Differences of the Elementary Education Between China and America

I. IntroductionA.Different emphases of Chinese and American elementary educationSchool, as the second class in a child 's growth, plays an important role in one 's life. However, according to the differences lying in the different situation, different countries have different education systems. Chinese and American education systems attract more and more attention due to their geographic, political and economic significance in the world. What is more interesting, as two of the biggest countries in the world, the similarities of their ways of education can be counted on one 's fingers and we can relatively easily find their distinction especially on the elementary education ground.

Everything is two-sided. Both Chinese education and American education have their advantages and disadvantages. Here, I 'd like to view on some of them, not exclusive, to explore the helpful elements which can give us some of the advice. As a result of the concepts of the two peoples towards the definition of talent student are dissimilar, the elementary education differs a lot from each other. Although almost every parent as well as every government regards their children as the hope of the future, the success of every individual in their mind is varied. Old Chinese has a saying that the most pleasant moment in one 's life is nothing better than to be selected as the Number One Scholar and the moment of wedding night. Thus it can be seen that to be well-known or to be a high-ranking official is one 's best way to fulfill one 's value. This attitude has been deeply affecting Chinese people in their field of their cultivating their offspring. This can explain why many parents and teachers take entering college as their children or students ' only way out for their survival. Different from Chinese, American seems to be more practical. As a nation with a short history and an immigrant country, Americans are famous for their American dream. "And the influence on the education shows that the impact of the nation 's rapid racial and ethnic transformation on the pursuit of all of these goals, and they propose ways to make public education work better to help all children succeed and become the citizens the America need." (Hochschild and Scovronick) They lay more emphasis on the child 's spirit of creativity. The American children are taught to realize the values of working. They learn to manage money matters, earn their livings from the very young age. It is not uncommon that sons and daughters of presidents and ministers wash dishes in fast-food restaurants. If one relies on his parents too much, he won 't take it for granted, on the contrary, he will be teased by others.

B. Different views of scholarsWhich teaching mechanism is better? Obviously, this question cannot be simply answered. Maybe some ideas of the great educators ' will help. Many scholars hold different views on education. For example, the American psychologist, Robert Sternberg mentioned the latest view on education, that is to take advantage of the constructive and purposeful inner strength which is gradually developed in one 's life, including experiences, general knowledge and the ability of observing and thinking, and only this progress could make one succeed and grow successfully. Just as Daniel Goleman said, "That one can succeed is not decided by whether his IQ is high or not, on the other hand, his own EQ is the most important quality for one 's success."(Chen 68) And some of Chinese educators insist on solid foundation and extensive learning is just the key point for one 's future. Nowadays, both Chinese and American educators focus on the differences between Chinese and American education system and try to get a more advanced education mechanism, which can power children 's ability in their future. For instance, many well-known teachers from all over the world went abroad to exchange the teaching experiences. Furthermore, the elementary school education plays the most important educational role in the range of the world in education, and there are great differences lie in the education system, especially in the public schools.

II. Culture and value differenceA. Background of Chinese educationAs is known to all, the quality education rising at the intersection of the two centuries is the great event of modern education. It not only arouses great interests by American scholars, but the Chinese educators. Either of the two countries is trying to seek a more proper education system which match their own situation of the country.

