Chinese Exchange Students In USA

     The article focuses on one Chinese student at the University of Nebraska. In 2005, the university had 19 students on campus and by 2009, the number reached 171. That number allowed the Chinese students to compose the largest group of foreign exchange students. Many students come here to receive a better education; many come here because they didn't do so well on the gaokao. This student, Bojaio Sun, came here for both reasons. He had plans to go to college in China to pursue a computer science degree after refusing to retake the gaokao the following year. After that didn't workout, he decided to pursue his interests in the USA and so he majored in Business. He stated "I'll get a better education in the USA and I will be able to learn what I want to learn." Having foreign students pursuing education in the USA serves as a big economic boost for the USA.
     I think it's good for many students to receive an education in the USA instead of China. With the limited number of enrollment, China closes its students' opportunities of pursuing higher education. Welcoming foreign students with open arms is what the USA is all about and it makes things all the better when the USA can benefit from it too. This relationship also allows the USA and China to develop a closer relationship; this has a positive outcome on everyone in the USA and China so the USA should keep pursuing foreign students from all nations. It's definitely a confidence booster when I hear foreign students saying the US education is superior to the Chinese education because currently, the US is getting bashed for having a decline in the quality of education as a whole. For students of other nations to say the US is so good at what they are doing, this allows people to become more content knowing that the US is being praised by foreign exchange students. The best part about US education is that colleges are better than high schools which is the opposite of the Chinese. Having colleges that receive such high prestige, Harvard, MIT, Yale, this allows people to truly see US education for what it's worth. If the US benefits so much from welcoming foreign students, the US should keep pursuing foreign students to ensure that the US economy can be stable. This is crucial as we are in an era when the economy is very fickle.



http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-12-08-1Achinesestudents08_CV_N.htm

The Civil Exam System

Given that our group did a report on the civil exams, I feel like we weren't able to say enough about them. I wanted to talk about that and talk about how the Gaokao is a different version of the civil exams.
The website was filled with a ton of information on the civil exams. Included on the website was the effect of the civil exams on the people. The exams were mentally breaking because it took a certain special individual to pass the exam. There might even have been people who passed by way of cheating. With the amount of time the exams took, it is obvious that many people would have to cheat to pass the exam. It must have been a struggle to pass while cheating. While the exams covered a lot of information, I feel that it was justified to give special clothing to the people who passed the test. The government job was one of the highest positions a person could have so to get into a job means the person holds a lot of prestige. To hold a position in government based on a test is not very wise. It takes a lot more than passing a test to serve the people; the test is based off of governmental deeds but a position in government is more about passing a test. But, that was the case when those tests were prevalent and I can't argue that. There is great reason for abolishing the exams and that's why they were abolished. However, I feel the abolishment was short-lived because the Gaokao seems like another relative version of the former civil exams. The Gaokao puts so much pressure on the students today that there are so many people committing suicide due to the all-or-nothing mentality that the Gaokao puts on the students. With the Gaokao, many people prepare their whole life to have the prestige of gaining access to one of China's top universities. Many people won't pass and it's not because they don't know the information. Many will fail because of the pressure; many will fail because the amount of time it takes to prepare can be mentally breaking. While people are studying a lot, it's the amount of time that produces a burn-out effect on the students. So, while the civil exams were abolished, the Gaokao needs a refining direction because the exam asks too much of the children.






http://www.sacu.org/examinations.html

2 Million Minutes

2MM was the film we watched in class last week; I have some things to say about it because it was an enjoyable documentary. The blog I wrote was sort of a review and an analysis simultaneously. The blog ended up with two questions; "how do we live?" and "how do we want to live?" were the two questions of focus. USA doesn't seem to do justice for these questions but China and India have answered these questions and it shows because the two nations are driven. China and India have shown they want to make a difference and they want to succeed more than any other nation in the world. They both put in an excess amount of hours to studying and they end up with what they want, success. Even though USA doesn't always exhibit this style, they do end up with success as well, just in a different pattern.

