Vanessa: The Chinese and Education: One Amazing thing

Professor Bieber

English 113B

26 November 2012

 

            The Chinese Culture and Education: One Amazing Thing

            In Chitra Divakaruni’s book, One Amazing Thing, a group of individuals are stuck in a visa and passport office in an American city. Out of nowhere, an earthquake rips through the office trapping nine people together. Besides, having to survive the earthquake they also had little food and a flood circling them it then becomes nearly too much for them to handle. A young graduate student among them suggests they all tell a personal story about themselves they have never told anyone before to minimize their stress (Divakaruni). As each person tells their personal story, Lily, a young Chinese girl, tells her story about her passion for the violin and her pressured intelligent brother Mark. Mark feels pressure to do well in school not only by his parents but also by cultural expectations.  While living in a Chinese community in America the same stress and pressure put on students in china to do well on the Gaokao, a college entrance exam, is also placed on Mark to well in certain exams he needs to do well in, in order to get accepted to highly respected universities In America. In One Amazing thing author Chitra Divakaruni explores the demands on Chinese children with respect to their education.

            Education is extremely emphasized in the Chinese community, In fact, China has “…made stride towards a modern educational system, now providing nine years of basic education to up to 97 percent of school-age children (for a total of about 180 million) and dramatically expanding the number of students in higher education to more than 21 percent of high school graduates” (NCEDR 2007). However with so much competition to fill in the slots to top universalities, the Gaokao is what decides if they will end up going to a university in China. The Gaokao is an exam that dates back “to as early as A.D 587” it was established during the Sui dynasty. Many believe that after taking this test it has been said it sets the “course of one’s life.” In china not only do Chinese students have loads of academic work but also have to study every minute they can in order to well in the Gaokao  exam. Their goals are to strive to the best universities and do superb in the Gaokao they can have a good job all to receive a “good” job or a job offer after graduation. Even though Mark’s parents live in the United States, they still carry on the expectations from Mark to do well in exams as if Mark was taking the Gaokao exam in China. The structure and attitude about the respected exam and education in china is still enforced on Mark to get into a university.

            Furthermore, Mark is an intelligent student; who wants to be a scientist specializing in cancer research (Divakaruni). Moreover, his parents have high expectations for him. As one of Marks parent utter “Anyone can get a medical degree and make money, but to spend your life discovering a cure for those poor, suffering people—ah!..Now that’s true dedication,” With that said there is a huge of pressure on Mark. Likewise there is immense pressure on Chinese students taking the Gaokao from their parents to do well. The equal pressure or even perhaps the same pressure is put on Mark like if he was in China preparing for the Gaokeo. The culture and standards are the same for many Chinese parents whether or not they are in China or America.

             Once accepted to respected university by either getting high scores in the Gaokeo or in Mark’s place doing well in his academics. Under those circumstances, most Chinese communities in America and in china don’t learn to take breaks from studying which lead Chinese students can lose them. The sense of losing one’s self as a student or they become stressed of having to do well. This can be overwhelming for students and have anxiety and lose them in it. With all this pressure of having to excellent in their studies, sometimes it can be too much. In the same circumstance, the Gaokao “adds on too much pressure on students without giving them any chance and time to stop and take a break from studying.” This cycle of non-stop working ethic is something that Mark’s parents have kept and taught him. The valued Chinese ethic of putting the studies first is what Mark’s parents haven’t forgotten to remind Mark to do.         

            To demonstrate the stress levels a survey given by Arizona State University entitled to measure how Chinese students evaluated their stress levels (Kun). The study found that in addition to having stress from being away from home, they also felt stress to excel in their academics, and proving to their parents that all the hard work that was done when they were children till now pays off. In addition the studies also found that the students also lacked off because of the pressure (Kun).  Just as students taking the Gaokao have pressure they end up doing some wild actions. For example some take amino acid and take other drugs to keep them going in order for the stress to wear down.

            Likewise Mark got accepted to Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT), a highly respected educational institution. While he is at the university Lily calls him because she hasn’t heard from Mark in a while. As Lily states

            “Marks voice on his cell phone sounded sleepy, although on the East coast it was   long past noon. I (Liliy) was surprised because he’d been up to—we hadn’t   spoken in a while – and why was he still sleeping. He said he’d been out late the          previous night. “Were you parting? I asked. It was a joke; Mark never partied.       His idea of a good time was meeting his geeky-known scientific theories. (Mark)          “I guess you can call it that.” 

