Before my family and I moved to Prairieville, a Louisiana town, I was a product of Hong Kong’s educational system. The media portrays its educational system, as well as systems in other Asian countries, as superior than America’s. However, my personal experiences reflected in contrary.
Hong Kong’s educational experience is infested with overloaded coursework and excessive competitiveness. Our educational system is not problem-free and may be statistically inferior compared to other first-world countries, but we are able to make sure students are not overstressed in terms of academics.
I was three-years-old when I first attended a Catholic kindergarten in Hong Kong and it was enjoyable, as they promote “group and free-choice learning.” After I graduated, I enrolled in a public elementary school which emphasized academic success over anything else. I was able to handle the course load until the end of second grade, which is when I found the material to be unnecessarily stressful. Since then, I have been struggling academically.
Every student in the school was responsible for at least nine subjects — including Chinese literature, English, math, social studies, Mandarin Chinese, art, computer, music, physical education and many other courses such as civics. When I enrolled as a student in the public elementary school, the teachers assigned numerous homework assignments and it usually took at least five hours every day to complete them. It was typical for many of my former classmates and I to attend hours of tutoring sessions right after seven hours of classes. I recall one day my entire family had to help me with my homework until 4 a.m., simply because the teacher assigned a 100-page practice test to be done in one day.
Asian culture emphasizes study because many believe academic success can convert to economic success, however it also perpetuate extreme competition. It may be laughable that I failed my last English assessment before immigration, but I’ve been successful academically since I started school in Louisiana. At first, I thought America’s education system was overly laid-back, but now I realized Hong Kong’s education system is overly competitive.
Unlike my mother, it was typical for many parents to punish their children simply because they did not receive top-notch scores on their assignments. A typical Hong Kong mom was widely criticized when she said she believed one key of academic success is to “ejaculate at the right time” in order for the child to be slightly older than their classmates because then the child would be comparatively more mature.
It was not surprising to me when I saw news of suicide epidemics there — and now the legislators are looking to abolish Territory-wide System Assessment, which is the equivalent of LEAP assessments in America.
Even though I was critical of America’s education system in my other op-ed about Teach For America, American culture does not perpetuate excessive academic stress toward the youth because we know it is not healthy for anyone. Statistics can be useful, but they can also be deceptive because even though Hong Kong is statistically top-notch, students’ experiences are not. When I see American citizens push for educational reforms, it is crucial for the policymakers to preserve the unique character of our education system before making significant changes.
Kevin Yau is a 21-year-old sociology senior from Prairieville, Louisiana.