High scores and high abilities
The United States: "Science students" are not easy to get along after graduation
Perhaps due to the influence of movies and TV dramas, there is a misunderstanding of American students in China , thinking that many American young people don’t like to study, college students are keen on social parties, and fraternities like to drink and talk. In fact, this is just one aspect of American education. From a mainstream perspective, American schools and families still attach great importance to students’ performance. Except for some dandy kids, most Americans regard education as an important investment, and many people apply for grants or take out bank loans in order to go to college. The tuition fee is US$50,000 to US$60,000 per year. If you don't learn something famous, you really can't afford the high cost.
Many fraternities in universities have requirements for GPA (grade point average, which is the system used by most universities to evaluate student performance). If it does not reach 3.5, it is not even qualified to join. In addition, no well-known company is willing to hire students with a C-level average. No reputable university will admit such graduate or undergraduate students. So don’t easily believe that a scumbag can still make a name for himself in American society. Although American college students will not be unemployed after graduation, if their grades are bad, Americans will think that you can only make ends meet, but not have a career future.
In American middle schools and universities where there are so many strong players, people call students who study hard at books and spend all day in the library to get good grades "Grind". The original meaning is grinding, which is what the Chinese often say. "As long as you work hard, an iron rod can be ground into a needle." This type of students spend more time studying, and in the end their hard work pays off.
However, Americans actually appreciate students with excellent overall qualities more than those who are stubborn. This kind of people not only have outstanding achievements, but also have rich work experience. They are active in various activities and can play a leadership role in the organization. They are good at using their time and pay attention to efficiency. They can practice yoga in the gym while reading materials on tablet computers; they can go to the library to play 300 rounds before the exam, and they can also have a drinking binge with their classmates on weekends; they can go to Google and Amazon for internships, and Volunteer for your church on the weekends; get straight A's in all your subjects; and make tens of thousands of dollars using a summer program.
It can be said that American academic excellence starts with high scores but does not end with high scores. Creativity and leadership are necessary conditions for an outstanding student to enter society. Google founder Larry Page is a high-scoring graduate of Stanford University, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is one of the graduates with the highest GPA in the history of Princeton University. Chinese people like to mention Bill Gates, who dropped out of Harvard to start his own business. In fact, his SAT scores were up to today's academic standards: his total score in mathematics and Chinese was 1,600, and he scored 1,590. In the eyes of Americans, this is called domineering. (Global Times special correspondent in the United States Wang Hai)
South Korea: Half of the members of Congress are "study gods"
In South Korea, people like to call them "study bugs" and "study gods" Students who love learning and excel. In the Korean College Entrance Examination [Weibo] held at the end of last year, there were 33 perfect scorers. One of them was a girl from a foreign language high school in South Jeolla Province. People praised her as the "god of study" among the "gods of study". In South Korea, prestigious high schools such as foreign language high schools, science and technology high schools, and international schools are generally regarded as the base camps for "students". Only the top students who pass the "high school entrance examination [microblog] single-plank bridge" can enter such high schools. The atmosphere on campus is also quite "academic-seeking". It is not a new thing to see students carrying suitcases to school, because these "study-savvy" students need to be accompanied by a large number of textbooks and reference books, and ordinary suitcases are not enough.
Similar to China, Koreans attach great importance to test scores. Studying hard to get into the three major universities (Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Korea University) and famous foreign universities is the highest goal. In college, top students can generally maintain their good habit of studying hard, and it is not difficult to find a good job after graduation. Lee Hae-jin and Lee Jae-woong, the founders of South Korea's two major portals, NAVER and DAUM, graduated from the Computer Science Department of Seoul National University and Yonsei University respectively. These two IT tycoons are both "gods of learning" who change their destiny through learning.
"Academic society" in South Korea is a collective term for "the relationship between academic qualifications and family status".
Academic elites will form a "circle" exclusive to them. If children from poor families want to enter this "circle", they can only achieve "status promotion" through study. Someone made statistics in October 2013. Among the 298 members of the Korean National Assembly, 81 graduated from Seoul National University, the highest university. The rest are Korea University (25 people), Yonsei University (23 people), and Sungkyunkwan University (22 people). Politicians who graduated from these four prestigious universities account for 50.7% of the total number of members of the National Assembly. The most representative one is the current mayor of Ulsan, Kim Ki-hyun (who was elected to the National Assembly for three consecutive terms). Kim Ki-hyun, who graduated from Seoul National University, only slept an average of 4 hours a day during school. After years of studying hard, he finally passed the extremely difficult judicial examination, successfully entered the judicial system, and gradually embarked on an official career. Even after being elected as a member of the parliament, Kim Ki-hyun was still known as the "god of learning". He often traveled around with information to understand public opinion and submitted legal bills based on these survey information. Today, he still keeps his hands on the book and practices "live and learn".
As of now, when major Korean companies recruit employees, they cannot break the "academic elite" concept. Which school they graduated from and what diploma they obtained almost determine whether they will be hired or not. Yonhap News Agency previously reported that a research organization conducted a survey titled "Characteristics of Happy Young People" among 2,514 Korean young people around the age of 27 in the first half of this year. The results show that the more highly educated and well-off young people are, the happier they are. The "family" here refers to the school you graduated from. For example, among the same group of people with a bachelor's degree from a four-year university, young people who graduated from prestigious universities are more likely to feel happier. Analysts say that in Korean society, which attaches great importance to academic qualifications and family status, whether young people can find a satisfactory job depends largely on the above two factors. This also coincides with the saying, "Young people who don't strive to be the god of learning will only be sad if they are old."
