In “The Educated Giant” written by Nicholas D. Kristof, he explains why China is likely to over take the United States as the worlds most important country of the century due to its large focus on education. In the article, Kristof talks about his trip to China and the education system he observed. Beginning with peasant schools, he discovered the level of math being taught was equal to his children’s excellent schools in the New York area. While his children won’t learn a language in school until seventh grade, Chinese students begin English as young as first grade. Kristof gave reasons as to why he believes Chinese students do so well. First, is because they are harder workers. Students show up to school at 6:30 a.m. for tutoring before classes start at 7:30 a.m. They also do homework every night, including when they are out of school for an eight week summer vacation. The second reason Kristof gives is because China has an enormous cultural respect for education, part of its Confucian Legacy. Teachers are better paid and treated superior to educators in America. The third reason given is because the Chinese believe that those who get the best grades are the hardest workers. This contrasts popular American belief that the best students are ones who are innately the smartest. Kristof then touches on the fact that Chinese has its own faults, including bribes, enormous fees and over crowded classrooms.
After returning from China and posting a video he had recorded of the village, Kristof received a blog post from a woman who used to live in the village. Her parents only had a third grade education, however she became the first person in the village to attend college. Now working for Merrill Lynch in New York, the woman described herself as a “little peasant girl” transformed into a “capitalist on Wall