history in that there are less and less young people interested in becoming teachers because they are not respected, not paid well, and generally deal with a lot of garbage, and it’s just not worth it.
After researching the education systems of other countries, I’ve decided that we need to adopt Japan’s model. After World War II, Japan was stripped of its army and told that it will not be allowed to have a standing army. Because of this, they have no military budget or weapons or wars. As a result, they are able to spend all that money on more important things. BINGO! You Got it. They spend all that money on education! Their children are among the brightest in the world and it shows! Despite the fact that High School is not compulsory in Japan, more than 90% of students opt to continue on.
Through research, they realized their students were overstressed, so they instituted an hour-long elective class in the middle of the day. Classes they can choose from are music, art, and physical education among others. They even pay their teachers more than we do. The average teacher in Japan starts out at the equivalent of $45,515 USD, while the American counterpart starts out around $35,000 USD.
All I’m saying is that we need to overhaul our education system from the bottom-up, not the top-down. Change the way the teacher teaches (remove standardized tests in primary schools) and you change how the student learns.
Popularity: 1% [?]
