How strong is the scientific research ability of American high school students?

This article objectively reflects the real environment of Gaomei.

What is the education in America? Many people think American education is "beautiful", free, stress-free, and easy to go to college. The academic ability of American middle school students can't be compared with that of China middle school students. Is that really the case? Maybe we really have too many misunderstandings. Now that studying abroad is getting younger and younger, it is necessary for us to understand a real American middle school life.

On August 17, Tian Tian, a 6-year-old girl from China, will give a piano solo concert at the Shanghai Concert Hall. She studied under the pianist Wei Fugen and Qin Chuan Wei Da Kalinski, director of the piano department of Juilliard School of Music. At a young age, she has held her third solo concert in Shanghai.

There are many piano children now, but not many can hold solo concerts. I thought Tian Tian would develop on the road of music, but she said, "I'm going to take an examination of a comprehensive university, majoring in applied mathematics and music."

Piano is just one of the girl's many specialties. In addition, Tian Tian is the violin chief of the wei county Youth Symphony Orchestra in new york and the captain of the school's mathematics team. He has won the National English Teacher Composition Award, the Rensselaer University Mathematics and Technology Award, and the first place in the Greater new york English Spelling Competition. ...

Chatting with Tian Tian's mother, I found the other side of American middle school education and life: students study crazily and even sleep only 4 hours a day; Their extracurricular activities are rich, and their specialty is "beside"; Parents attach importance to education, and 90% families spend a lot of money to hire tutors ... In order to be admitted to famous universities and cultivate children, American families have worked hard.

Hierarchical teaching begins from the moment you enter the school.

Not only China high school students study hard, but also American high school students work hard. They have to recite more than 1 12 pounds (about 104 Jin) of textbooks a year; Stay up late, soak in the library to write papers; Study hard, do well in the placement exam and enter the "advanced class".

Scarsdale, a picturesque town on the outskirts of New York, has not only the former residences of Yoko Ono Lennon and John Lennon, the annual scarsdale Automobile Charity Exhibition, but also a well-known public middle school, ScarsdaleSchool. Every year, the admissions officers of ivy league schools such as Harvard and Yale will come to recruit students as scheduled.

In 2008, 12-year-old Tian Tian was admitted to the preparatory department of Juilliard School in new york, a famous music school. This is a weekend school for excellent piano children. Many children have since left full-time schools and devoted themselves to studying in the Conservatory of Music. However, Tian Tian's parents decided to send her to scarsdale Middle School from Monday to Friday. This decision allowed her to witness the madness, pressure and happiness of American middle school life for several years, and also tempered her into a talent with all-round development and outstanding expertise.

The competition started on the first day of school.

On 20 10, Tian Tian entered the high school of scarsdale Middle School. On the first day of school, the placement test! It turns out that the school will implement hierarchical teaching of mathematics, science, second foreign language and other subjects. There are five classes in mathematics alone. Tian Tian, who got excellent grades since childhood, got the highest score in every subject. Nevertheless, the grading examination was unexpected for her, but her mother Zuo Zhen felt deja vu.

"We always thought American education was easy. To tell the truth, primary education in the United States almost makes children have fun, but in middle school, the pressure suddenly becomes greater. Judging from the placement measures, who can deny that the competition actually started long before the children went to high school. "

Scarsdale Middle School, like many American high schools, requires students to take compulsory courses such as mathematics, English, science (including biology, chemistry and physics) and history. Although school ends at 3 pm, it takes students a lot of time to finish their homework.

On one occasion, it took Tian Tian three days to finish a small paper with 17 pages. The reason is that the history teacher put three films about "slavery" in class and arranged a paper accordingly: "How do these three films reflect the history of slavery in the United States?"

What level should middle school students reach in writing papers? Once a student wrote a lot about an event and was criticized by the teacher. "I don't have my own opinion, just a pile of materials!"

Tian Tian's schoolbag is always heavy, because besides textbooks for six or seven subjects, there are other compulsory and elective books. For example, the English teacher will make everyone read novels intensively. If you choose Tolstoy's War and Peace, it will be miserable, with more than 600 pages.

