1. Mr Hessler’s teaching experience is already dated – things in China have changed rapidly. As with other changes, education and teaching styles are not what they were then.

2. Traditional Chinese education is largely rote learning and regurgitation. Repeating things over and over is seen as a good way to retain facts. Classrooms have nothing on the walls – all attention is on the blackboard (or slateboards). Students speak only when called on, and stand up beside the desk to recite answers. Perhaps this is because of the influence of learning Mao’s little red book.

3. Contemporary Chinese education is more westernized – students are encouraged to think, slouch in chairs, interact with instructors in the learning process. This is a good thing.

4. One big hurdle for students and teachers in China is creative thinking. There has always been someone who had authority to make the decision. Students learned who that was and what the desired response was. Whether or not it was what the student believed in private was not important.

5. There is a huge emphasis on doing well not to demonstrate your own grasp of the subject but to well for the image of your school, your city and country. You have to instill that at a very young age to make it work. I remember seeing a slogan hoisted like a billboard above the outdoor track: Do well to honor your school and your country. Yikes, not too much pressure there.

6. Education is not free – so it seen as a means to further one’s whole family. Everyone works to get enough money to send one child to school. That child is under tremendous pressure to succeed because the future of the whole family depends on it. That child will do whatever it takes – self sacrifice – not payola to make it.

7. School is pretty easy to get into if you have the money to pay for it and if the child starts at 3-5 years old. There are boarding schools for children this young. At this age, kids are too young for qualifying exams – and if the student succeeds at the school they can stay on. Wait for a few years and then try to gain entrance and the student must score high enough to qualify.

8. Students may remain (with passing grades and $$$ to pay for tuition) in school until about 8th grade (American equivalent). That’s when education ends for most. They must pass exams to qualify for high school. To become a teacher of elementary school they must finish high school. To teach high school they must go to college (usually).

9. A college education is not comparable to an American education – if you want to be an engineer – you study engineering classes. None of the extra language, history, etc.

10. Large private school systems have evolved over the past 10 years. Some have student body populations as large as a good sized university – into the thousands. These schools can be very expensive. But then there are plenty of nouveau riche parents to afford the education. And as parents who grew up during the cultural revolution – where children were raised in cooperative child care for most of their lives – the children grew up to be parents with little child raising experience. Now (I am told) “they are too busy and have better things to do.”

I really enjoyed reading River Town – it reminded me of the China from the 1980-90’s and brought back many great memories. It is not at all like what goes on in the big cities of today.

I don’t know the purpose of your paper – if it is for a class or personal growth – but thanks for making me think about some of my fun times in China.