This proves that when Mark left for college the pressure was too much for him. He did things he wouldn’t have done f he was home under his parents supervision. The stress of being the very best got to him and he did things out of his normality like partying. Something he would have never done before. The stress got to him he lost his momentum in his studies. Lily had said that her parents believed that Mark was a perfect child. In fact, he hardly seemed like a child at all. He was polite and obedient and serious about his studies (Divakaruni 145). Mark partying was another side to him. The stress of having to do well by his parents wasn’t there any more when he left for college. He knew his parents would be gone which caused him to just lose himself in parties. The stress built up and when Mark got the chance to let go, he did just that. The book later stated that his grades dropped and wasn’t showing the best he could do. Unfortunally, the pressure got to him and let go.  

            The demands of doing well in school can be stressing for many Chinese American’s especially when having parents from a certain culture that are used to having the constant pressure. Similarly, the stress of having to do excellent in the Gaokeo exam and Mark having to do well comes from the Chinese culture and parents. In One Amazing Thing it shows that the custom of the Chinese culture to strive for excellence in their respected academics carries on with the parents no matter where they go in the world.       

 

                       

Work Cited

                       

Collins, Alan. “Chinese Educationalists in Malaysia: Defenders of Chinese Identity”        

            University of California Press Vol. 46, No. 2 (March/April 2006), pp. 298-318

Cravens, Chen Xiu, Grogan Margaret, Lui Yarong. “Understanding the Chinese Superintendency in the Context of Quality-Oriented Education “Comparative                    Education The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Comparative and                           International Education Society Review. Vol. 56, No. 2 (May 2012), pp           270299. Web. 6 Nov 2012. 

 Divakaruni, Chitra. One Amazing thing. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, 2009. Print.

Wong, Edward.”Test That Can Determine the Cource of Life in China gets a closer Examination” The New York Times. 30 June. 2012. Web. 11 November. 2012.

Sudworth, John. “China’s students take on tough Gakao university entrance exam” BBC News. 8 June 8 2012. Web. 11 November 2012.

“Gaokao, Chinese college entrance exams.” Dartmouth Global China connection. 2012 Darthmouth Global China connection. 20 September 2012. Web. 11 November 2012.   

Yan, Kun. "Chinese International Students' Stressors and Coping Strategies in the United             States." Arizona State University, 2008. United States -- Arizona: Ethnic News  Watch; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: The Humanities and Social Sciences         Collection. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.

 

 

 

Education in ‘One Amazing Thing’

Moath Abaoud

Professor: Bieber

28, November, 2012

Education in ‘One Amazing Thing’

The play One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni (Divakaruni)is laden with many contemporary themes about the modern American life style. He has referred to the colleges, students and teachers for many times in the play, putting an emphasis on the role of education in making personalities, communities and determining lifestyle of the next generations. The author of ‘One Amazing Thing’, is a keen observer of college education of USA, giving the reader many ideas about the American nation as a whole. The author has clearly conveyed the message that American education system should be checked for being so much liberal and teacher status should be checked to make their performance and earning better.

Education set ups are the mirror for peeping through the intellectual level of the nation and the future prospects. The US college education revolves around the themes of equality, liberty, craze for leadership and practical plans for future research and projects. One can very easily have an idea of the level of student learning and academics being offered by going through the curriculum and the assessment plans. Most of the assessments are creative and research based. There is no time old cramming and poor learning happening there.

Moreover, these colleges are also hubs of cultural activities. All these features make these colleges ultra mode and liberal where nothing is in proper control. The cultural activities are also very liberal.When we go further deep into understating of American colleges, we can have an idea of the cultural changes going on in the community. These colleges are hubs of students belonging from countless local and international creeds and cults. Blacks, Whites and African Americans are the major types seen but, the number of Asian and Arab students is also on steep rise (Universitylanguage.com). Some of them spend all of the energy in preserving their culture and practices from the influence of other cultures, while others are quite happily mixing and learning all good things of other cultures; enriching their current cultures. All of the issue being created due to this ultra liberal approach towards cultures has created many conflicts in these colleges and they need to be fixed.

 Moreover, the state of teachers is not satisfactory in most of the colleges. Teachers, especially in the local and minority colleges are suffering from overburden, underpayment and disrespect (Huffingtonpost.com, 2011). Students in these colleges are not ready to make things easy for teachers because they do not have bright academic background. So, most of the teachers have to work very hard for keeping the result at a reasonable level. Since there is no extra compensation for these extra efforts, they have to be content with what they are being paid. Chitra Divakaruni has described the same situation as “But teachers were meagerly paid and resembled chewed up sticks of sugar cane and I had no desire to become one” (Divakaruni, p.110).

Moreover, students in these colleges do not have hope for a bright future even after superb academic performance due to the racist and ethnic grudge of the white community. Though, things have changed to a great extent but, there are still hard liners on both of the sides. So, these students are very bad at conduct and teachers suffer from bullying and other bad conduct frequently.