It has been estimated that American high school students have to recite 1 12 Jin of textbooks a year, which is about 104 Jin. Sometimes teachers don't even attend classes, so students just soak in the library to look up information and write papers. "There is no right or wrong answer, but you have to be insightful and logical!" Tian Tian repeated the teacher's spell. American education has emphasized critical thinking since childhood, and students are under great pressure. Of course, this does not mean that they don't need to "back". "Although the teacher said that it is ok to remember the time period, when it comes to the exam, the answers to 70 or 80 multiple-choice questions are very close ..." American students understand that they must "recite history" after seeing a large number of multiple-choice questions in SAT2 history subjects. In addition to compulsory courses, American middle school students have to deal with a large number of elective courses.

Compared with domestic classrooms, American middle schools provide students with more freedom to choose courses. For example, a second foreign language will provide students with French, Spanish, Latin and other languages to choose from. Some people learn three different languages in three years, just to get good grades every semester. Language introduction is always simple. Although not everyone is willing to suffer hardships, this does not prevent a small number of people from choosing difficult Latin for three consecutive years. In fact, when college admissions officers get their transcripts, they not only look at "scores" but also "subjects" to see whether students have chosen the most difficult courses in their schools and are willing to challenge themselves and get good grades.

Fighting for education, American families are not lost to China families.

In the college application season, the competition has become hidden, but what is even more frightening is that. Teachers will remind students not to exchange information about applying for schools with each other; Some parents pretend they don't know each other when they meet in the supermarket, and no one wants to tell each other what school my children attend, so as not to attract "peer competition"

This year, in grade 1 1, Tian Tian joined the "honor association" of the school, which is a special organization of American middle schools. Only students with an average of A in all subjects can participate. The association has a clear obligation, and members automatically become "student tutors" to guide students' homework. In American education, the consciousness of "serving others" has been paid more and more attention. Of course, associations not only have obligations, but also "rights". In many schools, members of honor associations are "candidates for prestigious schools". Whenever the admissions officers of famous schools arrive at the school, they will ask the school to print a list of students who rank in the top 20%-30% on average, and this is often the list of honorary societies.

Accordingly, in the American parent circle, the "honor association" is definitely worth mentioning. The data shows that the admission rate of Ivy League schools has been declining for many years due to the increase in the number of applicants. This year, Harvard received 34,302 applications and accepted 2,032 applications, with an acceptance rate of 5.9%. Princeton received 26,664 applications, with an admission rate of 7.9%, all the lowest in history.

"Many people say that it is easy to get into a university in the United States. Indeed, there are more than 3,000 universities in the United States, and almost everyone can go to college. However, if you don't graduate from a prestigious school, employment is still difficult. " Zuo Zhen has three daughters, and Tian Tian is the second. The eldest daughter was admitted to Ivy League University in Pennsylvania the year before last, and the third is still in junior high school. The new immigrant is sensitive to the fact that American families are as eager to fight for education as China families for their children's future.

In high schools in Tian Tian, almost 90% of parents have hired tutors for their children. On weekends, children hang out in the training classes taught by everyone. Moreover, tutoring is very expensive, one class, one hour, costs hundreds of dollars. Unlike China, where students have to deal with mid-term and final exams, the United States has more frequent exams, and each exam result is related to the "future". For example, AP courses will be offered in the third year of high school. Because the course is as difficult as the first year of college, it is usually "conditional admission": most high schools require students to achieve an A or even A+ in the first two years before they are eligible to choose AP courses. This means that in the first two years of study, a mistake in the exam may make the average score drop from A to C, thus missing the AP course. ...

Under this interlocking evaluation system, children attach great importance to every homework and every exam. "Many American parents have taken their children to exercise since childhood and let them participate in large and small competitions. Many years later, I realized that they cultivated their children's sense of competition and hardship through exercise. " Zuo Wei said.

Some people can't stand the pressure and go to see a psychiatrist. This is very popular among American students. Once doctors think that children have attention disorder, their examination time can be doubled ... The school's consideration of the principle of fairness also makes many students cheat more examination time by "pretending to be sick" for better academic performance. ...

Looking for "bright spots" and crazy about extracurricular activities.

Middle schools in America start classes at 8 am and end at 3 pm. At first glance, students' study is quite easy, but the reality is that many students go to bed at one or two in the morning every day and only sleep for four or five hours a day. In addition to finishing their homework, they also spend a lot of time looking for their own "unique highlights" in extracurricular activities.