2 Million Minutes was a good film to watch. Regardless of anyone's occupation, it is a must see for everyone. It's definitely something that changes my views of the three nations, not necessarily in a bad way. I just wanted to point out some of the differences that can contribute to success of a nation. China has the one child rule and that allows a family to focus on one child instead of focusing on more than one which can happen in the USA. The USA might lack effective studying habits but the students catch on more quickly because of their self confidence in which they exhibit a good amount of success. India is a close knit nation and that contributes to the success because the parents are always there to remind the student of what their goals are. 2MM allows us to sit back and reflect on the issue and establish a viewpoint. Do I feel the USA needs to step up? Not necessarily. The USA does have an advantage and the advantage is our ability to have more freedom of choice. Not every student is going to dedicate their life to school because many have other aspirations of the types of life they will live. If we start seeing a drought with our success in regards to the smarter students, then the USA will need to worry more about establishing success. We are successful in many more aspects of life not limited to being an engineer and the like. We have the movie business, which is the greater than any other movie business of any other nation. I'm bias in that aspect, but it is true. We have the music business, which is full of success. We have many other aspects of life that are integrated into other nation's because of our success in certain areas that other nation's lack. In class, the instructor said the main reason why many people would like to see more people working in high demand, high paying, jobs is the fact that these people would be paid less. Just because we don't have as many engineers that China or India has, doesn't mean we aren't the best in the world. Our number one engineer might be better than over half of China's or India's engineers so that plays a factor into that aspect as well. Not only that, but China is bigger than the USA, therefore China has more of an opportunity to have more engineers than the USA does. Maybe China has too much emphasis on school and not enough emphasis on play. Too much work and not enough play can bring down success for some people and that might not be healthy for everyone. In the US, there are so many people working a part time job on top of their school studies; the students in the US might even have other extracurricular activities in addition to their already booked workload. In all, I'm happy with the way things are at this time because students in America are given more freedom and more of an opportunity for self expression compared to the other two nations. Until we lose our edge over other nations, this includes many jobs besides engineering or being a doctor, we can feel comfortable with our success and keep on doing what we've been doing. If we start losing that edge, then the USA will need to get into gear and exhibit more effective methods of establishing success.




http://www.matthewktabor.com/2007/11/06/two-million-minutes-a-global-examination/

School Voucher Debate Riles Minnesota Senate

The blog consisted mainly of the voucher school process and it detailed how Minnesota is following Arizona's system regarding voucher money. The law states it is unconstitutional to take taxpayer money to pay for private schools given that many private schools are religiously based. Now, Minnesota implemented the possibility of eliminating the large tax breaks so the poor can withhold some of their money and stay in a healthy zone in regards to income. "We need to put more emphasis on public schools instead of putting taxpayer money into private schools," a Minnesota Senator said. And this is for good reason. This process allows the poorer families more of an opportunity in education. "Taxpayer dollars are advancing religion at this time," The Minnesota senator said again. The issue is whether or not public education is taking a fall because private schools have many loopholes to replenish the money a family puts into tuition to have a child go to a private/religious school. The result, a 5-4 win to allow tax breaks for families that put money into private schools; in essence, the families end up with more money because every dollar that goes into school is given back to those families.

I couldn't find any blog in total relation to voucher schools so I found this blog on google blogs. I don't support Minnesota's decision to protect the families that put money into private schools because those schools are based on religion and not every tax payer is in support of religion. The major issue is that public dollars are going back to the families who favor religion and that is not what the system should be; Arizona was said to be the model that Minnesota wants to follow. The taxpayer dollars that advance religion is taking away from any advancement that public schools can gain. It's not a good system to take away from the public schools when they are the norm in society. Minnesota needs to model a new system of using taxpayer dollars and that system should not be for the advancement of religion but, the system should advance public schools in every way possible. The main reason I feel so strongly about my viewpoint is because not every one favors religion and the people who don't favor religion would not want their money going towards religion; some people don't even know where their money is going and they might rather have their money go towards something else, public education that has no religious affiliation.





http://minnesotaindependent.com/79883/school-voucher-debate-riles-minnesota-senate