China is a great country with long culture history. In the range of education, Confucianism influenced the Chinese education for thousands of years. As a famous educationalist, Kung Fu Tzu found the Confucianism. He was born in 551 BC in the state of Lu (modern day Shandong Province). He lived during the Chou Dynasty, an era known for its moral laxity. Later in life he wandered through many states of China, giving advice to their rulers. His idea is influential and persuasive:He accumulated a small band of students during this time. The last years of his life were spent back in Lu, where he devoted himself to teaching. His writings deal primarily with individual morality and ethics, and the proper exercise of political power by the rulers. In China, and some other areas in Asia, the social ethics and moral teachings of Confucianism are blended with the Taoist communion with nature and Buddhist concepts of the afterlife, to form a set of complementary, peacefully co-existence. (http://www.religioustolerance.org/confuciu.htm)Unfortunately, deeply as the Confucianism influenced the Chinese education, some of the school education cannot take the great idea flexibly. Confucianism lays emphasis on honesty, promise and sincerity. It is showed that Confucianism made many great people, for instance, Guan Yu, Yue Fei and so on. The sincere, honesty and promise that Confucianism stressed take not only the positive but also the negative effect. It can act as the dominating thoughts in our country 's ancient age, mainly for its united function to learners, so as to benefit the government. Students in China lay emphasis on venerability for teachers and to receive absolutely teacher 's instruction. This situation does good to keep classes in order, impart knowledge to students and keep the teacher 's authority. Teachers and students ' relation reflects the thoughts of feudal hierarchy, and make students in the passive position. Whatever, the fact still remains that Confucianism alone has been the most powerful shaping factor in the cultural maturity of the Chinese nation. It has, through the centuries, for better or for worse, burned its way into the very fabric of Chinese social life, and way down into the Chinese consciousness, so that even the most incorruptible anti-Confucianists cannot escape its influence. Such is the force of a tradition that one tends to realize, however slowly, that one will do better to make a pact with it and "give the devil its due".

Nowadays the traditional thoughts in ancient education are deep-rooted and strongly influence the current education system by its side effect. Developed as the society is, the human relationship is more important than before, and the public relationship is the key point in the market economy. However, teachers in schools still insist on not listening to the happenings outside of window, but keeping on studying the books. This should drop behind the situation. In effect, our traditional education doesn 't fight against the public relationship at all. For instance, the scholar of Ming Dynasty, Gu Xiancheng had a piece of couplet in his academy of classical learning, " Sounds of wind, rain and reading, all can be found. Affairs of families, states and all over the world, everything should be cared about." It is obvious that Confucianism also lays emphasis on students ' concerning about great events and development of society.

Today some of educators advocate that we should run some so called " Close-managing schools" and "Aristocratic schools", and try to separate students from the outside world. They think this can make students concentrate on study. In fact, it is fault thoroughly, moreover it not only weaken the students ' social applicant ability and but run against the rule of learning. (Ye 133-134)On the other side, in our country, parents ' high expectation on marks result in a high pressure on children. In China, Chinese parents prefer high press education, and that is whatever children do lies on their parents ' willingness. "Many families can sufficiently provide the children 's material needs but ignore the mental thirsty, especially when their children reach the age of puberty, it is even harder to exchange the ideas with each other." (Chen 83) Furthermore, every time we step into a Chinese house, no matter the size of the house is, there always be "a large furniture", that is the piano. Is it necessary that each family have a piano? Of course not! That is because the Chinese people have a tendency of comparison with others. Others ' children were all learning to play the piano, why not our children do? But if our children don 't do this, isn 't there any inferiority to others? "Maybe parents hope their children to learn to play piano, because they have no chance to learn it. Children are forced to play, does it really achieve the parents ' dreams? The answer is very simple ' No '."(7-8) It is just as Americans love sports, if one day more Chinese people love sports too, perhaps those piano-players are forced to become athletes!There is a statistics of the year 2000 about the American Asian teenagers ' suicide. In America, the rate of American Chinese teenagers ' suicide was the highest of any other countries. What led to this result? The reason is very simple. The Chinese parents ' expectation on children is much higher than any other countries '. "Others ' children can be the first to step into the university of famous brand, so do ours!" "Although some of Chinese parents work in the restaurants, clothing factories, their expectation on children is still higher and higher. For those children who managed to pass the exams, they are forced to get full marks, and this makes them lose their self-determination." (Chen 10-11) Once they could not fulfill their parents ' expectation, the only survival for them is internal damage. To be more specific, what the Asian parents only care is the result rather than the procedure. Only if their kids get full marks, no matter how, by cheating or lying, they will never concern. Maybe this can explain why the phenomenon of cheating in the exams becomes more serious in certain areas of China. What do they cheat for? The main reason for this is to attain their parents ' appreciation and approval.

