Schooling vs. Education

I have written quite a few times about the Chinese education system and the structure of Chinese society, and the double-bind the people seem to be in: there's recognition that something's wrong, that there needs to be a jolt of individuality in the country, but the system's so entrenched that it's basically impossible to succeed without it (of course, the objection could be raised that talk of individualism is lip service. Let's assume, here, that it's not.) Here's probably my best one. Here's another.

Here's a terrible essay written by a high-schooler in relatively poor AnHui province. (Terrible because moving, not written poorly.)

Two days before I read that I was in class with a High-schooler in his second year. He brought in his winter homework for me to check. It was amazing for a few related reasons. Firstly, it was pretty high-level English, though with quite a few vague usage mistakes on the parts of the (obviously) Chinese compilers. And, he got most of it right. had it been a test, he would have scored in the 90s. But the most amazing thing of all is that this kid basically can't say a complete English sentence without mangling it, pausing for an inordinate amount of time, or simply stopping in the middle.
After finishing checking half of his homework, (which took me 80 out of our 100 minute class) I put the book down and asked him if he thought what we were doing was helpful, or a good use of time.
The most astounding thing was that in the book itself, there was a passage about the difference between schooling and education, starting off with "It's common to think of kids going off to school to start their education, but many experts say going to school interrupts a child's education.." and then going into a short comparison of education vs. schooling, a dichotomy I would call Life Experience vs. Formal (Institutional) Education. At the end, it was clear that the authors came down firmly on the side of Education as being helpful for society, and schooling as... well... not so much. There was even a passage that said "High-schoolers know that what they learn in politics class is not relevant to the political issues of the day." (Really???) When I asked my gf about this, she said, "I hated politics class in highschool, because everything is bullshit." Though this was all framed by the initial "In The United States of America..." it was obviously pertinant to the Chinese education system.
Outside, it was the 15th, last, and second most important day of the Spring Festival, what we call the Chinese New Year. Fireworks were going off everywhere. People were eating special food for the celebration. And here it was, 8pm, and this poor kid was trapped in a room basically watching a high-paid English instructor check little red marks in his book. I called to his attention the irony of all of this.

The Chinese Education system is about 80 percent schooling, 20 percent education, I'd say. It's really good for a few things. It's great for learning how to do math problems, or fill-in-the-blank English problems. It's great for creating a cowed populace of robots. (Cynics would likely say that's the point.) It's probably not so great for creating great earth-changing people. Even the Chinese people who are doing big things in China are doing so mostly in a Western style. (Like, say, real estate developers educated in England.)

It will happen, though. It might be happening now. We just haven't seen it yet, I don't think. And someone's got to tell the kids to forget their homework and play during their vacations. Loss to "Intellectual Knowledge" - 5%. Gain in Experience, understanding and comfort in life? 80%.

The above percentages have been thoroughly researched.