DALIAN DIARY

This afternoon when I passed Classroom 114, I found many young students were waiting for something, holding cameras or cell phones in their hands. I paid attention to them and found they were waiting for taking photos with you, my dear teacher. I saw their smiles and remembered the happy moments we had together two years ago. You taught us singing English songs, read our journals carefully, corrected our mistakes with patience, etc. You are the perfect example of being a teacher in my mind. If I am a teacher in the future, I hope I can become as excellent as you.

 

It is gratifying to get feedback such as this.  Also note the title, "my dear teacher". This is a very common means of address in China, so when the Western press talks about "Dear Leaders" in a scoffing way, it is part of the Chinese/Korean culture as a sign of respect.

On June 6 and 7, the world’s largest examination took place in China when approximately 10 million high school seniors took the National College Entrance Examination to compete for about 6.2 million slots in colleges and universities. Unlike the SAT, which is offered seven times a year, the Chinese examination is only offered one time. To prepare for this momentous event, A Chinese senior goes to school 13 hours (includes a two-hour break for lunch and nap) a day, six days a week, for 284 days, compared with an Indiana high school senior’s seven and one-half hours a day for 180 days.  When the American seniors are going to ball games on Friday and Saturday nights, Chinese students are still at school studying. When American students work their part-time jobs, the Chinese students are studying. When American students go on dates, the Chinese students are studying. Indeed, if Chinese students gave any indication of having a romance, their teacher would report it to their parents. No Chinese students have drivers’ licenses so the lure of driving a car is out of the picture as well. Test preparation consists of completing exercise after exercise and then the teacher explains the answers. Mock examinations are given nearly every month, indicating what the student might expect to score on the real thing. The New York Times recently ran a story about the exam.

The Parent Role
Throughout senior year, the evening meal is not held until 9:00 or later because their child is at school until 8:30 or 9:00. Moms cut fruit and heat milk for snacks at 10:30 so their children can maintain their energy and health during this time. Most students are in bed by 12:30 and then up at 5 or 5:30.  Parents look for herbal concoctions or capsules that might help their child’s memory. TVs and telephones are turned off and parents stay quiet so as not to disturb their child.  Students do not do chores because their omly job is to study. Parents attend school meetings where the scores of all the students in the class are projected on the screen, from highest to lowest. Many parents arrange for private tutors to augment the classroom content. The “face” of the parents is wrapped up in their child’s test performance. Since they typically have only one child, that makes the pressure even greater.

The Examination
Both days, the exam is from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 and 3:00 to 5:30. Most parents will rent hotel rooms nearby so their child can have a nap between the morning and afternoon sessions. Sometimes, students and parents will stay overnight at the hotel to avoid the possibility of being stuck in Chinese traffic, although holding up the examination document will result in police allowing quick passage. The streets in front of the exam centers are blocked off in the afternoon and quickly filled with anxious parents, friends, and family.

The exam is about 40% multiple choice and 60% open-ended essay. All students are tested in math, Chinese, and English but math/science majors are also tested in physics, chemistry, and biology whereas arts/humanities majors are tested in geography, politics, economics, and history. Each student brings a white, flat erasers about half the size of a 3 x 5 card, for each examination. On these erasers, students copy their answers. The next day, students return to their high school teachers and, using the notes on the erasers, reconstruct their test and estimate their scores, checking the test answers on the internet.

Selecting a University
The student applies to three universities based on their estimated score. Each university’s cut score is known. If the student actually scores high enough for his first choice, he is admitted. If the student misjudges his score and doesn’t qualify for his first choice, his application materials will go to his second choice, and then third. The tests will be scored in about 20 days so the student should know by June 26 as to what university he will be going to.

Teacher Bonuses
The teachers are heavily invested in the exam. The students' teachers will spread out over the city on exam days to give support and encouragement to their students. Because high school students keep the same teachers year after year, student success can be partially attributed to their teachers. Last year, at the high school where two girls received the highest marks in the city, a ceremony was held where they were honored and their head teacher (Banzhuren) was awarded a bonus of 30,000 yuan ($4280—more than six-month’s salary).  Other teachers of the girls received bonuses of 10,000 yuan. Even the girls’ Banzhurens from their middle schools received 5000 yuan bonuses. 

Focus on High Ability Instead of Low Ability
It is interesting that in Indiana there is talk of paying schools and teachers bonuses if they can keep students from dropping out of school; whereas Chinese teachers are paid bonuses when their students excel on the College Entrance Examination.  In China, mandatory education stops at grade 9 so students who don’t go to high school go to a vocational school or get a job, albeit a pretty pathetic job.  The focus in China is on a relentless pursuit of excellence (as defined by being able to score well on the College Entrance Examination) while in America, a la No Child Left Behind, there seems to be a relentless pursuit of helping the lowest performing students pass a very minimum competency examination.  At least Americans will be able to say that their lowest paid workers have more education than the lowest paid workers in China.

Here are some important differences between the senior years of high school in America and China:

• It is used on your neck
• It is used to prepare your face to shave
• It is touched very comfortable. Smells spicy. I think it can clean the dirt. It is a kind of soap to clean the body. Right?
• I think it is a soap to clean your moustache and make you smell good.
• It looks like soap very much! I think it that men could use when they shaved their mustache. Someone thought it might be a kind of medicine which could reduce pain. Someone thought it might be the instrument people used in summer to keep away mosquitoes. To our surprise, it was a thing foreigners use on their armpits to dry them and make them smell well.
• I have this. I put it all over my body after sports.
• A shampoo used to clean arms
• It’s for underarm wetness only for men. It’s used for underarms only to make people feel cool and comfortable. It has a revolving button on the foot of it. You can use the button to control the cool brush. Pay attention: It’s only applied to underarms and not use it on broken skin.

As a rule, Chinese people do not shower as much as Westerners do, especially the university students since they have no showers in their dorms. They must go to a local bath house if they want a shower. However, I haven't noticed much body odor. They don't seem to sweat as much as Westerners do. In warm weather, after I walk from my apartment to my classroom (about 3/4 of a mile) I am covered in sweat and my shirt is sticking to my back and I am mopping my brow.