American School Versus Chinese school

Cong Ding
Ms. Goodpasture
Engl. 1301.42
November1, 2014
Chinese school & American School
I am a Chinese girl, growing up and living in China for 18 years. Last year, I went to the United States. Although I have lived here less than two years, I found a lot of differences of two countries’ education style, such as the teaching style, the school life/rules, and the academic environment.
The first difference is teaching style of two countries. In America, students are always divided by several groups. Each group has six or four students, and they can discuss questions during the class time, which can help students improve spoken skills and to learn dialogue and debate. After class, they probably have group homework which they need to finish together. Students need to prepare class presentations with a lot of PowerPoint every few week. That can help students improve their public speaking skill, confidence, share with knowledge, understand what they learned, and take a leadership role. The class lecture is delivered by teachers so that students can study by themselves first. In class they can answer questions anytime they want, and instructors will not be annoyed. Students call their instructors first name, and their instructors would like their students do that (Echo Lu, 1).
Second, America school life is different from China school life. In American school, students take class at eight o’clock in the morning, and they finish at three o’clock. Students only have one hour to eat lunch and most of them take lunch from home. They have different classrooms when they take a different class. Students only have two big exams, excluding small tests in classes. They get A, B, C, D, or F as their final grade before the end of the semester, and it is according to homework, tests, participation, attendance, presentations, two or three big exams. After class, they can go home take school bus or drive by themselves. Some of them take part in clubs in school, such as sports (soccer, baseball etc.), performing arts (dance, dram, band etc.), outdoor education (scouting, campfire etc.) and so on (Wikipedia). On weekends, students always hang out with friends, they can together with a boy and they allow to date with a boy, and are allowed sleepover in girl friends’ house. Furthermore, America academic environment is different from China’s. It show in four different points: the curriculums and learning environments; class size and examination system. America students can choose their classes, and they have a lot of interesting classes to choose from core classes: Spanish or French, computer, marketing and so on (America High School). They are free and unrestrained (go to bathroom, drink water, laugh). The classroom atmosphere are natural, active and relaxed. American school, every class has 25-30 students, and teachers teach five or six classes. Students can take 7 times SAT exam or ACT exam each year. They can use the highest one to apply universities. However, a high grade is not the important point to enter a famous university. The university will consider very comprehensive and then decide whether you could be enrolled or not. First, they will consider your specialty, especially if you were good at P.E. then you will have more advantages. Second, they will think about social skills, such like part-time job experience, volunteering experience and so on. Also, they will think about what clubs or other activities you had ever taken part in in high school.
In Chinese schools, every student has seat. Students cannot discuss questions in the class; they only have individual homework, and it is a lot. Teachers never ask students to prepare presentations, and class lectures will not delivered. Students cannot answer the questions anytime they want; they must raise their hands first and get permission from teachers. They must say “Hello” to their teachers when they meet in school. Every time before students take class, they need to stand up and say” good morning” or” good afternoon” to teachers and can only sit down when teacher say they can. Students must respect their teachers very much and can” only call faculty members by their last name with a title like Mr, Ms, and Dr. It is thought to be rude to call their teachers’ first name.
In Chinese schools, students go to school at 7 a.m. in high school and go home at 10 p.m. They have two hours to have a break at noon and go to school at two. They can eat lunch at school canteens or go home to eat lunch, but they eat dinner at school. Students will not change classrooms, and they have 8 minutes to go to bathroom each 45 minutes class. Most of them go home by themselves; schools will not provide school buses, but a few students will be picked up by their parents. They get a score before the end of the semester for each subject. Teachers will range students according to grades in class and year level. They even show the results to all students and send a text to their parents. Students have big exams every month in middle school and high school. They need to choose to learn art (Chinese, Math, English, History, Politic and geography) or science (Chinese, Math, English, physics, Chemistry, Biology) in grade 2.
In China, students almost do not have any extracurricular activities. Some schools have clubs but only a few students take part in. Most student their teacher do not allow them to take part in clubs. On weekends, students usually stay at home do their homework, sometimes they are allowed to hang out with friends. But girls cannot with a boy, similarly a boys cannot with a girl. Students are not permitted to date before they go to the university.
In Chinese school, students only take normal classes; they even do not have art and music. Students use all the time to study, the learning environment in China is extremely competitive and demanding. Almost every student works hard, they are determined to be at the top of the class and to become straight-A students (Bohan).In China, each class has 60-70 students, and teachers teach 2 classes. The head teacher will stay in office all the time, you can ask questions anytime. Other subject’s teachers will go to your classroom during the self-studying time from 7p.m. to 9 p.m. Chinese students only have one time to take college entrance examination, which take place every June. Selection is based on each students scores in this exam (6 subjects), and due to the number of people sitting in exam.
America and China are two different countries. Different culture, social system, history, population; therefore they have different education system. Nobody can say which one is better, because for their own country it is the best one. But America or China still need to revolutionize the bad part, learning from each other and other countries.

Citation work
Lu, Echo. "3 Big Differences between Chinese and American Classroom Culture." (2013): 1. WEAREIU. Web. <http://www.weareiu.com/blog/an-international-student-at-iu-bloomington/3-big-differences-between-chinese-and-american-classroo
China/Insight. Nicole Simpson, 2011. Web.
"American Teaching Methods." Northestern University. Web.
"Typical Activities." <i>WIKIPEDIA</i>. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
Gao, WeiWei. Jun 11. 2012. Web.