Education Between China and America

作者讨论目前两个超级大国过去现在和将来的教育制度有什么区别和相同点
Requisite and far-reaching , as a major part of a society ,education system plays an important role in a national comprehensive development —so it is with both China and the United States . And this paper aims at a contrast ,mainly on their curriculums ,of the education system of the two typical and powerful countries in the world.    

Education in China
China , with a history of over 5000 years ,undoubtedly owns a longer history than America—a young country founded in the year of 1776,two hundred years ago. Consequently, it produces a much longer and more complicated education history .And ,education in China, according to its historical features ,can be divided into three obvious periods: Ancient Chinese education system period ,the transition period and the present one .
 Curriculums about China in Different Periods 
Ancient Chinese education system (can be also called the Imperial Examination System), built up in the year of 605 in Sui Dynasty and abolished in 1905—a little  over a century ago ,stands as the first constitutional education system in the history and had acted as a main evaluating access to ancient China’s talent choosing during its life span(Wang R ,2013).Indeed ,the birth of this system aim to put an end to the  unsystematic and corrupt talent choosing method through a relatively fair and square exam held by the ministry of education . According to this system, people participating in this test hold by the Ministry of Education or exactly the emperor were supposed to write a paper to show his or her capability on the assigned topic; then, the ministry of education picked out a few winners entirely according to their score based on what they had written previously. Then the winners could march to a higher exam .And they would be confessed a great honor and stepped into the bureaucracies once they passed the highest imperial examination held by the emperor  With a measurable and relatively credible evaluation standard, this kind of system had acted as a major method for the government to recognize the capable and then put them in the important position until September 2nd, 1905, when Qing Dynasty declared its abolishment(Macdonald R S J,1980). During its life span, a variety of efforts were made to make it more scientific and effective, but the fact that it chose the qualified talents through a  mere dissertations had never been changed.

Far-reaching as it was, it finally failed to avoid the fate of going all into pieces. Seen from an objective view, it was off to reasonability more or less. A paper should not have played such a large part in talent choosing; after all, an outstanding talent in writing does not necessarily equal an excellence in administration and severing the civilians and the lord. What is more, the examinees had no freedom choosing their own writing style, even the words or viewpoints they wanted to quote (the constitution put a limitation of the books available and the writing form), let alone their own perspectives. However, these factors did not hold back the step of the masses, since official career gained from this test appeared nearly a peerless and narrow approach for ordinary people to get rid of poverty and low-class status and pursue a promising future. And in that age , it was not strange and difficult to see an examinee lost themselves in these exams from a teenager to a white-haired old man and  bog down in the series of tests .Pu Songling(1640-1715) ,a famous classical litterateur in Qing Dynasty with outstanding talent , gained the qualification to the highest imperial examination when he had been already 71 but failed to be admitted in the final crucial test hold by the emperor during his lifetime,for example（Zeitlin J T，1997） .  As a result, to some extent, this system barely fell to be a motivation of seeking for fame and fortune and picked out such geniuses, parts of whom showed an advantage on machine-made essay writing field. Meanwhile ,some talented people were kept off somehow .

Then ,are the paragraphs above off the point of curriculums ?—No .It is still to the point : that people were driven how to spare no efforts to change their shabby social status through writing these machine-made essays and trying to achieve its perfection could be regarded as a special and impactive curriculum to most ancient Chinese civilians. This curriculum drove many people to spend their whole life on these essays ,although, what awaited for the majority is an unsure future and reexaminations without end . 
 
Surely ,there were some actual curriculums :in general, the Four Books and Five Classics were compulsory to all the students ,especially to those who wanted to step into the official career .Besides , martial arts acted as an important curriculum in ancient time as it is vital to the military forces and national security. Moreover , curriculums like mathematics and science-related subjects were also a part for them ,but they were paid much less attention compared to literature subjects like the Four Books and Five Classics（Zi M，1985） . 

