Dinosaurs Birthday Dance

The common trait among the three words is that they are all banned by the Education Department of the New York City.

Modern mayors not only have a good idea about how much coca-cola is bad for your health: 12 ounces okay, 16 criminal (mayor of NYC banned selling large beverage city-wide); they also assure you that beef is better than chicken (mayors of Boston and Chicago ordered Chick-fil-A to be kicked out of city limit because of its owner's donation to religious family value groups).

The list of inappropriate words was assembled by the Education Department to be banned from textbooks and exams, because they might stir controversy among students. Other words include Halloween, poverty, divorce, disease, etc. Also a detailed guideline spelled out 50 topics that should be avoided, for example: ".. shouldn't include items that are potentially disrespectful to authority or authority figures or give human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects.

A spokesperson Robert Pondiscio stated that the intent is to avoid giving offense or disadvantage by privileging prior knowledge.

Across the Continent in the great state of California, schoolers gained rights to decide what gender they want to be on the day in school, when using restroom, etc., regardless what gender they put in the registration forms. Previous rules allow students to choose their gender, but require them to pre-register with the school. The new rules eliminated the inconvenience to update school records.

The Effort Points

Elementary schoolers in some states across the US found a new components on their score sheet: the effort points. It works this way: the correct answer of a question no longer worth a full grade. Instead, for a 100 points question, you earn 50 points for correctly answering it, and the next 50 points are assigned based on how hard you tried. If you failed to demonstrate that you were struggling, you would get nothing.

For example, if a student turn in his sheet 20 minutes into a 40 minutes test, even if he correctly answered all questions, he will only earn 50 points because he did not make 'efforts'. On the other hand, another student who only answered 5% of the questions, but stayed to the end will receive 50 points of effort points plus 2.5 points, thus a higher grade of 52.5 points. In the end the student who knows 5% of the answers go to a better college than the one who solved 100% of the test.

The 'Effort Points' is yet another attempt to make sure every child educated to equal stupidity, if their parents can not afford private school education.

In addition to wide range policies, some schools and teachers are becoming creative to accomplish their mission of ultimate equal stupidity. One teacher discovered that the reason her student did not score well was because they did not do homework, which is a component in the whole evaluation. Her decision was to stop assigning homework, so no student in her class will lose points on homework. This method was praised as a successful model and encouraged by policy makers and education leaders to other teachers.

The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article, Employers and Public Favor Graduates Who Can Communicate, Survey Finds. It's such a relieve to realize the problem started from the society, when even employers care less about productivity.

And we will win the global competition with countries such as China, India, Korea and Japan, where students are assessed on their scientific and engineering capabilities. Yeah right, as long as we communicate it in the right way, people will believe in it.

How Chinese Children Go to School

This picture was taken by Lu Qixing in an elementary school in Shanjiang Township in Fenghuangshan (Phoenix Hill) County of Jiangxi Province on July 29, 2012. The sister, a 2nd grader comforted her little brother to take a nap while attending a class. Their parents were hundreds of miles away working as migrant workers to support the family. The boy's head looks big perhaps due to malnutrition.

It's a common scene in many rural schools in China. Children in poverty not only have to take care of their family, but also keep up with school.

The kids are looking up to their parents. They know they have to contribute with their own ways because their parents are working even harder for the family. They understanding going to school is a duty that every kid undertakes as a natural law. That is the secret for the Chinese success.

If the parents can bring home more by not working, thanks to a skewed welfare system, then who can these kids look up to? If going to school in the morning is praised as a virtual, then why do they have to elevate themselves to where they do not see themselves belong?

Children in Zhangjiawan Village, Sangzhi County of Hunan Province went to school, climbing these multi-level high ladders. Although grownups and elders would not go out of village in years, children, beginning at 5 year old, climb up and down these ladders two times a day to go to school in the town. If they drop, it will take awhile to reach the bottom of the valley 800 feet down.

But that no excuse to not go to school, and no one had ever even thought that way. This is how Chinese children go to school, without a school bus, without attendance bonus, without free lunch.

Readers of Daily Mail commented: Those truants in the UK should count their luck seeing how much effort these kids put into going to school; the road to success is paved with snakes and ladders; how amazing to see a five year old read by herself before school; are our politician still trying to figure out why China's the taking over? Hard working and self disciplines; we wouldn't have so many obesities had our kids going to school like that!