NCLB reformed to improve success

The blog was titled "How to Overhaul NCLB to Help Schools Improve: Implement Common Elements of Success." This article focused on NCLB's fallbacks and its lack of effective implementation in the classroom. It's obvious that students with low SES are falling behind and it's those students who need more of the attention. They need the extra attention because they might not have that support system at home in order to effectively get schoolwork done. The parents of low SES children don't necessarily help out at home and it's those students who need extra attention. The article gave five elements to implement in the school so teachers can teach lifelong knowledge and not test knowledge. Leadership, instructional improvement, curriculum, climate, and parent and community involvement and support all outline the elements that are needed to be implemented into the classroom to effectively achieve true success of the students. Students expect to learn for the test and the students slack as a result because they cram right before the tests in which students might forget information on that test. On standardized tests, there's no real outline to study so students are not as likely to succeed on standardized tests if they normally cram because standardized tests cover too wide of a range of topics to be able to cram and know most of the questions. The five elements seem to be effective because leadership is a big element that students don't necessarily experience. Many teachers solely lecture their students and they don't talk about the life aspect of knowledge or the fun of knowledge and students don't feel supported in return. Students need effective community support because people are more likely to do well in school if they feel the support not only of their family, but of the community. Community support goes a long way and I will give an example using sports. The fans make up the community of support. The team who receives a big fan base are more likely to succeed if they are receiving that community support because that heightens the team's emotions which each player feels. Having the community support gives a mental edge to the team with the greater amount of support. The climate element is an essential element because this sets the mentality for the students. Climate is basically setting high expectations for the students to succeed. If the students don't have high expectations in the classroom, they are likely to slack and in turn do poorly in school. All five elements need to be collaborative to achieve the 100 percent proficiency goal in 2014. While tests should not be stressed, it should be the lifelong knowledge aspect that students need to learn. Having expectations  in lifelong knowledge allows students to achieve the should-be goal of NCLB.




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-m-ratner/how-to-overhaul-nclb-to-h_b_839130.html

School Funding for Equal Opportunity

     The summary of the blog is as follows: the man wrote a letter to the governor to ensure the students upstate don't get a cut in their funding for schooling. He noted it was important to create an equal opportunity of schooling and he noted that it is not the people who should be at fault of where they live to take a cut in funding.

     He makes a very good point by giving an equal opportunity of schooling. This is the dream that many people have come up with--equal opportunity in schools. Regardless of SES or where you live, Horace Mann felt it was a necessity to give equal schooling. Without that, you won't do the USA much justice. After all, it is the people who are in school now who will eventually take over as leaders of this country. Do people really want future leaders to have a limited education? I wouldn't assume they would want future leaders to have limited education opportunities but rather the opposite. It is essential that students with lower SES be given more of an opportunity because they are the ones who lack that experience and mindset that people with the higher SES already obtain. I believe the students with a high SES already have that knowledge base of the school system so it would be feasible to taper off some of their funding and donate that to schools with students of lower SES;  it would be essential to those schools with low SES because that would aide the teachers in giving a better education to the students. The students need all of the opportunities they can because they lack nearly everything that wealthier people have. The wealthy have all of the better opportunities whereas the poor have worse opportunities. Students shouldn't be held accountable for their parents' lack of education and wealth because they are the ones who are given a second shot for the parents who have a limited amount of wealth. The wealthy children are just going to become more wealthy all because of what their parents have achieved; this gives little opportunity to the poor. I keep talking about the wealthy and poor because I can't stress enough how difficult it is for a poor student to maintain that support system along with keeping a good GPA and maintaining good test scores. Poor students need more of an opportunity to succeed and that is where funding is crucial. If people give more funding to the schools with less money, those who do won't be sorry they did because they will see an increase in progress until the students start achieving more than they have before.









http://thebatavian.com/howard-owens/hawley-calls-governor-ensure-equal-school-funding-rural-and-urban-districts/24763

Charter Schools

In this article, the issue is the Maryland district won't okay two charter schools. The result is the journalist thought the Maryland school district was fearful of the possible charter schools. The goal of one of the charter schools was to increase education for the poorer students. That seems like a harmless act. If the Maryland school district is in fear of the charter schools, I could see why. A reason could be the fact that it appeals to students who are less fortunate. Another reason for this fear could be the Maryland school district sees a charter school as competition. I can understand that since this nation is competing to find jobs. However, people should appreciate the ambition of the charter school teachers. On the wikipedia site, it stated that there is a waiting list for students and the charter schools only accept a certain amount of students. In that sense, this goes against Mann's policy of providing education for all, regardless of race, social class, and wealth. Charter schools might be a good alternative to public schooling but it doesn't give itself any merit by hand picking who students who get accepted into the school. There are slight changes which doesn't quite hurt the image of charter schools. While I was raised in a public school manner, I am in favor of public schools because I was brought up in that manner. It seems like a hierarchy in schools is needed but that reasoning is due to the fact of the context I was brought up with.
While charter schools might be viewed as a competitor for the public school system, people should look at the greater cause of charter schools. The charter schools are motivated to educate students, just as the public school is motivated to educate students. People should appreciate that charter schools and public schools are there to educate future job holders.


Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/15/AR2011021504469.html