As a student in China’s public school system, my husband would go to school around 8am and would finish by 6pm. Took an hour nap then was back to his homework/studies until midnight. This persisted from middle school through high school. There were no letter grades - everyone in the class received a percentage and everyone’s grades and ranking for each test was on display, forget confidentiality. It was not enough for a child to get 95% on a test, they would be reprimanded by their parents if someone else got a 98%. The kids would even lie to each other saying that they never studied to psych each other out about not being as smart, or just to influence others not to study if someone else made it look easy. He was interested in basketball at school (as well as tall and talented) but could never develop it as a real hobby because if he was caught spending any time at home playing outside his parents would reprimand (beat) him and then make him go back in to study. He says he spent about half his time on homework, half on studying, but either way it was relentless and unforgiving because everyone had to compete for the top spot in the class to have any future in the Chinese universities. He gladly came to America instead and graduated a few years ago with a degree in accounting from a state university… I think for all our faults, at least we can say our education system is not as cutthroat as this. The amount of perseverance and dedication that goes into it without becoming depressed or suicidal is simply astounding…
" I think for all our faults, at least we can say our education system is not as cutthroat as this." True, but judging by some of the posts I read on here from unhappy parents and articles about the proliferation of test-prep schools, some of this has been imported to the US in communities with large immigrant populations.
One’s HS class grades/HS class ranking usually has no bearing on college admissions in China.
Instead, one’s choice of college and major are solely determined by how well one scored on the national college entrance exam.
However, the exam is much more closely tied to the curriculum* at academic-track HS in China and other East Asian countries with this system so if one slacks on one’s HS classes, one is unlikely to do well on the national college entrance exam. Especially given the keen competition to vie for the highly desirable top universities and top majors.**.
- Depending on whether one chooses the arts/social sciences/humanities track or the STEM track in academic HS/exam.
** In my parents’ generation in the '50s, it was much harder to gain admission as an English language and lit major than Law, Business/Commerce, or especially Chinese language and lit at a given university in the ROC(Taiwan) due to the far greater popularity and better job prospects of the former over the latter majors in that period.
Presumably homework is designed to reinforce classroom learning. Some aspects of school such as arithmetic and spelling are rote and require lots practice to become automatic. When you see grocery employees unable to make change unless the amount due is recorded on the register, you are seeing individuals who had insufficient practice in learning rote (aka busy work) arithmetic skills. When middle school students use their fingers to calculate basic math, you are seeing too little busy work .Freaking out! Ask secondary school kids to compute math without calculators. Certainly not all students, but far too many lack basic skills. It is frustrating to ask adolescents to calculate basic math and get wild guessing or using fingers or number charts as the go to means of calculating or punching on a calculator.
If the assignment is busy work, then it should be completed very quickly and accurately even in front of the tv. If it isn’t, then more practice is needed to secure rote math skills. Rote skills in math also includes memorizing formulas, but active learning is required to apply them correctly. The reality of math/arithmetic is we don’t progress very far without direct instruction. Who among us just happened on how to compute square roots.
Spelling skills improve grammar and writing. For example, an essay may be too simplified when word choices are limited by poor spelling or grammar skills. What you often see is choppy, minimal sentence with little structure and diversity which sounds like See Spot run. Spot runs fast.
Spelling too takes rote practice but is often regularized. If a term paper is full of grammatical or spelling errors, the content and flow are compromised and word substitutions may change meaning. Have you noticed how often comments to on-line articles contains spelling and grammatical errors. Further, proper nouns and theoretical terms should be spelled correctly. Spelling is difficult to learn, but dictionaries are readily available. Incorrect spelling calls into question educational level and expertise of the writer. Unfortunately auto-spell often doesn’t understand what you want to say and comes up with some odd choices.
I do see some things of dubious value. For example, completing work sheets where students look for answers to fill-in-the-blank seem too rote. I would prefer if these worksheets led to something useful such as developing a personal study guide where questions/information are integrated and expanded upon. If you can skim. you seem to complete these sheets in little time and with modest learning. I think writing the answers to questions at the end of chapters might be more useful and then let the kids discuss them in class. Anything that causes the mind to get into gear is great and what is learned expands the homework demands.
After watching and teaching scads of students I find that many do not distinguish rote memory from thinking and learning. Some students get so bound up in factoids and minor details that they simply can’t see the big picture and integrate information. Consider how many kids on CC report memorizing information and passages to pass tests and are crazed about how to prepare for the SAT/ACT. Memorizing dates for the American Revolution makes sense. Memorizing information such as its causes or compared to different circumstances. Homework is useless if it depends on memorization of things other than facts. I suspect that some students who complain they learned information, but can’t remember it for the test confused learning with memorization.
Reading is like riding a bicycle or any other skill. The more you read, the more proficient you become. Vocabulary expands. Information from multiple sources integrates. You learn how to read for different purposes such as skimming for a bit of information versus comprehension of text. It’s nice to see words in print because that can reinforce spelling. Reading can transform from a chore to a pleasure. Even Silas Marner is better with good reading skills. If you are falling asleep when reading stand up and even read orally. Finally, carrying a book everywhere reduce