How Affirmative Action Will Bring Down the US

Believers of the Affirmative Action (AA) policy are invited to have a good look at pictures on the left, which depict the daily journey a group of 50 elementary students take to receive education.

These young men and women, aged 5 to 12 of Xinmin Village, Shimen Township, Weining County of Guizhou Province, get up before 5:00 in the morning, cook their own breakfast while they parents are working in some sweatshops somewhere hundreds of miles away. They will gather around 5:30 am and start marching to their elementary school 2 hours ahead, passing through dirty roads, mountains, graveyards and deserted illegal mining caves. Little boy Li Lei (with black and blue backpack, green sneakers) has heart problems. He will set out 20 minutes earlier accompanied by his sister Li Yao, so that he can take some breaks on their way and still get to the school on time.

After a full day's learning, they hack back together to the village via the same route to complete the daily routine.

These pictures were taken on February 28th, 2013.

Chinese across the world, rich and poor, study this hard when they have an opportunity. In the US, there are many Chinese who are professional with high income, but there are more first generation immigrants coming from poor countryside villages such as the one depicted in the pictures on the left who represents the bottom of the lower income society. Still, they work hard and educate their children to study hard, as they see that is the only way to change their fate through hard working. Look at these people, do they deserved to be punished by the Affirmative Action admission policy, just because they work too hard?

All men and women are born equal. Chinese are not more intelligent, and they too would prefer living on government welfare then working their butt off if that is a choice.

Imagine what if some US politicians descend from the sky and tell the kids that they will receive $500 each month for doing nothing. And that they will be rewarded with a 400 point advantage when applying to college. And the catch will be that they must not take learning seriously. They should not go to school unless there would be a shining school bus waiting and free meals provided. Most importantly, They must not score a passing grade otherwise not only all benefits would be gone but also they would be punished by openly discrimination in college admission process.

The US raised to the No. 1 economy in the world through hard working by late generations, not food stamp or affirmative action admission. Who should weep for the fall of the US? When?

A Chronical of The Educational Destruction

• December 20, 2012, the Department of Justice settled a complaint with Lesley University regarding on campus food service. By the agreement, which sets a precedent to all high education institutes that provide on campus food services, the university must "do more than simply provide gluten- and allergen-free options in its food lines (though it has to do that to). It must also develop individualized meal plans for students with food allergies and allow them to preorder meals; provide a dedicated space in its main dining hall to store and prepare foods to avoid cross-contamination; display notices concerning food allergies and identify foods that contain specific allergens; train food service and staff about food allergies; and try to retain vendors that offer food without allergens."
  
  As if the cost of education is not high enough, and answering to mounting accommodation requests has not complicated the core mission of teaching and learning enough.
  
  
• October 16, 2012, Washington Post published a call for not teaching Chemistry in high school, the argument being that Chemistry is 'painfully' difficult. The author claimed he couldn't remember a thing from his own Chemistry class, and he could make a living as a philosophy major in college.
  
  
• October 9, 2012, French President François Hollande found it was unfair to assign any homework at all, because some kids had parents who were willing to help them to figure out problems. To foster an 'equal' societal eco-system, the French President proposed banning homework all together.
  
  
• July 29, 2012, New York Times published a op-ed calling to abolish teaching Algebra at high schools because it prevent students from graduating.

Well, all taking place while youth in China, India, Korean and Japan are studying 120 hours a week, and asking for more.

The Last Class for Migrant Workers' Children in Beijing

Students were comforting each other with hugs after they learned their school would be shut down by the Beijing Municipal authority to drive them out of the capital city.

The principle of East-Dam Experimental School in Chaoyang District was the only person who knew the school was shutting down on Oct 21, 2001. The school has resisted the pressure from government to close for months. Students, teachers and volunteering parents blocked the entrance with human shield to stop the government bulldozer and police.

The Beijing municipal government had long seen millions migrant workers a burden to the capital city. Their cheap labor is welcomed and well received, but they are not allowed to stay or bring their children. Migrant workers were told to leave their children and elders at their original residence place, not an option for many that both parents were in Beijing. Migrant workers' children were not allowed to attend public schools in Beijing. Migrant workers and individual charities set up dozens of affordable schools to provide education for these kids. Now the government wants to shut down these school to drive the kids out of the city.

