Open House at High School

[griz326]

We went to the high school open house yesterday and I started to get an idea of how smart my Chinese daughter is. She really surprised a few of her teachers.

 

The English teacher (who speaks terrible English ) said something about the kids learning something about culture. I suggested that she ask my girl how much she went to school in China and how much she studied. That should be an eye-opener for the kids.

[clayton2103]

Steve,

 

How exciting. I am sure you are proud.

Please open my eyes and tell me how much schooling and studing your daughter did while in China. I'd be interested in learning this myself.

My wife's schooling was a typical five day week, 7 hour day much like ours here in America. She is from Nanning.

 

Clayton

[Stepbrow]

My stepdaughter (9 years old next month) goes to school 5 days a week. On the weekend she has English, Math, Piano, and Chinese classes.

[Guest Mike and Lily]

We went to the high school open house yesterday and I started to get an idea of how smart my Chinese daughter is. She really surprised a few of her teachers.

 

The English teacher (who speaks terrible English ) said something about the kids learning something about culture. I suggested that she ask my girl how much she went to school in China and how much she studied. That should be an eye-opener for the kids.

 

What should be surprising for the kids here is what a joke our educational system is here compared to the rest of the world. We pass most of our high school students here by lowering the standards. The bar is very high in China, and if they don't make the grade, they get farmed out to lives of menial labor. If you want to get into a key college in China, 12-14 hour days, 6-7 days a week are the norm. If you want to go to a decent college in China, you can forget about a social life in high school.

[ktmracer]

My daughter just got here a few weeks ago after finishing middle school in China. Went to high school orientation yesterday and she was not worried about the academics at all. She just sat there in awe on how fat the kids are and in some cases, the extreme obesity. School mentioned an academic ability test, I am thinking whatever they will teach her in 9th grade, she already learned in 4th grade. She is just so happy she goes to school 8am to 2:30pm instead of the old 7-7 and homework 'til midnight.

[tsap seui]

When we had our interview in July of 2007 I spent a lot of time with our then 11 year old son in the apartment. I looked at his 'summertime" homework and was amazed to see that he was well into algebra, in the 5th grade.

 

He started 6th grade and his grades were in the 92-94 range. His teacher sent a note home with him asking the lil' rabbit to call her.

 

Teacher asks, "is everything okay in your home?" "yes", answers lil' rabbit.

 

"Have you seen your sons grades?"...."Yes"

 

"Do you think they are okay?"...."Well, uh yes" starts the lil' rabbit....the teacher interrupts he and says in a loud voice, "His grades are are NOT okay, he can do much better. I need you to help me to make his grades better."

 

I can not in my wildest dream imagine an american teacher making such a statement, especially with a kid scoring in that range.

 

In short order Buba Jr.'s grade were consistently in the 98-100 range, and stayed there.

 

This is one thing that is a blessing to the lil' rabbit and I about our denial, our son will get to stay in his private school in China. Last year he was in school 10hrs a day, had at least 3 hours of homework, and studied with the teacher for 3-4 hours EVERY Saturday.

 

This year things will tighten up a bit.

 

We are very fortunate he understands his responsibilty to his schooling and the rewards that can be his for his work.

 

His schooling was the one thing I agonized about when I thought of his coming to america with his mom. Luckily for us, the DOS made it a moot point, know wudda mean?

 

I can't wait to live in Chinatucky to be with my family, but I'm just just a dumb blue collar that only knows how to make gobs of money doing blue collar type work and I'm too stupid school house wise to help lil' Bubba Jr. with his schooling. I do, really, look forward to quickly and greatly increasing his english skills, and helping to round him out by having a man in his life. I want to help add balance to his life.

 

Good luck to you guys that have your "kids" with you in america. I worried greatly about that aspect of bringing my son to america. Thank God he gets to stay in his private school with teachers that truly care.

 

tsap seui

Edited August 30, 2008 by tsap seui (see edit history)

[JimS.]