B. Background of American educationWhat is very similar with Chinese Confucianism is American Puritanism. As we know, Puritanism plays an essential part in American 's life. The field of education is not an exception. The settlement of the North American continent by the English began in the early part of the 17th century. The first settles who became the founding fathers of the American nation were quite a few of them Puritans. "They came to America out of various reasons, but it should be remembered that they were a group of serious, religious people, advocating highly religious and moral principles." (Chang 15) They carried with them to America a code of values, a philosophy of life, a point of view which, in time, took root in the New World and became what is popularly known as American Puritanism. "A dominant factor in American life, American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American education." (15) It has become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, rather than a set of tenets, so much a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the American breathes, that we may state with a degree of safety that, without some understanding of Puritanism, there can be no real understanding of America and its education. "The American Puritans, like their brothers back in England, were idealists, believing that the Church should be restored to the 'purity ' of the first-century Church as established by Jesus Christ Himself. To them religion was a matter of primary importance." (15-16) They made it their chief business to see that man lived and thought and acted in a way which tended to the glory of God:They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement (or the salvation of a selected few) through a special infusion of a grace from God, all that John Calvin(1509-1564), the great theologian who lived in Geneva, had preached. It was this kind of religious belief that they brought with them into the wilderness. There they meant to prove that they were God 's chosen people enjoying His blessings on this earth as in heaven. In the grim struggle for survival that followed immediately after their arrival in America, the character of the people underwent a significant change. Pushing the frontiers with them as they moved further and further westward, they became more and more preoccupied with business and profits. They became, in a word, more practical, as indeed they had to be. The very severity of frontier conditions taught the American Puritans were an admirable group of people is not really saying much. A doctrinaire opportunist came perhaps nearest to the American Puritan ideal for man. (15-16)Under the influence of Puritanism, the Americans break the formed frame of education and seeking for freedom. They follow the rules of American dream. American dream is the belief held by American people who believed that through hard working everyone can become successful even from a very humble beginning. Different from China, America is a newly rising emigrated country with only 200 years ' history. At the time the United States was a colonial country, the first group of people arrived at the new land were refugees and prisoners. When they started their new life, they attempted at new teaching method in order to cultivate their later generation. At that time, all those who arrived at the new land had known the significance of their offspring 's learning, and their original intention was even only to teach them how to read and write without a considerate plan. But because of the combination of all kinds of languages, the old way of teaching could not correspond with the complexity of current American society. "Today, American education has developed a lot and broken through the cord of traditional teaching obviously, and created a lot of creative and attractive teaching technique, which can improve students ' learning ability." (Walklardy 3)American parents, unlike Chinese, give their kids more room to grow. Guided by the practical notion, they tend to educate their kids to fulfill their own values. They won 't save a large sum of money, like most of the Chinese parents, for the use of their college education and marriage. If they do so, they always regard it as a gift to their sons or daughters, not a responsibility they have to take. This idea leads the American children to learn to be independent from the very young age. "The fittest, the survival." The parents teach the children to realize the importance of hardworking by asking them to deal with their own business within the range they can undertake, and this can help a lot after they grow up. The practical Americans pay more emphasis on heart-to-heart communication nor providing them the material things. One of the famous American educators, Richard L.Evans has ever said, "Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them." Maybe one of the poems I appreciate much written by an American parent can speak sounder of their education ways:……I 'd finger-paint more and more point the finger less.

I 'd do less correcting and more connecting.

I 'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.

I would care to know less and know to care more.

I 'd take more hikes and fly more kites.

I 'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.

I 'd run through more field and gaze at more stars.

I 'd do more hugging and less tugging.

I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.

I 'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.

