Other Rivers

The rules didn’t mention individuality, self-motivated study, or other virtues that had been extolled by Hu Yanli, the John Dewey acolyte.

If one guiding principle of Chinese primary education was “Don’t be a sucker,” another seemed to be: “Fear everything outside the classroom.”

In the 1990s, my Chinese students and colleagues had attitudes toward health that impressed me as somewhat fearful. It wasn’t surprising, given China’s long history of poverty, epidemics, and natural disasters. Since then, the nation had become dramatically safer and more prosperous, but old mindsets endured, especially in families that were limite

There were no suggestions, no complaints, and no criticisms. The school’s message was clear: We are in charge.

The system also maximized parental support while minimizing input to effectively zero.

This discipline was part of the emphasis on efficiency: if children were orderly, they wasted less time.

The Catholic University of Peking, known in Chinese as Fu Jen, had been established by Benedictines from Pennsylvania in 1925.

exam you can tell that the writers of the exam want children to get things right. But Chinese exams are aiming for wrong answers.

One guiding principle behind Chinese third-grade math could be summarized as: Don’t be a sucker. Leslie said that when you read an American