Why does the United States have world-class higher education, but the level of basic education is very low?

Speaking of the educational differences between China and the United States, a seemingly contradictory phenomenon particularly interests me:

On the one hand, China students are generally considered to have a solid foundation, hard work and extraordinary learning ability, especially in mathematics, statistics and other disciplines. They have repeatedly won laurels in international competitions, leaving students from developed countries in Europe and America far behind; On the other hand, the overall status of China scientists in the international academic arena is not high, and there is a lack of major scientific research achievements that can affect the world and mankind. Few local scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Science. No wonder Mr. Qian Xuesen asked the last question before he died: Why can't our school always train outstanding talents?

Similarly, another seemingly contradictory phenomenon is that, on the one hand, the quality of basic education in the United States is recognized as uncompetitive in the world, and even Americans themselves admit this. Compared with other countries, especially China and India, American students are poor in reading, mathematics and basic science, and their scores in various exams are often below average. On the other hand, the quality of American higher education is unique in the world, and the innovative achievements of American scientists emerge one after another, always leading the forefront of world science and technology development.

The low-level basic education supports the high-level higher education system, which is perhaps one of the most contradictory phenomena in the history of world education.

Generally speaking, the larger the base of outstanding students, the greater the possibility of outstanding scholars in the future. However, the current education in China is verifying our concern: the correlation between outstanding students and future outstanding scholars does not seem to be significant. If so, we can't help asking: Is our education effective? This also urges us to reflect: What is effective education?

Whether education is effective or not depends on whether it helps people realize the purpose of education. However, today, more and more of us-whether educators or educatees-have gradually forgotten the purpose of education. For more than 30 years since the resumption of the college entrance examination, we have been running continuously, faster and faster, more and more tired, but rarely stop to ask ourselves, why do you want to run?

Education seems to be becoming a routine that we have to complete in our daily life: teachers attend classes to make a living; The state stipulates that students go to school in compulsory education stage, and in non-compulsory education stage, in order to pass the examination at the next higher level; The headmaster looks like the general manager of the enterprise or something. All these show that the effectiveness of education is slowly disappearing.

The education in ancient China was essentially an ethical training about society and life. Although education has its utilitarian side, it also has its transcendence side: students improve their morality by reading classic works repeatedly, manage family and clan affairs, and then serve the country and the world.

After the abolition of the imperial examination system, based on the subversive changes in politics, economy and culture, China's education embarked on the road of learning from the West, thus forming a whole set of language, education system and evaluation system. This educational system, which originated from the special historical environment, especially emphasizes the utilitarian side, that is, education exists to solve some problems in reality: education is to save the country; Education is the tool and foundation to realize modernization and so on.

Nowadays, education has shown quite obvious instrumental characteristics: students hope to acquire some "useful" skills through education, so as to enhance their competitiveness in the job market through competitive examinations, and then gain higher social status and material wealth. If education can't help them achieve these goals, they will not hesitate to give up education-this is the ideological root why the theory of "reading uselessness" has gradually begun to rise in recent years.

On the other hand, American education also has utility, but its utility refuses to show people directly, but is attached to the product of civic education. The more excellent educational institutions are, the more attention is paid to the improvement of people's own education. Even public educational institutions still regard improving the quality of their own citizens as the most fundamental educational goal.

Therefore, the United States, where pragmatic philosophy is the most prevalent, is very "impractical" in the field of education: the more excellent educational institutions, the more useless things are taught to students, such as history, philosophy and so on; The more excellent students are, the more willing they are to learn these "useless" knowledge.

In fact, the poor foundation of American students is directly related to the teaching methods of American primary and secondary schools. American educational circles are deeply influenced by Socrates' educational thought of midwifery in ancient Greece, emphasizing that education is a process of midwifery, teachers are midwives, and people receive education in order to find their original self and constantly improve themselves. In other words, they think that knowledge cannot be taught by others, mainly because students gradually realize themselves in the process of thinking and practice.