Life in Tian Tian is very busy. Besides studying at Juilliard on weekends and practicing the piano every day, her spare time is filled with various activities: running a school newspaper, interviewing and writing articles; Participate in tennis training, weekly 1 hour; Create a community with classmates and go to the community to raise money to plant trees; In addition, there is her favorite school math team training. She is a rare female group leader among the top students in mathematics who are mostly boys. After school every week, Tian Tian once or twice concentrated on training, doing all kinds of strange questions, and going out to participate in large and small competitions. The team led by Tian Tian won the first prize in the math competition in which more than 100 local middle schools participated. This kind of campus club is very popular in American middle schools. The mainstream organizations include the debate team, the Olympic Society, the school newspaper, the math team and so on. They often adopt the point system, and club members should accumulate "points" through the number of games and performance.

Usually intercollegiate competitions are frequent, but only members who have accumulated considerable points are eligible to represent the team in interstate or even higher-level competitions; If the score is always insufficient, it means elimination. Sometimes, the pressure of joining a club or club even exceeds the study. Tian Tian's good friends participate in debate teams and competitions almost every week, which requires a lot of time to prepare materials and revise arguments repeatedly. Some students join the Aoke Society, such as conducting "gene" research, which is even more difficult than classroom study. These extracurricular activities are at least two hours after class, and more time is after entering the finals. The earliest time for students to go home is to have dinner, sometimes at seven or eight o'clock, and then throw themselves into their homework. "It's early to go to bed at night 12, and it's normal to go to bed at one or two in the morning."

Around Tian Tian, almost everyone leads a busy life, which encourages everyone to pursue their own interests. This is the culture of American middle schools, and of course it is also mixed with the American "Weibo baton" effect. The data shows that among the students who applied to Harvard University this year,14,000 applicants scored more than 700 points in SAT reading, mathematics and writing, respectively,17,000 and15,000, and another 3,800 students graduated from their high school with the first place ... When the students' scores were the same, after class, A cruel reality is that there has always been a "major" column in the application form of American universities. Students not only need to list their majors, but also have the results of "Award-winning areas: state, country and world" under the table. If it is not remarkable, it is not a specialty. The specialty must be "different". It is basically impossible for students with blank special trains to be admitted to prestigious schools.

"Many American children have participated in various activities since childhood, in fact, in order to discover their own strengths. Therefore, they have many hobbies. But it must be admitted that it is not easy to find your true expertise. " Zuo Wei said. After listening to her performance, the math teacher in Tian Tian once said with emotion: "Watching your two hands flying on the keyboard is like watching you solve mathematical inequalities and attack from left to right!" Mathematics and music are Tian Tian's interests and her "strengths". She is undoubtedly one of the few "successful students". But in this educational ecology, some people can't persist and almost collapse. "Some students will go to the teacher's office to cry, but their grades are not very bad ..."

Some people say that it is this characteristic of American education that makes students cultivate a lot of interest and will consider "integration" when choosing a major. We also see that American students are under great pressure, and the tricks of taking drugs and deceiving psychologists are getting worse and worse. It is common sense that there is no shortcut to studying in the United States and it is impossible to attack "excellent".

Is American education "beautiful"? That was a misunderstanding!

What are middle schools like in America? Maybe we really have too many misunderstandings. Recently, a group of early immigrant families in China began to attack the picture of "beautiful middle school" built by third-rate writers, short-term visiting scholars and exchange students on the Internet, denouncing them as "irresponsible and grandstanding".

When studying abroad is getting younger and younger, it may be really necessary for us to know a real American middle school life. American journalist Edward Humes won the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism. From the autumn of 200 1, he spent a school year in Whitney High School, a public high school in California. He attends classes in this school, chats with students, interviews students and teachers, teaches a thesis writing course in this school, and even takes exams in person. After a year's experience, he wrote a book called "Dream School", which was published in 2003. This book has nearly 400 pages and only three chapters. In the first chapter of 188, he used such a long title: "4 is a magic number: 4 hours of sleep, 4 lattes, 4.0". This book describes a group of students in Whitney High School: in order to get the highest average score of 4.0, they only sleep four hours a day and drink four cans of lattes to get through the whole night. Some people say that Whitney High School does not represent all American high schools, and Whitney's high school students do not represent all American high school students.

However, Tian Tian's mother, Ms. Zuo Zhen, has always stressed to me: "Until now, many people are still misreading American middle school life and American middle school students. In fact, there are a large number of students in the United States who work hard, get excellent grades and pursue Excellence.

China is good at scores, and the United States is good at abilities, but both require excellence!