Culturalist Crutches: The Atlantic’s Wrongheaded “The Education System That Pulled China Up May Now Be Holding It Back”
I think this Atlantic magazine piece, “The Education System That Pulled China Up May Now Be Holding It Back,” has many key aspects all wrong.
It’s not enough to recite “culturalist” interpretations of flaws like the emphasis on “rote learning” and “innately imitative” Chinese culture, which are a crutch for frustrated Chinese youth and defensive American educators alike.
Why is the gaokao, the high-stakes college entrance exam mentioned in the article, so punishingly hard? Because there are only about 2500 some universities in China for 20 million college students out of a total population of 1.3 billion — versus 4500-Title IV eligible accredited higher ed institutions in the U.S., 2800 of
It’s not enough to recite “culturalist” interpretations of flaws like the emphasis on “rote learning” and “innately imitative” Chinese culture, which are a crutch for frustrated Chinese youth and defensive American educators alike.
Why is the gaokao, the high-stakes college entrance exam mentioned in the article, so punishingly hard? Because there are only about 2500 some universities in China for 20 million college students out of a total population of 1.3 billion — versus 4500-Title IV eligible accredited higher ed institutions in the U.S., 2800 of