 Moreover, affordable education is something that is greatly missing in most of the regions of America. Most of the American regional colleges and educational systems are very expensive for the residents to afford. No doubt, there are government efforts to make these colleges less heavy on the pockets but still, these concessions are not enough for coping with the rising inflation and economic crisis effects. The best thing that is lacking from most of the colleges is the factor of learning and earning together. In order to reduce the cost of higher education, colleges should introduce some skill based jobs for the students, within the confines of the college. There are many examples of the same practice at primary and higher schools. Students work for a proper time and after that they either manufacture goods or operate some simple machines for the purpose of making goods that can be sold out I the market and college can very easily manage the expense.

Moreover, the idea of introducing a university in very county can also help in lowering the cost of higher education. When every county has university in it, the community of the local students is going to have many benefits. They are going to save the rent of transportation and dissipation of energy on the way. Moreover, they can remain in contact with the faculty and other important personalities related to the university. Furthermore, we can start internship plans for the students graduating from these universities. This will create a faculty that is more familiar with the operational nature of the college and the type of people they are going to teach. It will create temporary and permanent jobs for the local community and the university can have great impact on the local economics. If we have to meet the targets of local and global literacy we, have to introduce a new education system based on the principle that it is a state funded public good.

Many arguments and advantages can be drawn out of this system. All of the citizens will have access to quality education and there will be no discrimination on any grounds. There will be better and more reliable jobs for the teachers and faculty and other staff of the university. But, until, it is made a self-sustaining system, it is not going to pay in the long run. So, the idea of introducing earning opportunities for students within the confines of university can help a lot in realizing this dream. We can also find the passion of concerned Americans for the purpose of making education accessible to all classes of the society by the following words of Chitra in One Amazing Things “….I hear he wants to open a school for poor girls…..” ( Divakaruni, p.114)

Moreover, the way education has been affecting on our culture and producing an educated and liberal nation, is evident from the ‘One Amazing Thing.When the Grandma mocks a boy for having bad results in education, she is just depicting the typical mind set I which she has been born and what she has practiced throughout her life. But, the way the boy responds by not paying any heed at all to the criticism is really remarkable. According to Chitra Divakaruni “No, she makes lots of mistakes still, not half as good as your Caroline…..But, he was busy with college preparations…. (Divakaruni, p148)”. These lines are evident of the broadmindedness and the increasing tolerance capacity of the young generation. They are just focused on their educational aims and have nothing to do with the old type of distractions and mind sets.

However, many critics believe that liberty, mixing of races, cultural evolution while providing quality paid education are the pillars of success for a modern education system. Without these features, world cannot witness technological and other advancements. Chitra Divakaruni has mentioned the US college system as a reflection of all of the major traits of the American nation. At the moment, we have colleges that are more mixed in nature and where students are learning lessons of liberty (Greenberg, 2012). Our minority colleges are in bad condition and the teachers are suffering a lot in these colleges. The idea of making higher education free and introduce earning opportunities in the colleges can help in increasing the spectrum of quality education access. The idea of having a university per county, when coupled with this aim can help in producing a nation that is far more educated and independent.

Works Cited

Divakaruni, C. One Amazing Thing.

Greenberg, M. (2012, September 6). The Top Seven U.S. Schools Defending Your Student Liberties. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from In the Capital: http.

Huffingtonpost.com. (2011, November 11). Few Minority Teachers In Classrooms, Gap Attributed To Bias And Low Graduation Rates. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from Huffingtonpost.

Universitylanguage.com. (n.d.). Adjusting to American Culture While You Study at College. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from universitylanguage.

India's Education

Tariq Eloustaz
English 113B
Professor Bieber
27 September 2012

Survival Above Education

We all have the chance for education in the United States of America, no matter where we go public education is provided. In One Amazing Thing, by Chitra Banerjee Divankaruni, she shows us the hardships of being admitted into universities in other countries. Through these hardships many tend to come to the United States in order to get an education past the limits of other countries such as in India. Although education is highly encouraged in the United States, it is considered insignificant, and useless in some countries. For example, India’s survival is primarily dependant on labor rather than education. People in countries like India are not enforced nor privileged to receive a higher education due to their economic standing and therefore remain illiterate and reliant on effort. By escaping the laborious lifestyle in India many were able to receive a higher education and live a more pleasant and less exertive life

