China's Cram Schools

The article "China's Cram Schools" by Brook Larmer is about how some Chinese students are extremely stressed out because of the Gaokao high school test. This test is like the SAT or ACT in America but much harder. Students study for this test with every spare minute of their life. In China, this test has the power to change your future. If you get a good score on the test, you will be able to get into a good college. But if you fail the test, you will not get into college and end up working in a factory or construction job. Poor families can't afford for their children to fail the test. In order to move up the class ladder, you need education. Wealthy families can attend to send their children to private international schools or send them abroad or simply opt out of the test because they have money. This test is unfair to students who are poor because this one test will determine their future forever.

Studying for the test shouldn't be the only thing a teenager does during their free time. Teenagers need to have a life outside of studying. They should play sports and hang out with friends, read a book or just simply relax. These tests are completely taking over the lives of Chinese students. “The school prides itself on eliminating the ‘distractions’ of modern life. Cell phones and laptops are forbidden. The dorms, where about half of the students live, have no electrical outlets. Dating is banned. ‘There is nothing to do but study,’ Yang says.” The school imprisons the students into focusing completely on test prep. The Gaokao test has taken over student’s lives. In this Chinese school, there is no way to have fun or be a teenager. “‘I only knew that the school was very strict, to the point that some students supposedly committed suicide.’”  When I read this is was very shocked. Studying to the point of killing yourself is the worst possible outcome and the complete opposite of the goal: to go to college. This means that the Gaokao tests are way out of hand. China needs to eliminate these tests from the school system and figure out a different way of helping poor students go to college.

Furthermore, parents who aren’t wealthy cannot afford to have their child fail the test. Many poor Chinese parents work on farms or in construction, which doesn’t pay a lot so this means they can’t afford to opt out the test. They are hoping that their children will have a better life than they had. They can’t send their child to a private university that doesn’t look at the test scores. “Days after learning he failed the Gaokao, Cao left their home village to search for migrant work in China’s glittering coastal cities. He would end up on a construction site, just like his father.” To me this is so sad. One test day should not determine your future forever. What if you were sick on that day or a family member died? These tests are unfair to poor working class Chinese teenagers.

In conclusion, China needs to find another way to help teenagers get into colleges. The Gaokao test is unfair and absurd. The New York Statewide test is also unfair. It is unfair to teachers. If a student gets a perfect score on the test one year and then the next year misses one question the next year, the teacher get a bad score and could get fired. That is totally uncalled for. One test should not determine the future for Chinese students.

Draft #1

Racism and discrimination is a huge problem in America. Martin Espada, a poet, wrote three poems that exemplify this negative situation. One of his very famous poems, “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877” is about a crowd of Caucasian people smiling to get into a picture behind two Mexicanos that have been lynched. Another one of his poems, “New Bathroom Policy at English High School” is about a clueless principal who bans Spanish in the bathroom because he doesn’t understand the language. The last poem, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” describes the feeling the speaker gets when his name is pronounced wrong. These poems display the negative effects of racism and discrimination on Mexican Americans.

The first poem, “Two Mexicanos…” tells a story about a lynching. This poem is about a bunch of white children and grownups crowding to get into a picture behind two Mexican men who have been lynched. This makes me very angry. It makes me think how easy it is/was for white Americans to basically turn off their humanity. “A high-collar boy smirking, some peering from the shade of bowler hats, but all crowding into the photograph.” This makes me feel like the white Americans don’t care about the murder of the two men. They just want to make it onto the cover of a newspaper. Its one thing to kill someone but it’s another thing to gloat over and take pride in killing that person. Espada wants to remind us of the past to make sure that this kind of brutal and racist behavior doesn’t happen again.

The poem “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson “ is a perfect example of discrimination. This poem is about how people always mispronounce a man’s name. He has a lot of fantasies about what he would do to the people who mispronounce his name wrong. I don’t think the poem is really about mispronouncing names but about how people don’t know or care about other cultures. “…Force them to chant anti-American slogans in Spanish…” This quote shows how the speaker is angry and wants to force white Americans to learn different cultures and make them care. “…Republican tourists from Wisconsin…” In the poem, the speaker uses a stereotypical white state to prove a point about white Americans not caring about Mexican culture. This makes me think that Espada is trying to push back against white culture.

The last poem, “The New Bathroom Policy…” has to do with not understanding a language that is different from your own and not making an effort to learn it.  In the poem, the students are speaking Spanish in the bathroom and they mention the principal’s name.  The principal, who does not speak Spanish, bans the students from speaking the language in the bathroom. The principal is discriminating against them and that is wrong. The principal’s ban on the students symbolizes taking away the teenagers ability to speak. He is silencing them.

In conclusion, the three poems have to do with racism and discrimination. Each of the poems in some way references the “killing” off of Mexican culture.  One talks about the Spanish language and banning it, another literally describes the killing (lynching) of two men, and the third is about the anger one feels when their language is being mispronounced. Racism and discrimination needs to end. Even today, there are a lot of people discriminating against others who are “different” than them.  For example, Indiana just made a very homophobic law that states that you can discriminate against anyone if they are going against your “religion” which means strong homophobic Christians can kick gay people out of their store or business. Americans need to learn how to accept different cultures, different races and different ways of living.