Therefore, in American classrooms-whether in universities, middle schools or primary schools-teachers rarely explain knowledge points to students, but constantly ask various questions to guide students to draw their own conclusions. Students read, think and write a lot, but they are rarely asked to recite anything.

American school education is a process of observation, discovery, thinking, debate, experience and understanding. In this process, students gradually master the skills and knowledge of finding problems, asking questions, thinking about problems, looking for information and drawing conclusions. Although the content they learn may not be deep enough, difficult enough or extensive enough, as long as the students understand it themselves, it will not only be unforgettable for life, but also often draw inferences from one another.

In contrast, China's school education is deeply influenced by Confucius' thought of "learning while learning". Teachers teach students knowledge points over and over again, requiring students to constantly review and recite them, making them lifelong memories. This teaching method is effective for the traditional education of humanities classics, but its disadvantages are obvious for the education of modern natural science and social science: students' basic knowledge is generally solid, but it also fetters their thoughts and thinking and loses the opportunity to cultivate innovative consciousness.

From the perspective of educational purposes and teaching methods, there may be considerable differences in the understanding of "educational effectiveness" between China and America.

For contemporary China, the key to improving the effectiveness of education lies in how to naturally integrate the education of values into the whole process of education. This is a huge challenge. Due to the restriction and influence of the unified college entrance examination admission system on basic education and the change of social external environment, the process of education is gradually alienated into the process of dealing with exam training.

At present, this process is developing to a younger stage. Due to the competitive psychology of "not losing at the starting line", children's early intellectual development is entering the most fanatical and anxious stage in history. More and more children can't enjoy the happiness from education, and the unhappy time is advanced again and again. In addition to diplomas, it is increasingly difficult for people to feel spiritual pleasure and inner peace. Anti-social behavior is becoming more and more serious.

The government is also aware of the seriousness of this problem and is determined to gradually reverse this situation through the reform of the college entrance examination system. However, the current public opinion environment, the public's simple understanding and anxiety about educational fairness, and the lack of social and cultural psychology further strengthen the irrational pursuit of "the responsibility of the selection process and the fairness of the selection results" in the education process, thus increasing the resistance faced by the reform and possibly weakening the effect of the reform.

In addition, just as savings cannot be directly converted into investment, going to school does not necessarily mean receiving a good education. How to turn students' solid basic knowledge into the source and support for providing innovative ideas is another severe challenge faced by the education sector in China.

The reason why we send our children to school is not because they have to go to school, but because they have to be fully prepared for their future life. Going to school is a process that a person must go through in order to achieve his life goals. In this process, the most important thing is to realize what kind of person you will become in the future.

Although a person's life is long and there seems to be a lot to do, there is only one thing that can really be done. This is a person's mission to the world. The value of education lies in awakening the potential in every child's heart, helping them find the special mission hidden in their bodies and what they are destined to do.

This is the real challenge that every school and every family faces in education. It is more important and fundamental to know what kind of person you will become in the future, and how many points you get in the exam than in any school. Avoiding or ignoring this problem, just being busy with what kind of school to find for children, what kind of teachers to find, what kind of conditions to provide for children, how much knowledge to teach students, and how much achievement to improve students are actually giving up their educational responsibilities as parents and teachers.

In fact, once a child realizes what kind of person he will become in the future, he will inspire endless motivation from his heart and strive to achieve his goals. Numerous research results have proved that this endogenous driving force is far greater and more effective than the external force for human growth.

We should be soberly aware that life is not a game designed by others. As long as you invest time and money and configure more powerful "equipment", you can pass the customs. Once the customs clearance is completed and the game is over, life will soon face a situation where there is no way out. Life is a journey of self-discovery, and the road depends on yourself step by step. Realizing what kind of person you will be in the future is like a lighthouse in the distance, which can constantly illuminate the road ahead.

CITIC Fu Ying has been focusing on overseas investment and immigration and overseas asset allocation consulting services for more than 20 years, and has close cooperation with Fortune 500 financial groups and governments around the world. Provide professional one-stop comprehensive services such as overseas agriculture, insurance financing, overseas asset allocation consulting, overseas immigration and overseas real estate.