Although Kuang-Ye is only in sixth grade, I need to consider his high school very soon. A Chinese middle school student has asked me how to apply for a high school in the US. Many readers of my column who are parents may also be planning ahead for their children, hoping to send them to the US to attend a high school, in order to avoid the misery of the Chinese education system.
There are eight special high schools in New York City. In order to attend one of these special high schools, students must pass the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT). After some investigation of the high schools in New York City, I am somewhat unsure about which one would be good for Kuang-Ye.
Of the Chinese American parents I know, most consider these special high schools to be the best choices for Chinese children, without question. And almost all of the Chinese children I know attend these high schools. I strongly feel that although the Chinese Americans have left China, they still hold on to some extent to the terrible Chinese view of education. The idea is that their children must enter the gifted classes in primary schools, enter the special high schools for the high school, and then enter a good university to study trade, investment, or finance, the fields where you can earn a lot of money after graduation. A Chinese American girl once told her mother that she wanted to become a philosophy professor, but faced her mother's relentless ridicule. I told a friend that Kuang-Ye liked the history of the United States and in the future he might study history. She was surprised and asked: "A historian? What will he live on?" Under the constant badgering by their tiger moms and wolf dads, the children work hard for their Mom and Dad's get-rich ideal. These special high schools have become the weapon of oppression of Chinese parents against their children.
In September 2012, the New York Times (Charges of Bias in Admission Test Policy at Eight Elite Public High Schools) reported that several New York education and human rights groups sent a joint petition to the Department of Education of the U.S. federal government. The letter alleged that the kind of exam such as SHSAT almost completely excluded black and Hispanic children from the special high schools. The lawyer of the NAACP's Legal Defence and Education Fund said that despite 70% black and Hispanic children attend public schools in New York City, only a few children were admitted to these schools. For example, the top New York High School Stevenson High has only 17 blacks among its 967 freshmen. How could there be only so few outstanding black students? There certainly was discrimination.
These schools have been using an exam only approach to screen potential new students for decades, although there had always been objections from the public. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg supports this approach, stating that these schools are designed for the best and brightest kids.
The Department of Education accepted the petition letter and said that it would investigate. New York City Department of Education official said that in order to promote ethnic diversity in these schools, they have offered special free tutorial classes for children from low-income families to prepare for the exam.
Human rights groups say such exams lead to inter-ethnic barriers, and there is no data to show that test scores can be linked with the future success of the students. Fordham University's principal said the schools in New York City were the only ones in the country that only use test scores as the standard for enrolment, while other schools use criteria including the students’ own letters, recommendation letters from the teachers, essays and interviews.
I really hope that this situation will change. In these special schools, Asian, mainly ethnic Chinese American children, account for 60% -80% of the students. Is this better for the Chinese American children? I really do not think that this is a good thing.
Education is a complex, multi-faceted nurturing process of a human being, but an exam is the simplest and the most cursory method to screen students. American Chinese and Mainland Chinese alike tend to be very able to adapt to the simplest way, but they neglect the deeper goal of education, which is to develop our children into well-rounded, happy and independent individuals. If we send them on a road that looks like a shortcut today, in the future not only the society will be missing a needed comprehensive talented citizen, the children will also lose the spirit of seeking knowledge, exploring unknown, creating new ideas, independent personality, and even a happy life. The concept of this kind of education is very short sighted, akin to making a quick buck type thinking. For example, that girl who hopes to become a philosophy professor, but instead will be forced to study finance under her mother’s pressure, and she will not be happy. I will definitely let Kuang-Ye study what he likes, and work in a field that is from his inner calling.
The Chinese approach to prepare for such exams is to attend tutorial sessions and cram for the exams. This is contrary to the original intention of the establishment of these special schools. The real purpose of these schools was to let real bright children study there. If after attending high-intensity tutorial sessions, a child’s test scores improve; it does not mean that the child has become a genius who can handle the type of high-intensity teaching offered in these schools. And if the child cannot adapt, then the desire for learning will wear off. The Caucasian parents have seen the drawbacks of such exams. While Chinese parents force their children to cram for these exams, Caucasian parents have abandoned this mode, and quietly returned to their traditional school model. There are a lot of Caucasian kids went to private schools that are able to keep the traditional mode of teaching. In predominantly white districts, the public schools usually take an integrated approach to the admission of students, and provide traditional teaching methods, to ensure a well-rounded development of the children.
In order to be admitted to a special high school, almost every ethnic Chinese child would attend the high-intensity tutorial sessions. Some children start from the 8th grade, some even start from elementary school. Because of these tutorial sessions, Chinese children perform better in school, but may also lose time for other activities, such as entertainment, social interactions, and physical exercise. While Caucasian children are learning leadership skills and enjoying a better youth, unhappy Chinese “nerds” are studying in the classroom. This is not fair to the children, but Chinese parents cause it.
The Chinese also caused more unfairness for their children. As the test scores for Chinese children rise, in order to maintain racial balance and the diversity of the campus, colleges cannot admit too many ethnic Chinese, so ethnic Chinese applicants need to have much higher scores than other ethnic groups in order to be admitted to college. For example the mathematics score needs to be more than 10 percentage higher than whites, and more than 20 percentage higher than blacks or Hispanics. This leads to a vicious cycle in which Chinese children have to pay more sweat, spend more time to learn, in order to achieve higher grades. Consequently, Chinese children who already have poor social ability, leadership skills, and physical fitness, will become even weaker in these areas. After they graduate from college, white children tend to become leaders, but Chinese children will forever be the hired class.