After a public outcry, even from local residents for this obvious social injustice, the Beijing government promised to absorb all migrant kids into local public schools. However, it set up a bar with paperwork so high that few could qualify. For the few who actually qualify, they were plainly denied with no reason given.

Guangdong Experimental High School in the USA

Guangdong Experimental High School traces its root to the 1872 preparation school for US studies, where 100 Chinese learned English before embracing their journeys in colleges and universities across the US, the first batch of Chinese students in the US.

Last week, a brand new school in Riverside, California celebrated completion of campus. According to Xinhua News, the charter school is funded by the Federal Government and the Chemax Education Foundation. It is most likely not true, as the Federal Government does not usually have a direct involvement in local education.

Among expected 1,300 enrollment, 90% will be from local while 10% coming overseas. In the first class, 180-220 will come from overseas, with 10 from China. The tuition for international students will bee 20% cheaper than private schools in the area.

update

Foreigners Set Up Container School for Poor Beijing Kids

While the Beijing government is cracking down on low-cost schools in an effort to drive poor people out of the capital city, Compassion for Migrant Children (CMC), a charitable organization combining foreign and local volunteers, set up an after school park, with a name 'the container school', just outside the 5th Highway Ring of Beijing in a village 'Heiqiao (Black Bridge)' for the poor kids free of charge.

Kids from poor families usually don't have anywhere to go after school because their parents were working hard making living. Now they have a place to work on their homework, or safely play.

A Frugal Education

Five little ones were on a bed surrounded by coal powders piled higher than the bed. Some were playing; some were sleeping at home of Yuan Lihai of Lankao County in Henan Province. These children were deserted by their parents, many with disabilities or chronic diseases. Since 1987, Yuan has raised up more than 100 kids like them on his own.

While China is building schools in Africa, Europe and in the US, few outside the country knows the frugal education system inside China. The world average public education expenses is 5.1% of GNP. The figure is 5.3% in developed countries. The South-Sarhara countries average 4.6%. India 3.5%. The poorest countries 3.3%. China: 2.3%. From another angle, 20% population of the world live in China, while the education expenses is 1.5%.

Seven Days Later, 14 Thousands Kids in Beijing Lost School

Only days before the Fall semester started, Beijing authority abruptly shut down 24 private schools for migrant workers who do not hold local residency cards. The action was believed an attempt to drive these kids out of Beijing. However, because their parents are working, usually on bottom level labor jobs, in Beijing, the consequence is 14 thousands school age kids are out of school.

Initially the Beijing Municipal Education Department said the shut down was carried by lower level authorities. After the incident was reported on news media, coincidentally while the Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department announced China would spent CND 2B ($300 million) to build schools in Africa using money raised up for rural education in China, the Beijing Education Department claimed all involved school age kids would be absorbed by public schools at free tuition. The Beijing Education Department published a step by step guide for migrant workers on how to enroll their kids to public schools. Seven Days Later, only a few dozens of parents were able to obtain all five certificates detailed by the Education Department. The other 14 thousands kids were unable to collect required certificates, because some certificates were impossible to apply. When the few dozens of parents who managed to jump through the hoops went to the Education Department, they were faced with locked doors. The Department said they were not ready to handle their applications.

The huge economic discrepancy between major coastal cities and inland areas is by and large contributed by the steady free labor force flowing east. Coastal cities used the labor at low cost, while the youth and elders live in inland areas. Coastal cities force older workers to go back to their hometown by not providing retirement and medical benefit, even though they must pay fees and taxes. Now, coastal cities are forcing their youth back by having their schools shut down.

Eyeing for a better image, China has been increased its spending on international aids. Do you believe a government who treated its own citizens this way would treat foreigners nice? They can pretend, but they can't disguise.

Asian Students Discriminated in College Admission

Ouyang Feng discussed the odds for an Asian student to get in college in his blog.

By examining admission data of 10 top colleges, including private, public, research universities and liberal arts colleges, a student with Asian heritage has only 0.19 chance to get admitted comparing to a white student. The disadvanrage has been aggrevated in the past 20 years, while the odds continuously kept dropping.

A book 'No longer seperate not necessarily equal: Race and Class in Elite College Admission and Campus Life' authored by Thomas J. Espenshade and others was cited in the blog. The book also dispute a myth on Asian students' leadership capability. Studies showed Asian students were on par as, in not better than, white students in terms of leadership.

