Uni High Gargoyle Staff Blog

On Saturday night, my dad made his weekly phone call to his family back in China. After a while, he yelled, “Your cousin wants to talk to you!”

Man … he wants to practice his English with me again, I thought to myself. I groaned and reluctantly picked up the phone.

My cousin is a freshman at a gifted high school in Anhui, China. As far as I know, Chinese education has always been extremely strenuous compared to American education. I remember that in China, I would get hours of homework each night even in elementary school. Also, because of China’s large population, applying to college is a fierce competition.

When I visited China this summer during their school year, my cousin was attending college exam prep classes even on Saturdays and getting an average of four hours of sleep every night. When I did his English homework one day, it took me nearly an hour just because of the sheer length of it.

So anyway, to my surprise, my cousin actually wasn’t interested in practicing his English. He excitedly told me about the recent death of a student at his high school. The student, a boy enrolled in the accelerated program at his institution, died last month due to stress-related illnesses.

The culprit behind his death? Too much homework and not enough sleep.

After the boy’s death, the father went to the school, demanding an explanation as to how the teacher could possibly assign so much homework and expect students to finish it all without sacrificing their health. The school guards assaulted the father and he later died in the hospital. The boy’s mother, unable to deal with the sudden death of her son and husband, committed suicide.

I was incredibly shocked after hearing this story. How could something like this happen? Why didn’t the police do something about it?

My cousin explained that nobody outside of their school even knew about this event taking place. Because of the censorship in China, he said that he wasn’t even supposed to be telling anyone about it. If word of the incident got out, whoever leaked the information would be expelled from the school. Since it’s a gifted and privileged institution, nobody would want that to happen.

My cousin also told me that when one of his classmates didn’t finish his homework on time, the teacher told the student to choose between two forms of punishment: 1) do the homework again 50 times, or 2) allow the teacher to spit on his head 10 times.

Hmm … it almost seems like one of those “Would You Rather” questions. In the end, the student chose to be spit on.

Unbelievable, right? But sadly, that’s how education is like in many Chinese schools. Teachers push students beyond their limits because they get huge bonuses if their students perform well.

When I was in second grade in China, I got a B on one of my tests. My teacher yelled at me in front of the entire class about what a disappointment I was to her. Being one of the top students in the class, I was so embarrassed by what she said.

But actually, getting yelled at is nothing compared to the other forms of punishment. As for the students who misbehaved or didn’t do their homework, they would often be slapped by the teacher.

Hearing my cousin’s story and thinking about what I went through makes me appreciate how lucky I am to attend school in America. At Uni, we complain about three or four hours of homework, which is relatively little compared to the amount of homework in China.

At Uni, many teachers lighten the homework load or postpone tests if they realize that we have too much going on. We have the right to protest against the administration, such as with the grinding issue. We’re allowed to enjoy summer vacation without having to stress about homework.

Compared to what education is like in many Asian countries, we’re definitely living the easy life.

— Elaine Gu