Education is a necessity for a nation to develop, most importantly, rid itself of poverty. Sadly in India, one of the countries with greatest amount of poverty, it also has the greatest amount of illiterate people in the world. One third of males and one half of females are illiterate in India (Himanshu). This is due to the fact that India has the second greatest population at 1.2 billion in 2010, as China in number one(Himanshu). This great amount of people creates a larger portion of people that are illiterate in percent. The literacy problem is due to a great portion of people in India have greater necessities than education. A great example is of taking care of ones family at a young age, one must give up studies and education in order to supply for his family. Two thirds of the world's illiterate people are girls, one third of those come from India, that number is significantly large(PTI). Although India may not have the largest percent of illiterate people in the world it does have the greatest amount of people who are illiterate. Niger has the greatest illiterate percent worldwide, but the population is only a fraction of India. Niger has a population  84.3% illiterate, but with a total amount of sixteen million people(Aneki). While India has 35% illiteracy rate,, with over a billion people this number is over three hundred eighty million(Varma). 774 million illiterate adults in the world, India still has the highest number(PTI). Although they may not have the highest percent of illiterate people, they do have the greatest amount. About one half of the world illiteracy rate is from India(PTI). Greatest amount of people and the greatest amount of illiterate people, this is truly a horrific tragedy.

Its seems it is very hard to go to school in India, and it is even harder to go to a University. Below one percent of Indians go to a University due to the harsh conditions of very few support from families and very low acceptance rate within India. There is excessive amount that are attempting to get into college, the acceptance to denial ratio is excessively swayed towards the denial side, with only about one million graduating University out of 1.2 billion each year. Most jobs are given through knowing people and experience and not from education. In the book One Amazing Thing Naina talks about the life in college when she made it too America,“I Began my college career by studying assiduously and ranking high in exams, but I quickly realized that academic achievements were not enough to open the door to true success. The offices of the city were filled with brilliant me rotting in Mediocre positions”(Divakaruni 161). This shows that even though it is hard to go to school, and get an education, after getting the education it is hard to do something with it.

Education in India is not a priority, it is more of a luxury. Schools are opening each day in India and many are attempting to go, but for some it is too much of a burden when more important factors come into the life. Schools have opened in notorious numbers due to the government attempting to fix society. Since 2010 and an increase of school enrolment has risen to 96%, at the same time drop outs have become excessively high, especially for girls(Gwalani). This is because the situation in India is quite dreadful, with an astonishing 53% of houses do not have toilets. Poverty is very large in India and can cause doubts to go to school. Families in India have greater priorities than to deal with that they put above education. The situation is very hard, you have to choose between living education hoping it will get you a living. About 177 Universities in India for over one billion people, education does not seem like the right choice to the people. Jobs are given with much to none reference too if one went to college or not, it is more of connections than documentation. To demonstrate this about 75% of technical graduates and more than 85% of general graduates are unemployed. This is due to India’s high growth global industries(Anand).Education is not needed in todays society when living in India. This is because many jobs can be achieved without the requirement of education even ones many would expect to be very educational dependent.  

Throughout the lands of India there is vast and unstable corruption. As Mr. Sharma said in an article “I feel almost 99% certain that if I didn’t pay the money, I would have failed the exam again”(Anand). We see here even in education system there is corruption, in order to achieve a higher score connections are important to have in the exam, you can pass with ease with connections, and fail without.  Illiterate people are in all of India, and it is fairly common to find them everywhere you go, and many people make a fair living tricking these people(Varma). Although some jobs in India are created by the government, many are created by the people. An example of this are readers, people that read for others for a very small amount of rupees. Many businesses are created by people as well, these businesses lead to a greater amount of jobs, but also hardly ever look at credentials and hire people based off connections.  

As read in One Amazing Thing we notice that she shows us how this is a problem in India, and that some people went to school in the United States in order to receive an education. As we read we notice that many people are attempting to come to the United States in order to get an education, “ Farah almost had not made it to America”(Divankaruni 30). Everyone wants to make it to America, in this book it is because of chances and opportunities it gives people, an opportunity that they do not have in India. We notice the desperation in the characters to make it to America, and this is because of the opportunities it gives. School is worth something in the United States, and jobs are fair, one of the many reasons why many of the characters in this book came to this country.

The government is not to blame, although many do. “Education in India is a matter of prime concern for the government of India”(MOI). The government is not ignoring the problems are are slowly attempting to fix them. Many people blame the government but since 1998 they have increased rapidly in education and seem to be doing a great job for the Indian people. As Varma states in 1961, a small amount of  about 28% of Indians were literate. In 2006, estimates put literacy rate at about 66%(Varma). That is almost an impressive full amount of 40% in 40 years. India has a long way to go to improve the literacy rate, but with hard work, dedication and determination from the government and people all is possible to achieve.

Illiteracy: The inability to read

 or write

Documentary on Illiteracy

Literacy Rate In India

Gaokao Preparation