I 'd teach less about the love of power,and more about the power of love. (Canfield and Hansen 87)III. Difference in education systemsA. Advantages and disadvantages of Chinese education systemWhat plays a more important role on children 's growth is school education. As we all know, the traditional educational mode in China is to match the examination 's need. Teaching in class differs from the American class teaching in the range of quality education. Quality education only takes supplementary effect. But one thing is certain that not only parents and teachers but also the government pay more and more attention to the project of education. Our former president, Deng Xiaoping has ever said, "Gear education to the needs of modernization, the world and the future." However, the traditional notion of examination system is deep-rooted. From the ancient imperial examination to the nowadays ' college entrance examination, the immutable concept has governed the Chinese education system for thousands of years, and this greatly blocked the development of education.

Many Chinese people have such a concept that a good child is a child who follow what the adults ask them to do, a child who can get a full mark in the examination, a child who listen carefully to the teacher on the class, a child who is never naughty and always quiet. This concept helps to produce a lot of top students and high marks, and they are the favorites for parents, the intelligence for teachers and the future for our country. Nevertheless, there is one problem. They are supposed to have a strong will, but the fact is negative. A survey on one hundred and eighty top pupils show as following:There are 86.7 per cent of pupils who worried about losing the trust of teachers.

82.8 per cent of pupils are afraid of being criticized by name.

77.8 per cent of pupils consider the most exciting is showing off themselves.

Pupils who are unwilling to hear they are lack of capacity take 82.8 per cent.

There are 57.2 percent of students who think that only being a cadre can realize their values.

There are 94 percent of students who become a student leader or top student only to get rewards.

There are 52.2 percent of students like to control others because they are good students.

Only 14.4 percent of students regard being a top student or a cadre as serving for others. (Ye 35-36)The "good students" like to be praised, are afraid of being criticized, and most of them are vain. In fact, this is an unusual phenomenon that such feelings easily make one jealous, sensitive and have a vainglorious estimate of one 's ability. Whatever the fact is, everyone wants to be a "good student" that being admired. The children give up their playing time that belongs to their innocent childhood, and engage almost every minute on learning to get high marks. Meanwhile, they lose the chance to practice, which helps a great deal on developing their own creativity. In fact, in the reality, high intelligence does not mean high ability. One American Chinese scientist, Yang Zhenning pointed out that Chinese students study very hard and usually have high IQ. By contrast, their practical ability is relatively weak. That is the high intelligence with poor practice. Chairman Mao once said, " Life has taught me that real knowledge comes from doing rather than from reading how to do." If that applies to life in general, then it certainly applies to learning. Thus in our society, it is of importance to teach students how to solve problems. The ability to deal with problems will determine whether they could succeed or not. As we all know, creativity is the greatest strength all over the world. Without it, human beings might have been as social as any other wild creatures. For example, our country 's Four Great Invention led the whole human being into today 's civilized society, and so far all mankind have benefited from them for thousands of years. A famous writer, Lu Xun had said, "The first who compared ladies to flowers should be a genius, and the second should be a mediocrity, and the third may be a fool." Thus it can be seen, there is such a great difference between the creation and the imitation!And yet it is easy to say but hard to do. Take English class teaching for example, almost every English teacher knows that oral and listening ability play the most important part in teaching. Some informal activities or games not only can help arouse pupils ' interest in learning, but can help the students build a bridge between theory and practice, and they find a great deal of enjoyment in the process. Meanwhile the oral and listening capacity greatly enhanced. The fact is, Chinese teachers apply little this kind of practice since there are large quantity of teaching tasks to finish, that is the students they teach must get high marks. In some schools, students ' results in the examination have become a measurement to judge whether their teachers are good or not. So students have to reside certain part of the texts, they have to remember certain grammar rules, they are forced to do innumerous model tests… Forced-feeding method of teaching is a kind of choiceless! This problems are even worse in senior grades for they have to prepare themselves well to deal with the later examinations of more important in higher schools. And also in order to keep their study well, they have to study outside by joining the training classes which occupy most of their spare time, for if you don 't do so from the very young age, you have little choices when entering a higher school! The difference lay in this aspect from that of American can be seen in a true story that one of my American friends, who is a public school teacher in Texas, told me: " I arrived in my Chinese classroom, ready to share my vast knowledge and experience with the 75 students who would be my English class. Having taught in the United States for 17 years, I had no misgivings about my ability to enthrall my students and instill in them my enthusiasm for the language of my mother tongue. I was startled when the monitor shouted, 'Stand up! ' and the entire class rose as I entered the room, and I was somewhat perplexed about how to get them to sit down again. I used to have my class in an easy-going atmosphere, and even drink coffee or sit on the kids ' desks while teaching! I don 't want my students feel 'pressed ' and my students regard me as their true friends. Such condition makes me a little nervous, but once that awkwardness was over, I quickly regained my composure and launched into what I thought was an interesting class. I try to use easy words and give them more chances to practice. I prepare 'BINGO ' game to improve their listening ability, word recognition and vocabulary, 'CATCH THIS IF YOU CAN ' to increase students ' use of simple sentence, to practice numbers, months or days…By interesting teaching method, I 'm sure to gain their favor-perhaps even admiration. I went back to my room radiating that rosy glow that comes from a sense of significant accomplishment. My student kept journals, however, and as I read them, the rosy glow was gradually replaced by an overwhelming sense of gloom. The first journal said, "our English teacher didn 't teach us anything today but playing games. Maybe next lesson will be better." Dismayed, I read journal after journal, each expressing a similar theme. Didn 't teach them anything?" Perhaps only our Chinese understand why the American teacher puzzled, our students are already accustomed to reciting or memorizing mechanically, and the teacher 's task is tell them what to do or what not to do rather than play with them!Nonetheless, what is encouraging is that Chinese students have a solid knowledge foundation, which helps them to be successful in many fields, such as math, composition competition and so on. China is a great country with more than five thousand years ' civilization, and the Four Great Inventions took a significant contribution to the world history. China never falls behind others in the field of the latest and high technology. It is commonly accepted that China is a people of wit and intelligence. The former American president Clinton has ever said, on the ceremony of celebrating state-establishment for two hundred years, Chinese in America make a great contribution in the cause of science and economy. He said so not for the sake of courtesy, because American-Chinese scientists take one-third proportion in the state laboratories of the United States. Although it is not safe to say Chinese educators can cultivate more high-mark students, it is true that the solid knowledge foundations we get from our elementary education takes effect.

