Ever heard the vicious rumor that Chinese children have three hours of homework a night?
Friend, let me put your fears aside. Just three hours would be a relief.
Li’s son is in first grade and he already has 3 hours of homework a night – even more on the weekends and holidays. What else would a child like to do in his free time?
Today is College Entrance Exam Day in schools all over China. For the next 48 hours, seniors will do their very best on a test which will determine if they can go to the university.
This day is the summation of one single phrase every child has heard since kindergarten: Study hard so you can get into the university.
The test score will determine which type of university they can attend…which will determine how good a job they can find, etc. It’s a lot of pressure.
Though universities abound, admission slots are still small compared to the large population.
(Due to the earthquake, seniors in Sichuan Provence will take the exam at a later date.)
Hey Thanks for the info on Hong Kong. I was just going off of what someone told us. Guess I should have done some research, but I’m too tired. ha!! We had a great time. It was a great experience. It’s funny that you say we should enjoy our air conditioner. We had a strong storm come in right before we landed in Tulsa and knocked our power out. We were without it all night. I was ok because we had a soft bed.
It finally came back on the next morning. What was one more night with no air. We figured out a way to get a second card so we could leave one in to keep our air on. I’m sure they thought we were wasteful! I didn’t like keeping the windows open during the day because then we fought the mosquitoes all night long. Glad you finally got your box. Enjoy!!
Aimee
I hate standardized tests. This brought back memories of the times (yes, plural) that I took the CPA exam.
Sandra!!! It is SO great to see you & your family! How exciting that you live in China! How long have you lived there? Several years? We’ve moved a lot w/ Matt’s job but we haven’t ventured outside the US yet. Maybe someday. From Dallas, we moved to east TX, then to Carmel, Indiana (just north of Indy), & last summer we moved to Little Rock. I don’t think we’ll be here for long but it has been fun running into OBU friends.
Our girls are Madison (6.5 going on 13) and Mckinley (just turned 4.)
I’d love to hear from you when you get a chance.
Love, Jaime
(I hope you remember me…learning Chinese must take up a lot of memory that is usually reserved for names of old friends, etc.)
NCLB (No Child Left Behind) is making tests here tougher too. Lots of my ESL kids never graduated high school in Texas because they couldn’t pass the standarized tests.