How Did My Students Get Here?

Your students are the cream of the crop. The Chinese educational system is a process of weeding people out from early on. I was teaching in a province with a population of about 80 million (bigger than most countries!) and it had one comprehensive university, a teachers' university, a polytechnic, a medical college, a couple of smaller teachers colleges, an agricultural university, and a bunch of specialized institutes. Think about what the typical U.S. state (population 3 million) has--usually two or three major universities, several other comprehensive universities, as well as a bunch of smaller colleges. Now compare the odds of getting a college education in the two places.

Some of your students may have started out in a village kindergarten like this one.

Your students had to take a grueling examination the summer before they started school. Only those with the top scores make it. GPA's, activities, teacher recommendations, etc. are not usually considered as heavily (unless the student is recommended by someone with influence--'guanxi'). The entrance exam determines what school you'll get into and what major you get. If you do well, you might get to major in international trade or electrical engineering at a top school. You will then have a bright future. It will be almost impossible to flunk out, and you will always be respected as a graduate of some famous university. If you screw up, you might end up working in a factory or 'waiting for employment.' If you do get into a college, it may be some teachers college, where you will be destined to a career of patriotic service teaching the children of pig farmers in some village in Anhui province.

If you can't pass the entrance exam and your parents have money, you can now take the private university route. Private universities are a new development in China. Usually run on a for-profit basis, they cater to the children of rich folks. Teachers have been know to complain about poor students and heavy-handed interference from administrators at some private universities (and high schools).

Once you're in college and in a certain major, your life is pretty much determined for you. You don't change majors. You don't get to seek the meaning of life by taking fascinating elective courses. You can't transfer to another school if you don't like this one. You probably can't even change dorm rooms if you don't get along with all 5 of your roommates.

There are basically two tracks you can go for when you are in middle school (what we call high school): Science or 'Arts' (what we call humanities and social sciences). There are different exams for the two, and each major is classified as either 'Arts' or 'Science'. For example, at my school, Economics was classified as an 'Art,' but Management was classified as a 'Science.' Science people take more Math and physical sciences. 'Arts' people take more language, literature, and history. Your students will probably differ, depending on whether they are 'Arts' or 'Sciences' people. You also may meet some students who are discovering late in life that they love literature or music, but they can't pursue it because they are a Physics major. Oh well. Better luck next time! (This is changing now. It's becoming possible to change fields or careers where it wasn't before.)

Here's a fairly nice-looking small town primary school on the Shandong peninsula

Most of your students will probably come from the province where your school is, primarily from the larger cities. If you have a student from Shanghai in your class at Shanxi University, it probably means that he/she couldn't get into any of the schools they wanted to go to in Shanghai or Nanjing, and this was their only option. They fill up about 80 percent or so of the classes with people from the home province first, then add people from other provinces for diversity.

You will probably have students from the countryside, from 'peasant' or farm families. But most of your students will probably come from large cities. This is where the best education opportunities are. There are different levels of primary and middle schools as well. School attendance is not necessarily based on neighborhood like in the U.S. In a city there will be a No. 1 middle school, which is the best. The smartest kids will go there. Students I met from the No. 1 middle school in my city were very impressive.

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