Mainland China Failed to Invest in Education Again

According to data released during the congressional session of 2011, China spent 3.59% of its GDP on education in 2009. In comparison, developed countries spent an average of 4.8% while developing countries spent an average 5.6%.

In another comparison, the Treasure Ministry published an annual budget of 6,24B RMB in security measures against political dissidents, more than 5 times of the education budget.

Education is the No. 1 priority in Chinese families.

Another report found that, in the next ten years, China's school population will keep an average yearly shrinking rate of 3.23%, or 8.6 million students less per year. Thousands of newly built 'Hope Schools (with Hope Project donations)' were abandoned each year due to low enrollment.

Too Much Education

One could have too much education, especially when you are an Asian American. According to a revealing report 'Hidden Disadvantage: Asian American Unemployment and the Great Recession' authored by Algernon Austin of EPI, the unemployment rate of Asian American is about 2 times comparing to white in the population with a college diploma. Language is not a barrier as the conclusion stays for those born in the US.

Combined with well well known and well document information that educated Asian American receives less pay than all other ethnics groups: white, black, Hispanic, it's obvious education is not a good thing for an Asian in the America.

Chinese Premier Sat in Classes in Middle School

Premier Wen Jiabao sat in classroom through five classes at a Beijing Middle School in September. This week, he authored a paper on education. The paper is based on his classroom observations, and covers a broad range of topics, including pedagogical methods and scientific discussions.

Some critics sensed the incident a signal that Wen had been kept out of loop in the power circle. With nothing else to do, Wen went back to middle school. Actually, Wen was able to pick up a theoretical mistake in the Geography textbook.

In Chinese government architecture, Wen is the head of the central government. In the Party ladder, Wen is No. 3 or No. 4 (behind Hu Jintao, (Jiang Zeming,) Wu Bangguo.

The bad and the Ugly: American Students Perform Consistently in Years

Secretary Duncan reported that American students have performed consistently in the past few years, but that is not necessarily a good news, given the reality of American students falling far far behind the norm of the world.

A new (as refreshing as last week) study by the National Center for Education found US students lack in math and science.

The ugly part of the story, however, is that while American students scores the same in 2003 and 2006, the rest of the world are making significant improvement.

"We've sort of lost our way," said Secretary Duncan.

Chinese Kids Eye Colleges in USA

A summer camp advertisement stuck on a billboard of local high school graduates admitted to top US colleges in front of the Tianjin Book Building (TJBB).

The annual national college entrance examination had been traditionally known as a single log bridge competed by tens of thousands of troops. The portrait was not an exaggeration when you consider 600,000 would be accepted by colleges out of over 8,000,000 attempted in 1989.

However, after a national policy to expand college admissions, over 4 million freshmen are admitted into college, while the total number of applications started to decline. Almost one million high school graduates did not apply for college in 2009. Some experts interpreted the decline of interest as a reflection of disappointing job market for college graduates.

On the other hand, students who applied for colleges in the US doubled. 15,000 mainland kids took SAT in Hong Kong between October 2008 and June 2009. There is no SAT test center in mainland China. Students travel to testing centers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and as far as the US to take the test.

In major cities such as Beijing, Chongqing, up to 10-20 percent of high school graduates applied US colleges. Mr. Shen Xianzhang, deputy principle of the Rendafuzhong High school in Beijing told reporters that 43 students had been admitted by top US colleges, the majority went to Ivy League schools with full scholarship, including Harvard, Stanford and Yale. At Beijing No. 4 High School, 20 graduates went abroad for colleges in 2007. The number grew to 30 in 2008, and 50 in 2009. Another high school in Beijing, the Lab High School affiliated with Beijing Normal University sent 16 graduates to University of Toronto through a joint program.

A strong economy and a strong exchange rate against major western currencies certain help too. The total number of students studying in foreign universities and colleges increased from 144,000 in 2007 to 170,000 in 2008. The number is expected to almost double in 2009.

Stanley Nel of University of San Francisco told China Daily that "Students used to tell me that they did not have the money to go to USF, and they needed full scholarships. That is not the case now." More than 80 students from mainland China has been admitted to USF this year.

East West Education

Korean government had its hand on another social target. This time, it tried to set a curfew of 10:00 pm for cram schools in Korea. Usually they would go beyond 11:00 pm, and sometimes even over the midnight line. Koreans are not known for hard working, at least not as Japanese students. However, New York Times (Losing an Edge, Japanese Envy India’s Schools) reported that Japanese parents felt Japanese students are not hard working enough yet, so they hired Indian teachers to teach their kids. Now, Japanese toddlers under Indian teachers are learning calculus in kindergartens.

