It was only a few months into to teaching that I realized, excessive studying is not actually beneficial to my students. In my highest level English class, a small group of 12-13 year olds, we were learning about careers when I asked each student, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Expecting to hear the usual answers of any teen, singers and movie stars, all I heard back in response was “Teacher, I don’t know.” Nearly all my students replied the same, except one who answered incredulously, “Teacher we don’t have time to think about these things!” How sad, I thought at the time, that these students don’t even have the free time to daydream about becoming the next Miley Cyrus, let alone a doctor or scientist.
Over my course of time here in Taiwan, I’ve come to see that indeed these students don’t have time for daydreaming. In school from 7:30 in the morning until 10 at night, these kids are cramming 14 hours a day to survive in a world where only passing the test matters. Meanwhile year after year, in the U.S. we hear the same statistics; U.S. students are falling farther and farther behind their Asian counterparts in science and math. And with all the evidence showing that Americans are performing poorly in international education tests, the fears that we’ll see our American jobs start to slip away overseas in 20 years become more and more realistic.
So while we continue to feel these statistics bear down on us and begin reevaluating our education system, I beg to argue, is a good test score all you need to become a success in the working world?
Here in Taiwan, by age 12 nearly all kids have attended ‘buxiban’ or cram school for at least a few years. Cram school is just that, a school where children come to study more for the seemingly endless exams they have to take to get into junior high school, high school and college. It is here that most Taiwanese kids spend their evenings, from when public school ends at 4 p.m. until 9 or 10 p.m. at night, only to return home and attend to homework until midnight. Cram schools exist for a range of subjects here in Taiwan including science, math, history, Japanese and English with most students taking a variety of subjects in a given week. Practice tests are taken repeatedly at these schools with grades lower than an 80 to 90, resulting in an automatic redo. It is a culture of test taking and it is no wonder that Taiwanese students repeatedly score among the highest in the world.
Yet when I reflect on the skills needed to find success in my adult life, I hardly believe that skills in memorization or in test taking came in handy as much as the other skills honed outside of test taking. In fact, I’ve found that social skills are among the most important in landing a job. Straight out of college, a good friend of mine applied to a highly coveted position in the technology department of a large bank. Although he had good enough grades to get his foot in the door, it was his first remark that made him stand out from all the other applicants, “So how about them Yankees?” He was hired immediately and remains there to this day. What ultimately set him apart from his better educated peers and persuaded his interviewers to hire him came not from his hours spent studying, but from the confidence he grew while playing football in high school and his casual demeanor perfected through so many opportunities to socialize.
Problem solving, creativity, patience, determination, a competitive drive and social skills were essential for me in not only securing my first real job in New York, but also in keeping it. These skills were learned on the sports field, in the art room and during many of my extracurricular activities that students in Taiwan forgo altogether in order to spend more time studying.
And since all their waking hours are spent studying, most students here will not have time to even think of applying for a part time job until they reach college. By college graduation, it is likely they will have only ever held one or two jobs. Had I not experienced painful monotony of refolding sweaters while working in retail, the verbal abuse involved in telemarketing, or the pressure of working as an assistant for a pregnant paralegal, I imagine I’d have lasted about 2 days on my first job in NY. So as my kids fret away over a poor grade of 89, I fear these young students of Taiwan will graduate college without ever experiencing the misery of bagging groceries and having never had the chance to dream for something bigger and better out of life.
Perhaps most importantly, not only do they not have time for an after school sport, or a part time job, but they lack the spare time to let their imaginations run wild, for dreams to form and creativity to bloom. Though we can learn much from an Asian students’ work ethic, diligence, and discipline, I think there is something sad about a culture where children’s dreams and curiosity are set aside. While the critics fret about losing jobs overseas in the near future, I think we can rest easy knowing the U.S. holds a unique culture of creativity, bravado and idealism where big ideas, new technologies and innovations can come to life.
When it comes to preparing our children for the future, perhaps there’s more to consider than simply measuring test scores. A well- rounded child is like a perfect cookie recipe, too much of any one ingredient will ruin the batch. So before we start to increase the hours in the classroom, perhaps we can think about the importance of letting kids be kids and not take for granted the lessons taught outside of school. And to truly improve our education system, we can learn from Asia, not by copying the amount of time in the classroom, but by emulating the care and energy invested in each child’s education by the parents, the teachers and children themselves.
A mom takes her child from public school to buxiban as the sun is starting to go down
High school students end class at 4 and make their way home for a snack before attending buxiban classes at night
