A 2006 International Student Assessment survey revealed where the smart kids are in the world. Drumroll please… Asia, Finland and Canada. This survey ranked reading, mathematics, and science. Where did the US rank? Something like 30th place. Americans, at least the 15-year-olds who were tested, are below average.
What’s wrong with America, or more poignantly, what’s everyone else doing that’s so much better?
I’ve been working in the Hong Kong education system. By the way, Hong Kong rated #2 in science and #3 in mathematics and reading. And from my experience, these kids are smart.
They are thrown into school when they turn 3 years old. They attend three years of Kindergarten, known as K1, K2, & K3 here. Mandatory schooling for Hong Kong is K3, then primary, then secondary school. But most every Hong Kong child attends K1 & K2.
K1 is the equivalent of adjusting that brand new fish you got at the pet store to your aquarium at home by keeping it in the bag for a half hour before it’s set loose in the new water.
K1 kids learn how to act in a classroom. Teacher tactics are simple: make the children feel like part of the group. Do what the group does or be publicly humiliated. No child is special.
Daily activities include learning simple Chinese characters, the letters of the English alphabet, arts and crafts, and then a little bit of playtime is thrown in, often guided playtime. Expect a half hour of homework every night.
K2 starts to get intense. Now it’s time for these five-year-olds to start learning how to read and write. By the time K2 is over, each child should know how to write a few dozen Chinese characters. And they can read simple English words as well. And don’t forget the homework!
K3 is where the heat is on. By six years old, Hong Kong children are expected to know how to write about a hundred Chinese characters. They can read many more Chinese characters and also simple sentences in English. The homework is stepped up a notch so their schoolbags get loaded. A K3 school bag includes 6 or 7 small workbooks and text books. Children have homework tallies that parents must sign off on a daily basis. The schools are preparing them for the next 10 to 15 years of hard-core learning.
My friend tutors children between 10 and 16 years old. In her opinion, these Hong Kong children are smart, but it’s all rote memorization. Ask these kids a personal question or something that requires creative thinking, and you’ll find an unsatisfactory answer. If you get one at all.
The result is children who are book smart, but lack certain social and creative skills.
In speaking with ex-pat businessmen who have to train these students in the workplace, it’s always the same story. Their work ethic is strict. They excel at following commands. Yet, no one wants to be a leader in the workplace. Their comfort zone is a hierarchal system. If the man-in-charge asks the workers for an opinion on something or for constructional feedback, the employees take it as a sign of weakness and loose respect for the boss.
Of course, there are exceptions, and many of these characteristics extend beyond education into the larger cultural profile. Still, the seeds are planted in these Kindergartens. Seeds that grow into world-class test-taking 15 year olds.
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Just today on a plane I read an article where the Finnish foreign minister describes some of the features why (he thinks) our kids also do so well on the survey: The smartest kids in the world? (PDF)
Interesting comparison. Of course the Finnish kids get a major advantage in having a language that’s written almost exactly as pronounced, so only the first year in school (at age seven) needs to be heavily focused on reading and writing.
BR,
Jukka Zitting
I’ve had the opportunity to make a lot of friends internationally recently and I have discussed “being american” with most of them (and mostly because they wanted too).
I feel that I learned of a few things from my friends that give americans an edge are our sense of entitlement and our willingness to take risks. It seems to make a culture of entrepreneurialism and leaders. Of course leaders do not have to be the smartest, they just need to know how to user their resources.
For better or for worse, Americans view at the rest of the world as their resource. As countries like China hyper-industrialize, yet the children are better follower than leaders. Is America an any worse shape or better?
Thanks for your analysis, it was very interesting to read from somone on the front lines.