For those Koreans who criticize the "one test determines life" system and the concept of "academic elite", the following data may be the best rebuttal. In the ten years from 1998 to 2007, among the elites who successfully entered the judicial system through the judicial examination, 65.5% of them graduated from Seoul National University, Yonsei University and Korea University. You know, the judicial examination does not depend on which school you graduated from, but treats all candidates equally. Therefore, Koreans who advocate "elite education" believe that it is not the fault of the "academic elite" concept that hinders your dream of employment. The real constraint is that "you do not pay as much as others." (Global Times special correspondents in South Korea Zeng Xin and Jin Huizhen)
India: Both fighting for one’s father and “fighting for oneself”
On the topic of academic dominance, a reporter from the Global Times interviewed To Ms. Preeti, Vice Principal of Rabindranath Tagore School in India. The school implements a 12-year consistent education system and is quite famous in India. Ms. Preity believes that, like China, education in India in ancient times was mainly based on recitation, and today's education is also affected. Children with excellent memory and good at recitation often achieve excellent results and become what people call academic masters.
Traditionally, when defining academic masters in India, they often only look at academic performance, rather than comprehensive qualities such as sports and art. The situation has changed in recent years. In advanced schools like Tagore School that are in line with international standards, the method of evaluating students has become more comprehensive. School activity, personal influence, and scores in sports, music, art and other courses are also included in the evaluation system. occupies a certain proportion.
Since ancient times, India has been rich in wise men and philosophers, such as Buddha Sakyamuni. Today's India also follows this tradition, with many precocious academics emerging. Akrit Jaiswal, known as the "smartest boy in the world", passed the secondary school graduation examination with honors when he was 11 years old and entered Punjab University to study, becoming the youngest college student in India. In terms of traditional culture and religious customs, Indians recognize and advocate the theory of gifted children. They believe that the special talents of geniuses are gifts from God. The Indian education department has opened a "School for Gifted Children" specifically for extraordinary children aged 9 to 16, and conducts unified examinations across the country in February every year. There are currently about 600 "schools for gifted children" across the country, and about 20,000 students attend these schools every year.
The "Father of India's Missile" Kalam and "The Father of India's Economic Reform" Singh both had excellent academic performance in school.
After entering their careers, they have made achievements in different fields such as education, scientific research, and politics. But this does not mean that in India, only by studying well can you gain a foothold in society. Many celebrities in politics and business were unknown when they were in school. For example, the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi's performance is very average, and he can only excel in debates. Tata, the founder of the Indian business giant Tata Group, did not have a brilliant student career. He followed his father to Mumbai to make a living at the age of 14.
Ms. Preity told reporters that India is very similar to China in terms of education, with students facing heavy pressure from college entrance examinations and employment. As educators, teachers in both countries should protect children's creativity and enthusiasm for learning and try not to imprison their nature.
Kumar, who teaches at a university, told the Global Times reporter that in India, family conditions and social relationships are of vital importance, and many political and business families inherit their father's business from son to son. A survey shows that more than 80% of members of parliament at all levels in India are second-generation officials. Relatively speaking, if children from ordinary backgrounds want to get ahead, outstanding academic performance and obtaining a good diploma are often the basic conditions. After entering a career, emotional intelligence is even more important than IQ.
But there are exceptions. Suhas Gopinath, a Bangalore boy known as the world's youngest CEO, is a "student master" who counterattacks. Suhas learned to create websites when he was 13 years old, and established his own software outsourcing company when he was 14 years old. Although his high school entrance examination results were very poor, the company became a success and is now a multinational company worth tens of millions of dollars. However, Suhas' family firmly believes in the importance of orthodox education. At the suggestion of his parents, Suhas is currently returning to college to study engineering. But what troubled Suhas was that those top students all called him "sir" and rushed to take photos with him and ask for his autograph. (Global Times Special Correspondent Zhang Xiaozhu)
Germany: Not only judging heroes by scores
Hu Leerman, a social science scholar at the University of Bielefeld in Germany, told a reporter from the Global Times, German universities used to offer undergraduate and master's degree programs in conjunction with each other. There was no limit on how many semesters you could study for graduation, and there were a lot of "bad students". Many students are still in college at 35 years old. After the reform of universities in the past few years, the number of "academic tyrants" began to increase again.
“The top academics in German universities generally refer to students who spend all their time studying.” Hüllermann said that generally speaking, schools and society have a positive attitude towards such top academics. Of course, top academics also have gains and losses. A survey shows that two-thirds of German top academics suffer from symptoms such as anxiety and insomnia.
Many of Germany’s leaders from all walks of life are top academics at universities, such as the founders of the prosperous online shoe store Charando. However, many bosses of large companies did not stand out in college, or even went to college. It can be said that Germans never compare the development of "students" and "scumbags". They believe that there is no necessary connection between performance in school and development in society, so this is a false proposition.
Interestingly, three top academics in Germany were sued by their schools for "learning too fast." These three people completed 60 exams in just 20 months, taking only 1/4 of the time of normal students. The three people worked together, listened to different courses, and then exchanged notes. In this way, they completed the learning tasks in advance. They even have extra energy to do internships in banks. The school believes that these top students violated school rules and must pay tuition fees of 3,000 euros each. Fortunately, both sides shook hands and made peace in the end. After graduation, the three people published a book introducing the process and experience of becoming a top student, which was recommended by major media. Hu Leerman said: "German universities have a credit system, and memory alone is not enough. If someone learns quickly, that is true talent and learning, and they should be respected and recognized by society."