It’s a culture clash, all right, and one that leaves parents on both sides anxious. The Chinese parents at my children’s British-style, international school in Beijing have exactly the opposite fears about their national school system from yours. Their worry is the cost of the Asian triumph in maths exams.

Confucian attitudes to authority mean schools nurture outstanding discipline, and an awe-inspiring ability to memorise facts, figures and theorems…

The personal cost is great, too. The parents I spoke to were concerned about their children being competitive. Their children, in some cases, were worried about their health and sanity, as they worked harder and harder to meet the ever more competitive examination requirements…

It’s a neat symmetry. I have often wondered why a happy medium, of rigorous, Chinese-style inculcation of the basics at primary level, followed by western-style encouragement of self-motivated, critical thought at secondary, is so hard to achieve…

Source: Telegraph.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/04/28/do2802.xml