B. Advantages and disadvantages in American education systemThen what kinds of teaching methodology American elementary schools follow? The American teaching model mainly rests on the ideas of American philosopher, John Dewey. Dewey was most influential between 1894 and 1930, but his emphasis on "pragmatism and individualism can still be seen in classrooms of elementary schools across the United States."(Dirksen 62) Although some teachers may not even know his name, most of them still follow his teachings. Dewey taught that "practical application is more important than abstract theory and that students should be treated as distinct individuals rather than as undistinguishable members of a homogeneous group". (62) As a result of these concepts, American teaching has four distinct characteristics:First, instruction is student centered. That is the role of a teacher in the classroom is to facilitate learning by providing information from which students can make their own critical judgments. The information is seen as a means to an end-critical decision-making-rather than as an end in itself. Furthermore, students are encouraged to make "me-centered" responses to information. In other words, they are encouraged to see how the information applies to them personally and to determine what individual use they can make of it. Secondly, American teachers are open to different points of view because knowledge is many-sided and open to a variety of interpretations. Except in science and mathematics classes, teachers often believe that there is more than one correct answer. Teacher 's questions are often interpretive rather than factual, and individuals may have different interpretation within certain limitation. Third, American teachers generally believe that the classroom environment should be comfortable and non-threatening. Positive reinforcement is preferred over criticism, and teachers generally try to be pleasant and approachable. The distance between teachers and students-both physical and psychological-is minimal so that teachers walk among their students while teaching, and the atmosphere in the classroom is very informal. Few teachers stay behind their desks and there are no platforms in American schools. Fourth, students are taught "learn by doing", so activities are a center part of American teaching. Theory is seldom taught apart from practice, so each class period involves some kind of application. In composition classes, students write; in history classes, they might enact dramas of historical events, write letters as if they were solders in the Civil War, or hold debates about historical decisions. (62)In America, elementary education seems more diverse. There are different kinds of schools for the parents to choose. For example, public schools, private schools or kid can receive their training at home. The American school system has set out to provide quality education for every child between six and sixteen, and for almost two hundred years, it has been a model of what universal education can achieve. Nevertheless, the system 's greatest strength-its commitment to educate every-may also be its greatest weakness. "With shrinking federal funding, increased social problems, and an expansion of its role in the community, the American school system faces some serious problems." (Dirksen 82) The most serious among them is the social problems the schools must face. As divorce statistics skyrocket, the schools are crowded with children from broken homes and behavior problems, which result from weakened family ties. Teachers complain that they must now deal with children who are not taught proper behavior at home, do not respect authority, and do not value education. The growing number of discontented young people, coupled with hands off discipline policies in most schools, has led to low morale and a sense of futility among teachers. "Increasing problems with alcoholism, drug abuse, and teenage pregnancy also affect the schools, and the debate over the school 's role in alcohol, drug and sex education only arrange the knowledge teaching, but they are not in charge of ethical instruction." (82) Under the American free atmosphere, to encourage the self-showing is available everywhere. Although children 's eyes have been broadened, they have lost the limitation of freedom. On the contrary, there are great differences lie between the children who come from private schools or are cared by parents strictly and ones who are left alone. Children 's growth relates closely to teachers ' guide and the continuous communication with them. Less dramatic but equally pressing are problems in defining a curriculum which is able to keep abreast of the knowledge explosion, address students ' social needs, and prepare citizens to contribute intelligently to a democratic society. Many of the frills and experiments of the 1970 's are gone, and most experts agree that children should be thoroughly educated in the liberal arts-literature, mathematics, history, social science, foreign languages, and English-as proper preparation for adapting to changes in society and to the rapid development of information.

