China vs. US: Creativity or Rote Learning?

SHANNON LI
News Editor

There is no guaranteed way of educating an entire nation so that the next generation has basic life skills. At the same time, there is no way to ensure that creativity is fostered within the next generation.
China’s and the United States’ education systems are at odds with one another: China focuses on standardized tests to weed out the good from the bad, while the United States tries to have students think of new, previously unseen ways of looking at the world.
In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama spoke out for the need to “out-innovate, out-educate and out-build” the rest of the world. However, America’s education system has had to suffer from budget cuts and a lack of motivation among students. In China, one feels pressure to do well in order to bring honor to the family.
Students in China focus on discipline, math and language skills. They have much higher math and science scores than the United States, but Chinese students’ creativity is far less developed than Americans.
In China’s classes, teachers lecture the entire time while students sit quietly and take notes. Chinese students take only one standardized test to get into a college.
“Highly standardized testing leads to ‘teaching the test’ which will often prevent students from truly understanding the subject material,” said junior Daniel Vu.
In contrast, in the United States, the SAT and other factors such as club participation and leadership skills are considered in a student’s college application.
The United States focuses on individuality within its schools. Students have hands-on examples of the subject they are learning, such as dissecting frogs to study real-life organs or holding Socratic seminars to encourage deep thought of a novel or controversial subject.
They are encouraged to choose classes that interest them and focus less on core math and language skills.
“The United States needs to find a way to educate its students well,” said senior Jenny Tran. “But we need to find a way to do that without destroying our creativity.”