Hmmm, I'm thinking that I going to have to Reexamine my choices.

Liangliang will have her work card for Business Economics, Facility when she goes back home this time. Not really sure want that really is, I understand Economics but not with the facilities. We are all ready in the process of buying her Mother a new house and is being built. Of course she wants to have it paid off in 3 years. I want to keep Mothers old house for us, it's a small one bedroom from what she has told me...fine by me..OK I'm blabbing again..anyways when we get married she wants to come to the US and have a kid right away. After raising 3 kids in the US school system that really doesn't appeal to me now. I'm thinking that when it comes time for the lil one to go to school that we are going to move to china. With my work I can live anywhere I choose, so no problem there....hmmm have to do some heavy thinking on this.

Edited August 30, 2008 by JimS. (see edit history)

[georgeandli]

Just a devils advocate thing here. One reason the schools stink is the simple fact parents don't get involved.

[griz326]

Clayton, the posts from Mike & Lily and ktmracer mirror what my Chinese daughter says.

 

It is Saturday morning...the wedding is today...and my Chinese daughter is listing to VOA history lessons! She studies all day, every day!!!

[sleepless in Houston&CQ]

Yeap Chinees kidos have a better study habit than.....

99.9% of the other kidos....

 

Well atleast my son does.... he wants all A's

the others well they seem as if they just want to do what ever

it takes to get to the next level

[Guest Mike and Lily]

This is just my speculation, but I think it's more than just the development of good study habits or parental involvement. I think the children/teenagers look around them and see the difference between those with good jobs and educations and those without. In our society, that dichotomy is is not as obvious. In some situations, parents are also giving their child ( or in a few cases, children) a large percentage of their meager incomes to go to a good school in China. It's in part a desire to please their parents and partly a desire to avoid the dreary hand to mouth existance they will likely lead without a decent education in China that motivates them to study so hard.

[Christopher]

Dang. I am in awe.

 

The woman I'm talking to in Jilin has a bachelors in Nursing. Well, her profile on chnlove says she does. Lord only knows what the reality is.

 

I got my BS in CS and Mathematics minor by going to an itty-bitty 4th tier school that should never have gotten accredited and then coasting on talent.

[IllinoisDave]

The woman I'm talking to in Jilin has a bachelors in Nursing. Well, her profile on chnlove says she does. Lord only knows what the reality is.

FWIW, Chnlove has a pretty decent reputation when it comes to accuracy in the ladies' profiles. I haven't heard any stories about people finding out the info in their bio was phony.

 

They have been known to take liberties when it comes to the letters the ladies exchange with the guys. It's fairly common knowledge that the staff at CL will "help" the ladies write some of the letters, especially those who speak/write little or no English. This practice has been confirmed by my wife, whom I met through CL. (full disclosure here )

 

Some may consider this practice dishonest and be turned off by it. I see it more as a necessity for many of the ladies who don't have the necessary language skills to communicate on their own with Westerners. It can help facilitate a budding romance to the point where the she feels comfortable enough to communicate directly with the guy.

 

It seems harmless enough to me as long as it's not mis-used to drag things along so the guy has to buy more credits than he otherwise needed to get her phone # or private email address.

 

Caveat Emptor for all of these type of sites. But there are quite a few here who met their fiancees/wives through Chnlove so it's got that going for it.

 

Good luck.

[Mike62356]

Met mine on chlove, my step son is in the 7th grade ther and my son is in the 7th grade here, what a gap in schooling, son is still learning algebra and my step son is learning trigonometry, my step son goes to school 10 hours a day 5 days a week and then has math, Chinese and English classes on Saturdays, during the week he has 3 or 4 hours of home work and on the weekend he still has a few hours of home work, he goes longer in the year then my son does here also.

Boy is he going to think the school system here is really poor, and he is worried he will fal behind here .

Good luck guys.

Mike