During the 1300 years ,curriculums varied from time to time to time .But it did not achieve essential transformation until the late 19th century when the rulling class realized inherent flaws of its education curriculums and began to get close to modern education .  In the 1860s,after a series of defeats with the western countries ,some bureaucrats began to have a second view of the world and explore the ways to achieve the dream of a wealthy and strong country .Then ,an massive and ambitious campaign learning form the west on education ,science ,technology  and many other advanced fields（Kwong L S K，2001） . Besides , a few modern academic universities and colleges, such as Peking University ,founded in 1898,was built to cultivate modern students （Lin X D，2012）. Since then ,students began to face a variety of curriculums familial with what we face today such as science , literature ,mathematics ,medicine and etc .Since 1905,when the emperor of Qing Dynasty declared the abolishment of the Imperial  Examination System ,people were relieved from a harsh limitation on their curriculums since a good knowledge of The Four Books and Five Classics did not offer them a way to the higher class . Instead ,people were encouraged to contact varieties of curriculums especially science and technology ,thus achieving the dream of a strong and wealthy nation through cultivating talents for Chinese industry and military technology .

In l 912, the National Republic of China took the place of Qing Dynasty ---the last dynasty in Chinese history .Under the push of the tide of learning from the west, curriculums got closer to western curriculum system , indeed ,which was also the most advanced education curriculum system in the world .In the next several tens of years ,curriculums had been on the way to the present education curriculum system until the foundation of the National Entrance Examination (a typical landmark of present education system)in 1952—3years after the foundation of People’s  Republic of China（Hess R D，1987）.

Since 1949,when People’s Republic of China founded ,a complete Chinese education system has been made step by step :preschool education ,primary education ,secondary education , advanced education ;what is more ,vocational education（Hannum E，1999） .Meanwhile ,its curriculums gain a development in pluralism and humanization after a series of curriculum revolutions .
 
As for their advanced curriculums, they can be divided  into two independent parts :compulsory courses and selective courses .Compulsory courses always keep a close relativities with his or her major .For example :students majoring in civil engineering must study advanced mathematics and various mechanics ;on the contrary ,if the student major in marketing ,they can get rid of all the science and technology subjects such as physics biology and chemistry (usually only the students of chemistry majors are attached to chemistry courses ,and so on ).But some courses like Chinese history ,Chinese ,Theories of Chinese leaders and the Communist Party, ideology and morality are compulsory to almost all the students .In general ,these courses usually start in the previous half of the four years and do not take up too much time. In other words ,most of the courses they study depend on their majors and are aimed at shaping them into a specialist in their field .

During the several years in university ,they are supposed to accomplish not only the theoretic learning but also the social practices .

For primary , middle school and senior high school education  :both of them place the school subjects ,more frankly ,the score of their key exam papers ,to the first place ;although the Ministry of Education calls up the slogan of education for all-round development（Murphy R，2004） .In China ,education level range from area to area .So far ,there are still many rural primary school students receiving  a far less completed curriculums: Chinese and mathematics(in recent years ,English are brought into the curriculum system as a relatively important curriculum ) are nearly their whole courses in many instances remote rural areas .For some schools with better condition ,courses like PE ,music and painting are obviously underestimated as they have no contributions to the evaluation of a student .For primary school students ,that they conquer the two main courses can  means to some extent they get their mission accomplished. 
With the development of globalization ,English is becoming more and more important. In recent tens of years ,the ministry of education begin to pay an increasing attention to English curriculum in primary education period so as to lay a solid foundation for their English curriculum in secondary education period.
For middle school students :Chinese ,mathematics ,English ,politics ,
History ,geography ,biology ,physics ,chemistry and PE, all the nine subjects fill into both their class and their spare time, after all, the total score of the papers of the nine subjects in the final graduation exam perform as the exclusive factor on deciding  which senior high school they can go. That means however excellent or poor you are in the whole 3 years ,you can go to a better senior high school only if you get a high enough score in this exam .Then in senior high school ,a transition period for next advanced education ,students face the Branch of Art and Science and they can make their own choice according to their own interest and specialty .What differs from the two different students is that one study physics ,chemistry and biology but the other study history ,geography and politics. And they both study Chinese ,mathematics and English ,which act as a tool and a foundation to their farther studies . So it is with the National Entrance Examination(the largest and most impactive exam in China society ) from senior high school to universities .

Vocational education ,as a relative new member of Chinese education system ,is gradually gaining the recognition of the society through a large quantity of successful students（Han X，2007） .Many of them show an obvious advantage in getting a job to those who are able to be admitted into universities even key universities .In the past ,vocational education was not regarded as a graceful education as its students were always those who failed to pass the National Entrance Examination or even those who were unable to catch up with the curriculums in earlier middle school period .However ,it attracted the eyes with its characteristic curriculums which attach the students tightly to the social occupation demanding.

