After following a friend who joined XHS after the initial tiktok ban a year or so ago, I started to notice this trend of Chinese people calling American education “happy education” and I bristled a bit because I didn’t find it all that happy. But as I see more and more people point out things like this, how the No Child Left Behind policy was implemented, how resources are diverted away from actually educating children… I kinda get it.
To be fair, I think the Chinese also have a biased lens here since their school days are like twelve hours long, I’m sure 7 AM to 3 PM seems more like daycare in comparison. But I think there’s some truth in the mockery.
This doesn’t apply to doctoral programs which really just seem like abuse and trauma factories. I don’t know a single happy, well adjusted doctor.
We should just keep trying systems that push everything to the absolute extremes. It’s worked out for every other fallen civilization. Why should we be any different?
I’m not trying to make an evaluative comparison between China and the US, I’m lamenting the state of US education and found a new phrase that felt descriptive about that online.
I would wager that the average Chinese citizen is more educated than the average US citizen. And particularly, students who attended school in China are more intelligent, on average, than US school students.
I don’t have anything on hand to back it up, but I would be shocked if it wasn’t true.
After following a friend who joined XHS after the initial tiktok ban a year or so ago, I started to notice this trend of Chinese people calling American education “happy education” and I bristled a bit because I didn’t find it all that happy. But as I see more and more people point out things like this, how the No Child Left Behind policy was implemented, how resources are diverted away from actually educating children… I kinda get it.
To be fair, I think the Chinese also have a biased lens here since their school days are like twelve hours long, I’m sure 7 AM to 3 PM seems more like daycare in comparison. But I think there’s some truth in the mockery.
This doesn’t apply to doctoral programs which really just seem like abuse and trauma factories. I don’t know a single happy, well adjusted doctor.
China kills themselves for schooling and does as well as Americans in business and science so it’s hard to see one being better than the other.
We should just keep trying systems that push everything to the absolute extremes. It’s worked out for every other fallen civilization. Why should we be any different?
I’m not trying to make an evaluative comparison between China and the US, I’m lamenting the state of US education and found a new phrase that felt descriptive about that online.
Maybe, just maybe, the objective of education isn’t just science or business.
Maybe being science/math/humanities literate is good for society as a whole.
I would wager that the average Chinese citizen is more educated than the average US citizen. And particularly, students who attended school in China are more intelligent, on average, than US school students.
I don’t have anything on hand to back it up, but I would be shocked if it wasn’t true.
Nah, people are stupid everywhere.
Depends on your skin tone and overall level of privilege.
For many it’s a prison education that’s a pipeline to a literal prison.