EST 400: SUMMARY OF THE TWO PDF FILES: The author Nicholas D.

Kristoe writes about the fast shrinking of differences that exist in the educational realm between China and US. He is of the opinion that China witnesses a rapid growth in the field of education. The current trend of education that pre ails in China is better than that pre ails in United States. He elaborates his point b! citing the example of his wife"s grandparents. # few decades before$ the grandparents of his wife planned to mo e to United States$ in order to en%o! better opportunities. Toda! the entire famil! is well educated. &ut in modern China the access to 'ualit! education is as eas! as in United States. The author takes his daughter along to a few schools in China to en'uire on the s!stem of education that pre ails in there. He is shocked to find that the Chinese are far ahead of the students of United States in the curriculum that the! follow in their schools. (n all the schools that the author isited$ the teachers went through the book of his daughter and commented that the! teach the content of those books two grades earlier in China. Thus$ the author dri es home the point that the spread of education in China is taking shape as a wildfire$ challenging the awareness that the #mericans ha e for education. Then the author figures out the reason for the rapid growth of education in China. He belie es that Chinese students ha e a thirst for education. The author brings out the data that the time spent before the tele ision sets b! the US children surpass the time the! spend at schools. The Chinese children on the other hand dedicate a great deal of their time for education and learning. The result is the rapid increase in the countr!"s percentage of literates. )urther$ the author records that the town that had no ade'uate facilit! for education during the time of his wife"s grandparents$ allots *+ , for education and has got four uni ersities toda!. -., of the residents ha e enrolled in uni ersities. (t is not that Chinese education is trouble free. The! ha e got their problems of briber! in education$ o er populated classrooms etc. Howe er$ the growth in recent !ears is breathtaking. Some ma! argue that the Chinese schools do not teach the students to think creati el! and the! %ust make them memori/e. Such a debate has pro ed beneficial for the school$ for most of the schools in Urban areas ha e adopted to a more natural method of learning and their students are able to speak in better 0nglish than 1apanese and Korean students. The author posted a ideo about the town of his wife on the Times 2eb Site. He recei ed a repl! from a lad!$ named$ 3itao 4ai. 3itao 4ai is also from the same illage. She did ha e to struggle to a ail better education. &ut toda! she works for 4errill 3!nch in New 5ork. She calls

herself as a peasant turned Capitalist. The author sites this incident to emphasi/e on the power of education. He arri es at a conclusion that calls us not to complain on Chinese surplus$ rather the author urges the United States to raise its standard in order to meet the global competition.