Its curriculums ,in a word ,is purposeful and single-minded .If you select the major of animation ,you will never get access to history ,advanced mathematics and English which are basic curriculums for many universities .In general ,undergraduate students are supposed to spend 4 years in universities—one or two years longer than the vocational education, as universities always set much more curriculums unrelated to their majors .And there exists a hot debate on such a difference :some complain that the universities force the students to study so many extra curriculums meaningless to their work and study in the future ,they think it is a waste of time for  an engineering  major student to study curriculums such as history ;on the contrast ,some agree that a person should have a comprehensive knowledge ,at least ,it will not do any harm .
Contrast of the Two Curriculum System 
The United States  ,being able to rank the top in the worldwide with a history of only more than two hundred years ,is uncertainly a great nation on its education, especially on advanced education .Compared to China ,it is not difficult to find a lot of similarities between their  curriculums. That is because America performs as an important teacher of China during the process of “learning from the west ”in the last century : On August 11th ,1872,30 Chinese children with long pigtails as the first overseas students gathering on the ship in Shanghai ,were sent to the United States on the other side of the ocean（Huang H，2002）. And they were expected a lot to study advanced science and technology and then inject such advanced curriculums into domestic lagging education .For example ,both China and the United States divide the curriculums in universities into compulsory curriculums and selective curriculums ;and each curriculum is set a assigned credit that the students have to accomplish .Meanwhile ,there also exist some differences  :American students are not forced to learn the curriculum of theories of Lincoln or George Washington, however ,in China ,whatever major you choose ,you can never escape the fate of studying curriculums of a series of thoughts and theories of these top leaders of China: Mao Zedong Thought ,Deng Xiaoping Theory , Three Represents Theory originated by Jiang Zemin（Chai W，2003） .That is to say ,each student must endorse the Communist Party of China ,the rulling party of People’s Republic of China .
Moreover ,two curriculum system own different purpose :American university curriculums lay more stress on the comprehensive development --- how to study , how to think and how to view a thing .For Chinese universities ,the most important target is to train the students to a qualified worker in their major field .

Then ,curriculums in primary education , secondary education and vocational education periods share some similarities between the two education system as Chinese modern education develop on the basis of imitating and readjusting  (imitating the west including the United States and adjust according to domestic education presence) .Obviously ,under the influence of the United States and some European countries :China put forward the slogan of “education for all-round education” and try to change the previous  education  idea that being able to get a high score through working out tough problems in the academic test means capability and excellence .Such curriculums like PE ,music ,painting which were regarded as ignorable subjects were brought into the curriculums to make their school curriculums colorful and avoid cultivating exam-oriented machines . At present  ,Chinese curriculums are trying to be similar to American’s but the present situation is that there are still many students burying themselves into the ocean of homework ,tests  and complicated problems .primary school students in China usually take lessons from 8:00 in the morning and around5 :00 in the afternoon (class hours for middle school students are longer).On the contrast ,American students are faced with far less curriculum hours and far less compulsory homework  related to their curriculums. In essence ,Chinese education pay more attention to exams but American education stress more on students’ creativity and imagination .In China , no “selective curriculums ” can be found easily in primary and secondary education period which exist widely in the United States .Besides ,there is an interesting difference between the two :English ,which are listed as the top three major curriculums with Chinese and mathematics in middle school education ,acts as a very important part in Chinese curriculums .However ,Chinese is not of equal importance in American curriculums ,students in America are not compulsory to study Chinese if they show no interest .

As for vocational education curriculums ,it is not so dogmatic to say that America is a teacher of China （Weiping S，2005） .In common with America ,Chinese vocational education curriculums are related closely to the market demand .So whatever kind of workers the market needs ,it can sense this opportunity sharply and then find the key to these problems .As it is still on the way to a better condition :Chinese vocational curriculums need to make more efforts to deal with the problems on its curriculum .For instance ,how to strike  a balance  between theoretic curriculums and practice curriculums and how to improve students’ practice ability to a higher level are  still tough matters to be settled in many domestic vocational school. This is both a difference and a gap between the two countries .
Conclusion 
Based on the exploration and analysis above ,it is not difficult to find an obvious link between Chinese education curriculums and American education curriculums :American education curriculums act as an important model for Chinese in the latest over 100 years ----Since the far-sighted began to throw their eyes on the United States and other advanced nations and learn from their education ,science and technology when they realize the root of Qing Dynasty’s backwardness and tried to find the way to resist the constant military invasion from the advanced western countries . And the differences ,as a saying goes “there is no identical leaves in the world ”, certainly exist due to different domestic situation .

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