UK school shows merits of Chinese teaching methods

THE BBC DOCUMENTARY Are Our Kids Tough Enough, which filmed an experiment in which five Chinese teachers taught 50 children at a school in the United Kingdom with the teaching methods used in China, has sparked heated debate about whether Chinese or Western teaching methods are better. Comments:

Apart from the cultural differences between China and the UK which led to conflicts in class, another reason for such a debate is the difference in educational purposes: excelling in exams versus cultivating the person. However, such a debate is in essence meaningless. What China should do is to draw lessons from the emphasis on the cultivation of comprehensive qualities in British education to elevate the quality of its elementary education, while the UK students could learn the merits of diligence from their Chinese counterparts.

Guangming Daily, Aug 6