Last week, I was talking to my mom in shanghai, and she told me that my cousin’s daughter is going to the preschool there, and she had to take an entry exam going in. I was really intrigued about it, my daughter, age 3, just entered a preschool in the area, and there wasn’t any exam required, well, only one thing, that she should be potty trained before going in, but an exam?

I asked my cousin on what they asked in the exam, one example was what is the window blind for, and the kid must answer it’s for blocking out the sunlight, all other answers are not correct. So I asked my daughter, what the window blinds are for, she said: “It’s for me to play peek-a-boo in”. We had a great laugh about that, and that got me thinking.

Isn’t what she said the natural answer? May be not the “correct” one the school wants to hear, but certainly more natural, and more to the kid’s mind. Why would the school limit the answer to one thing? Kids are famous for their imagination, so why doesn’t the school allow that in their exam? If it’s a math question, I would understand there’s only one answer, but this is an objective question, and kids being kids, they will answer what comes to their mind immediately, so, why limit their imagination? Chinese school system are famous for turning out straight A students, and the American schools are famous for their easy going, but there’s a lot of innovation on the American part, whereas the Chinese are good copier.

I really think the difference began at the preschool level, where there’s always only one correct answer. My daughter’s teacher loves to challenge the kids on providing different answers, and let them think instead of just telling them what the correct answer is.  She’s only 3, and yet, just the other day, she told me something I said was wrong, I think I was talking about the function of the toaster oven, and how it’s only good for toasting bread, and my daughter said:” no dad, it’s good for toasting marshmallows too.” Never mind that I was speaking in general, the fact that she was listening, and thinking at the same time was astonishing to me.

My cousin’s daughter would never do that, she always listen to her parents, and take whatever they said as the only truth. May be this is just an example of different in education. As someone who undertook both Chinese, Hong Kong, and U.S education, I can really see the difference between all the school systems, In China, all I had to do was memorize things, there’s always one correct answer, and as long as I remember that, I will be a great student.

In HK, more memorization, but there’s an aspect of suppression there. In the U.S, there’s correct answer, and there’s argument answer, I remember on one of my exams, I gave some “incorrect” answer, and when the teacher asked me why, I argued my reason, and she gave me an A instead of F, because there’s logic in my answer.

I was really surprised then, because that will never happen in either China or HK.  In conclusion, I think starting from preschool, the educators should encourage the imagination of kids, not limit them to one correct answer.

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• 银河稀客 金币 +38 As mentioned earlier, different country 2010-7-27 13:01

The system of education in China is quite different from that in America.
Therefore, the person with ability educated in China is also quite different from who is educated in America.

What's more, "either China or HK"??
HK has been a part of China since 1997！

好久不用英文，语法单词什么的都快忘光了，也不知道上面的几句话有没有语法错误……
看来最近要抽时间读些英语了

When I was in HK, back around 1991, the place was still under Bristish rule, so, the education system is the same as U.K, I should have made that clearer

It just matter of how we justify it from different point of view.
By the way, never heard about pre-exam for the enrollment for pre-school in my country yet.
Sounds irrelevant and unreasonable .

这种文章发了谁看的？一定要用英文回复吗？蛋疼不已

You don't have to reply in English, I can read in Chinese, just easier for me to type in English, since I do this at work, and there's no Chinese program on my computer

the education in China is in the light of copying, well, since we were beat down by other countries in 1900s, and almost every elite in China want to learn the knowledge from others. We are the loser then, so we must find a way to save ourselves... learning others, copying others is a easy way, what more, it is also a way that many countries used to try such as Japan ,Singapore, and Taiwan. The results  are different quit confuse me , and when I think about it deliberately over and over, I get it... our gorvernment do not fixed the wrong copying , the copying of bad thing or behaviors.they do not care about the education, they just care the money...i have to say that, tragidy..

Copying thing can be good, but what we need is to learn from the things we copy, and to learn things are to imagine things. Without imagination, there won't be lightbulbs, computers, etc. The education system that's in place now are killing the kid's imagination, there's always one correct answer, that's what needs to change, let the minds roam freely, and let the imagination begin!