My boss came by today to see if all the amenities and appliances in my apartment were in working order. It wasn’t a very exciting visit, as my humble abode is (relatively) well equipped to suit my needs. So we both nodded our heads enthusiastically for a bit about the state of things round my apartment and the bright new semester in general.
My boss is head of all the foreign affairs for our college, so all the sputters and speedbumps that inevitably come from hiring foreign teachers in China land at her feet. She is Chinese. She is middle-aged.
We discussed scheduling matters, albeit briefly. I tried not to show my dismay over the addition of more classroom hours to my schedule. My schedule is pretty light as of now. How light? 4 hours.
The mention of classroom hours and students arriving and registering led us down the path to a more personal discussion. Our conversation flowed towards our respective sides of the education business. I told my boss about my plans to pursue my Masters next fall. She told me about her son, who is a teenager.
She got to telling me how her son, who has been to the USA and France, actually fears the Chinese college entrance exam, or gaokao. This young man has seen the world outside of China, which is rare for a youth in this country. He must have excellent command of English, I know this much for certain; maybe his French is decent as well, who knows? The point remains, he is able to communicate in three languages (four if you include his hometown dialect, as it differs from standard Mandarin) yet he fears a cumulative exam he will take at the end of high school.
A lot of folks have derided the notorious gaokao. They openly blame this one exam for untold amounts of anguish and they brand it as the singular cause of undue stress in the lives of adolescent Chinese. I don’t think that the gaokao–although it stands as the penultimate exam for a Chinese student hoping to continue his/her education in this country–is the root of anxiety in a student’s life. The gaokao and all the negative aura surrounding it are merely symptoms of a grossly flawed education system.
A student who is facing down the impending gaokao has no choice but to fret endlessly over this gargantuan exam. Because, to be quite blunt, the education system in China puts 110% emphasis on preparing for, taking and outright dreading exams. It is all about the next exam. The method for preparation is all about memorization. The program for excelling on the exam follows how well an individual can recite facts. There is no priority on intrinsic learning or improving the way the brain functions. Forget about creativity*. If you are a Chinese youth and you fancy yourself an individual with your own unique goals and priorities, the outward pressure placed upon you will eradicate most any semblance of that brave notion. The pressure comes from…you guessed it, adults and seniors who were subjected to the same testing measures when they were youngsters. Individuality is squelched before it has time to fully take hold. What is it replaced by? A measurement against your peers and their respective test scores.
In China, you’re only as good as your exam scores. And in this regard, you’re only as good as your memory allows you to be.
* Note: I’m not suggesting that Chinese students aren’t allowed to be creative in any way, shape or form. There are millions upon millions of students in China, and they are most certainly individuals with their own way of thinking about the world. And the arts are doing quite well, mind you. It just so happens that I don’t evaluate the creative process in the same way that Chinese art instructors might. In China, excelling in art usually tends to be more about precision in method, or fulfilling a beautiful image in a given piece of art. Where I come from, more emphasis is placed on how one arrives at that final image.
Rory Keane is an American-born teacher and writer who has logged nearly two years in China, and is working on another year-long stint in the Middle Kingdom. He writes about travel, sociopolitical issues, health, entertainment, and culture, among other topics.
