My Complaining

Philip always complains that I always complain, and my complaining was boosted up after my daughter was involved in the Compulsory Education system in China. My daughter, Sunny, who is going to be 9-year-old at the end of this month, she spent her 1st grade in a public elementary school in China; the 2nd grade, in a private school, also in China; the 3rd grade, in a classical school in Chicago; and the 4th grade, we will go back to China. During my daughter stayed in China’s elementary school, both of us were suffering the sardine-like class room, slow reading course, and depressed relationship with teachers.

I complained about the crowded class room. These pictures below were taken in my daughter’s public school in her 1st grade.

What a beatiful school !

What a Broad Field!

What a crowded class room!

At that time, 50 students were packed like sardines in a room. But, when you look at the map below, you will know my daughter was still a little lucky. It was lucky that my daughter was in a big size class, not a king size one. In the king size classes, teachers could not recognize their students even if they stayed together for a whole year!

So, for the 2nd grade, I transferred my daughter to a private school, which there was 35 students per class, and cost me ten percent of my year income every year!

I complained about the snail-slow reading course. This is the first lesson for the 3rd grade reading class, when my daughter went to a classical school in Chicago. This story covers 15 pages, and the whole text book contains over 700 pages.

This is an image chosen from a 3rd grade reading book of China’s elementary school. If my daughter stayed in China, she would use this book. There are 500 words and 3 half-page in this lesson.

As far as I know, children in United States start reading and writing in their 5-year-old, in kindergarten. In China, there are some education experts oppose children reading early. Most kids in China learn their first word in 1st grade. But my daughter, before she went to school, she was an independent reader. After one week of her 1st year in school, I found that she could recite all the reading text from beginning to the end. This snail-slow reading classes spoils students reading interest, so that reading has become a severe problem in Chinese literature education.

I complained about depressed relationship with teacher. In China, a teacher are commanders and conquers in each class. Although there no any rule demanding students should obey teacher unconditionally, in fact, no one dare to disobey teachers.

Collectivism, discipline, and respecting teachers – no way to flee.

After my daughter came to Chicago, she felt very happy. One day she told me, “Mom, in Chicago, I can drink water in class. But in China, we were forbidden to drink in class no matter how thirsty we were, while the teacher was holding her tea mug when she was teaching in the class. ”

It seams like Chinese teachers do not like students to ask them questions, not matter in class or after class. In my daughter’s 2nd grade year, in the private school in China, she once asked her literature teacher a question about an assignment. She asked something like, “Mrs. Wang, what is this? I don’t understand it. ” The literature teacher, who was an old lady and I could peek her bald patch at the top of her head, responded, “you did not listen to my class.” That was all her answer to my daughter’s question! Finally, I helped my daughter to get an answer from a website forum.
Sardine-like class room, slow reading course, and depressive relationship with teacher, these were I and my daughter were suffering, while Philip was suffering my compaining for these years. I have to admit that I am not a good- tempered housewife. But in today's China every body seems lack of enough good temper, because everyone has to struggle for a little peace in their life, which is the price in a developing country has to pay.