The US has been getting away from its crappy public school system by harvesting talents from all over the world with lucrative financial support in graduate schools. Most of these foreign students stay in the US because of job opportunities. For example, the Washington Post article (U.S. Colleges Bask in Surge Of Interest Among Chinese) reported a uprising influx from Chinese high school graduates to apply for US colleges. Year 2008 saw a nearly double increment in US undergraduate enrollment of students from mainland China, from 9,000 in 2007 to 16,000 in 2008. The problem, it's unlikely they will stay this time, unlike what has been the case for decades. On one hand, the US is struggling with sky rocket unemployment rate, and politicians are making policies to make more jobs for US citizens by kicking out more foreign high tech workers. On the other hand, Asian countries are enjoying a more robust economic growth and flourishing career opportunities. It was reported that almost all 50 some member of the graduate class of Chinese students in the Duke MBA program this year are leaving to China. Taking away with them are the knowledge and experiences that they would need to fence off their US classmates in the real world in the years to come.

London Tower is Falling Down...

An Angel Is Waching You

Zhang, a math major in the 2007 class, knows that he has been being watched. Could it be the girl who has been pretending studying the unnamed plants at the entrance of the building? Could it be the student sitting in the second row have the same page for hours? His mind is only assured that the wary eyes belong to an angel.

Wuhan Evening News reported on Dec 4th, that Hubei University launched a 'Little Angels Project'. Each student will be drawn randomly to watch another student, and take notes of everything noteworthy. At the end of each month, the notes will be assembled and released with personal identity information stripped.

Student life administrator You Junqiao told the newspaper, knowing they are being watched, students study harder.

Luxury Government Buildings Questioned

An article published in the Japanese Sankei Express (産経新聞) questioned the wisdom of a Chinese local government in Anhui Province for building luxury government buildings while leaving school kids under collapsing roofs.

Japanese funded for the rebuild of Yangzhuang Elementary School in Yingquan District, Fuyan of Anhui Province. A new teaching hall with 12 classrooms is being build thanks to $80,000 from Japan. Yangzhuang Elementary School applied for the grant in 2001. At the time, all but 4 classrooms in the 600 kids school are collapsing, and kids took classrooms under shaking bricks. They had applied for Chinese national educational grant earlier, but didn't get any. The application for international assistant was passed by the local government to the provincial government, and finally landed in the General-Consulate of Japan in Shanghai.

About the same time, the local government started building their luxury office building, which is often ridiculed by local residents as the 'white house'.

Japan sent in investigators to check out the condition, and they were shocked by the scene of hundreds of kids reading under falling roofs. The project was fully funded by Japanese Foreign Ministry's safety enhancement funds. The rebuild started in March of 2006, and finished by the end of the year. Now the school is the best building overseeing the village.

Japanese investigators published an article in the influential Sankei Express on June 22, 2007. Although they recommended the funding, but they argued that they were shocked by the excessive luxury of the office building used by the local government. The regional (county level) government's new office building is comparable to the Palace of Versailles in Paris. Its cost should be more than enough to rebuild hundreds of country schools. So what was it in local official's mind?

The article was noticed by Chinese Nanfang Daily in an investigative report. Despite the extreme poor condition of the building, the education system in the region is severely suffering from underfunding. Even teachers were not paid. The local Party boss, Mr. Zhang Zhian was reported receiving the position by bribing his county Party boss with $12,000. Nevertheless, he is still holding his position, and praised by his Party bosses.

Chinese have long been known as investing in education. However, that's only on the individual level done by individual families. The communisms government never behaves that way.

On the contrary, Japanese government place education the top priority. Education played a significant role in Japan's uprising in the late 19th century.

The question is: should the Japanese government take care of Chinese education, while the Chinese officials busy building luxury government buildings?

Indian American Better Educated and Wealthier

According to figures recently released by the Census Bureau, 68.2% of the Indian American population hold bachelor or higher degrees, while only 52.4% of Chinese Americans hold bachelor or higher degrees. The median household income of Indian American families is $73,575, while the corresponding number for Chinese American families is $59.571.

Indian also has more students studying in the US. Last year, there's 76,503 Indian students studying in the US, while the corresponding number for Chinese is 62,582 (mainland).