IV. Conclusion:To sum up, Chinese traditional education mode is "testing education" which cause some abuses in education system. On the other hand, we also have some advantages by a step-by-step methodology. No doubt, there are some valuable experiences in American education system we should learn from, say, the spirit of practice. However, we cannot learn without selecting. The only way to solve this problem is to examine the history and current situation of Chinese education objectively and find out the advantages and disadvantages. We should discard the dross and select the essence in the reforming. It is the key point to bring forth the very quality education mode corresponding with distinct Chinese characteristics. Furthermore, the quality education has become the most valuable part of the education procedure and it is the soul and spirit of the modern education. What we should develop is the energy of creation, the manifest virtue and the rules of existence. It is not to teach students knowledge by feeding but to help students to deal with knowledge skillfully and independently. Actually, it is a completely advanced state for cultivating high quality students.

Works CitedBrumfit, C. J. and Johnson, K. The Communitive Approach to Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Canfield, Jack and Hansen, Mark. A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup For the Soul. New York: Health Communications, Inc., 1995.

Carfinkel, Alan. The Foreign Language Classroom: New Techniques. Illinois: National Textbook Company, 1983.

Chang Yaoxin. A Survey of American Literature. Tianjin: Nankai University Press, 1990.

Chen Yi. Overview of American Education. Beijing: New World Press, 2001.

Dirksen, Carolyn. Educators ' English. Changchun: Northeast Normal University Press, 1999.

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed (30th Anniversary Edition). Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 2001.

Hochschild, Jenifer and Scovronick, Nathan. "The American Dream and the Public Schools". 20 Feb.1999.

Honig, Bill. Studies on Immersion Education. Sacramento: California State Department of Education, 1994.

Walklardy, Denis. The Methods Which Teachers and Parents Must Know Well. Xi An: Shanxi Normal University Press2001.

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