Déjà vu: Too Late to Learn from China
22 FEBRUARY 2014 87 NO COMMENT
In researching for my book Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China Has the World’s Best and Worst Education, I realized that PISA should have been invented about 300 years ago. Its advice and influence would have been perfect 300 years ago but are misleading today. Here is why:
Had it existed 300 years ago, PISA could have spared the world numerous disasters. It could have helped to convince the world to learn from China and Chinese education, like the Jesuit missionaries did in the 17thCentury. If the world indeed had emulated the Chinese model then, we might have avoided such massive cruel battles against each other as in the two World Wars for the lack of modern technology. We certainly would not have caused so much damage to the environment if we had a society like the tranquil, peaceful, yet glorious China 300 years ago. Of course, we may not have the iPhone or the computers for OECD to process the PISA data either.
In the 17th century, Jesuit missionaries made China the model for Europe to emulate. The Jesuits’ glowing descriptions of China’s great material wealth, its magnificent buildings and splendid art works, its large population, its high level of technological development, and the continuity and stability of its government and social structures convinced many European thinkers that China had surpassed Europe. “Even if we are
(from my new book: Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China Has the World’s Best and Worst Education to be published by Jossey-Bass) For those who admire the Chinese education system, here is another cautionary tale. The Chinese government has (re)issued another round of orders to end two practices that have delivered China’s great test scores: school choice and testing. In January 2014, the