We should be more like China...

The amount of time students spend in the classroom setting in China is absurd! There I said it, and that’s coming from a teacher. Back home, as much political criticism modern China gets, I have frequently heard people suggest we should be more like the Chinese in their work ethic, but I completely oppose that vision.

I work at a boarding school in a suburb and sometimes, I stop by the classroom to help students with their homework, which is scheduled between 7pm and 9pm. Panning the sight of them through the giant-boxed glass windows from the hall, sitting quietly in rows, dissecting their work in the brightly-lit, fifth-floor rooms that glow in the pitch-black sky, I would weave through their desks trying not to disturb them. I know they aren’t being tortured and there are worse things happening to children, but it kind of breaks my heart to see them there. Their whole day is scheduled from their first class at 7am to 9pm, Monday to Friday. At least they are not like students that are to take the college-bound exams, who have classes on Friday night and don’t go home until Saturday afternoon. Often, some are so exhausted for my 8:30am Geography class because they stayed up late playing games or using social media to link with friends. I cannot imagine being a teenager and having my whole day so timetabled. Then again, it is not like in US public schools, with their much shorter days…but lengthening in cases like Newark, that classrooms are any less repressive.

For China, I guess these classrooms are designed as preparation for the country’s capitalist technocratic workforce. The Chinese working-class are notorious for the amount of work they do and being compliant about it. There are countless reports of high suicide rates in Chinese factories, often owned by the largest Chinese manufacturing company, Foxconn, that caters to some of our most beloved gadget companies, including Apple, HP, Nokia, and Sony. Workers more often than not commit suicide in response to long hours, dehumanizing life, and the alienating work experience within these factories, where they live and work. Most of the workers are young, migrant workers, miles away from their families, who flock to cities from the countryside. Most hope to save enough money to bring back to their loved ones or start a family of their own. As many such factory workers as there, it is no surprise that there is still a labor shortage because of the reputation of the line of work.

Still, there are a growing number of strikes within these factories, such as a 2010 Honda strike at another district in my city, Foshan, called Nanhai. There, workers were able to successfully shut the factory down to gain higher wages and several copycat strikes followed. All factory unions are incorporated under the Communist Party into the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) thus, organized strikes are basically nonexistent and legal channels to fight for cases against despotic employers (usually for nonpayment) can be expensive and futile. For these reasons, strikes are usually adhoc but they do happen and they are growing. Unfortunately there is no real estimate of how many occur each year because the government buries such numbers.

These strikes, nonetheless are not commonplace in the white-collar arena. Worker complacency is the way the economic ladder is maintained. Chinese management style is reflective of Confucius teachings where younger employees are subordinate to elders and lower level employees are subordinate to seniors. The individual is not placed above the group and each individual is to follow directions handed down to them by the line of seniors above them. It is incredibly disrespectful not to follow these directives. Workers are disciplined by their boss for failure, but the boss is also seen as a parental figure who looks after employees. Further, no matter what field you work in, Saturday is a generally accepted workday here. Even in my school, I see other teachers who work extremely long hours into the evening with class sizes of 40 or more students. I worked long hours in Newark, but I think this takes it to a whole other level. Still, the teachers’ work situation at my school is much better than a factory worker, and for that matter, better than some urban public school teachers who teach migrant workers’ children, so I doubt changes to their situation anytime soon.

Coming from the US, however, I get frustrated by my school because they have no concept of work hours or overtime. None. I already have a ridiculous work load; it overwhelms me at times. To top that off, my program will schedule extra events without my consent and even plan social events for me that I am really obligated to attend without prior notice. I have talked about this with another foreign teacher at my school, Cheryl and her husband, Alan. (They are from Scotland, probably one of the most adorable couples I have meet in a long time, and they have lived here for three years.) Cheryl suggested our frustrations at this speaks to a Western inflexibility and that this is just the way workers operate here. People strive to contribute what is asked of them in order to be deemed a good worker and not “lose face.” I have complained about my workload here because teaching in Newark taught me that if something does not directly contribute to the classroom, it is not a priority for me. I have learned that I do not always have to meet deadlines and I am unapologetic about that. I sometimes worry that I may not look like a team player, but I refuse to accept the constraints of my job as just part of the culture because as the Nanhai strike illustrates, I know it is not.

I think people have a natural sense of injustice. It starts at an early age, as little children learn to call out “it’s not fair!” to their own parents. Students know when they are overworked beyond their limits and when demands are too high. In Newark, some of my students would call out teachers if they were taking too many tests or if too much emphasis was placed on standardized tests. The problem is that just as in the US, people may know or suspect something is wrong but feel helpless to do something about it, due to state repression, legal and political corruption, a lack of resources or education, and even a belief that everyone else is apathetic to their needs. My comrade in arms and fellow history teacher, Milagros, taught me this is called “learned helplessness.” There are also others who enjoy the privileges they acquire from these injustices and may even work to suppress resistance.

I think the situation in China is a bit more extreme than the US, but it has the same capitalist, industrial-model roots. I have two students with special needs and I do not know how they made it this far without any extra support because schools here do not take these needs seriously. Heavy emphasis is placed on preparation for the gaokao, a two-day test that covers multiple subjects and ranks high school seniors against Chinese students across the country. Test results determine which college students will attend. In the most populated country in the world, the competition is intense. The teacher is viewed as the expert who prepares them for this test and students are the consumers of their information. Creativity is not part of the curricula. Students are not even encouraged to ask questions. I fear in the US, public schools are moving closer and closer to this extreme. 

For some reason Chinese students think that American education is "easy" in comparison. What exactly is "American" education anyway, with all it's tiers of access and in-access? I explained to my students how my high school ended at 2:30pm, but I would choose to stay longer to participate in clubs and activities that were social and usually not academic. Nevertheless, that choice strengthened my education rather than weaken it. I wanted them to understand that American education is not "easy," but I think Americans know that education should be fun, induce creativity, and strengthen reason. Let's be honest though: historically, this has not been the case across the board. This is evidenced by the first Native reservation schools, the first high schools for girls, schools under segregation and now resegregation today. And of course, the face of modern American public education is rapidly changing under No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top reforms, and the corporatization of education. I tell my students here I don’t know how they do it. They work so hard, but I do not necessarily think harder is better.

If my students complain I am giving them too much work or a deadline is too early, I listen. I trust that they are reasonable creatures. I encourage them to challenge me and ask questions. I joke around with them but emphasize that they should practice self-discipline. Classrooms, regardless of location just function better that way because it humanizes learning and brings out people's natural curiosities. Just two weeks ago, I had an excellent conversation with one of my students. He told me school lunch prices were hiked without my students’ consent, but the quality of the lunches did not improve. Other students overheard his comments and together expressed real outrage about this. I joked that they should boycott the lunches. I doubt I will see any student or parent protest emerge from this, but the fact that the students even brought it up with me reminded me that Chinese people are not the culturally obedient people the media portrays them as. I cannot say it enough, people naturally sense injustice.

Now, whenever I hear people in the US suggest we should be more like China, I think it will irk me even more than it did before this whole experience. Why should we adopt workplaces that are increasingly anti-union and anti-workers’ rights? Why should we adopt educational policies that mirror an extreme form of Taylorized education that produces mathematically advanced but uncreative, complacent students? Why should we adopt a more extreme form of capitalism that is efficient under a repressive, totalitarian state? China is emerging as a “superpower” but it should not be the model America strives for.