06

Spectrum Feat
Sept
Where is Lulu Now?
Natalie Lee
Staff Writer
tinues find new things she enjoys,
and this semester she’s having fun
with Economics and English, two
A New Sch Christopher Hofstadter

A s the class of 2010 left our halls

last May, so did another integral
member of our community. Lulu
of her favorite classes. Lulu contin-
ues to add new extracurriculars to
her plate and has begun horseback
Contributing Writer

Ouyang came to Blake to join the

class of 2011 in their junior year
from her hometown of Beijing,
China. While here she joined more
activities than many do in their en-
tire high school career. She was
an important member of the Blake
Girls Swim Team, MUN, Math Team,
Stepps, and the Spring Musical,
Suessical the Musical, to name a few.
This year, after a summer of meet-
ing lots of friends and spending a
month volunteering for the Shang-
hai Expo, Lulu returned to the
United States to spend her senior
year at Miss Porter’s, a girl’s school
in Connecticut before she heads off
to college somewhere in the US.
At Miss Porter’s, she con-
riding, learning how to brush and
tack the horse; she’s looking for-
C hina is a country of many won-
ders, between the Great Wall and
the delicious food. However, high
ly on what is inside the textbooks.
Now what about the U.S?
Teaching at a top public university,
ward to starting to walk soon. The
school education does not often cross the Chinese teacher made a frighten-
Lacrosse team can also look for-
one’s mind as such a feat. A vast ma- ing observation. Most of his students
ward to her enthusiasm and dedi-
jority of Americans believe China is had math skills so poor that they
cation, as she plans to try out this
ahead of us in many arenas, but what wouldn’t have graduated from a Chi-
spring. As if all that isn’t enough,
about education? How do the United nese high school. While he was im-
Lulu continues to do it all and has
States and China compare when it pressed that the students could solve
become a valuable contributor to
comes to teaching our future leaders? problems that applied real world
Miss Porter’s Math and MUN teams.
After researching the topic I knowledge, he was surprised about
Although Lulu is having
found the biggest difference was the how little motivation the kids had to
a great time out East, she misses
way the students were taught. For learn. After asking for his students
her friends, teachers, host families,
example, China teaches their stu- to turn in a paper that was assigned
and “Pepper the kitty.” Lulu will be
dents formulas to memorize and is previously for no grade he noticed
coming back to Minnesota for the
focused mostly on tests and memo- the work was much poorer than that
Thanksgiving holidays and can’t
rization, while schools in the U.S fo- in a paper for a grade; the U.S school
wait to meet up with all her friends;
cus on “outside the box” thinking. system is so result driven that with-
if you can’t make it to see her then,
A study conducted by The out a specific incentive, students did
she’d love to see you out East!
Atlantic Magazine put an American not feel the need to put in any effort.

Blake Welcomes Chinese

teacher in a Chinese school to teach
and a Chinese teacher in the States
to teach at an American college. In
Exchange Student China, the American teacher taught
English to a group of students in
Hannah Rice vorite thing about small class sizes the equivalent of a third level class
is that “there are fewer distractions” at Blake. For one assignment, the
Staff Writer
from unruly students. Despite the dif- teacher asked them to write a fake
Another study conducted by
Jim Stigler, professor at UCLA, evalu-
ated differences in teaching styles in
various countries. The conclusion?
American students, especially in the
area of mathematics, “spend most of
their time in mathematics classrooms
practicing procedures. They rarely

S ome of you may have noticed a ferences in student-teacher ratio, Sta-

bright, new face smiling in the cey is no stranger to a heavy course
hallways. The class load. “Chinese
radio show that was dialogue inten-
sive. Some students came up with
spend time engaged in the serious
study of mathematical concepts.” Es-
unique and creative shows, but the sentially, students know how to do
of 2012 welcomes students do majority just used dialogue taken something in one particular situation
Stacey Ni, an ex- the same to- straight from their textbooks. Would or type of problem, but lack the ability
change student tal amount of you get a good grade if your project to connect concepts and apply their
from Shang’hai, to h o m e w o r k ,” was word for word from the school knowledge to other types. The study
the Blake School. Stacey ex- textbook? Not likely. The research- cites the massive number of subjects
An enthusiastic plains “But we ers also noted that Chinese students covered in American curriculums as
learner and an op- do more phys- receive much more homework than the cause: where Chinese students
timistic personali- ics and math. their American counterparts and cover six or seven topics a year, their
ty, Stacey describes You write a there is a much greater emphasis American counterparts may cover up
Blake as “the best ton of essays!” on standardized testing. In general, to 75. Instruction goes a mile wide,
part about being in These dif- Chinese school systems focus most- but only an inch deep, leaving little
the United States.” ferences in
Stacey’s
courses include
Chinese and
American Quick Look:
AP Physics, BC Cal- education do
86% literacy rate 230 school days per
culus and United not phase her
States history, and as she goes year x 8.5 hours per
she fondly explains to every class 12.97% of government school day = 1955
that AP English is with a smile. expenditures go towards hours of school per year
“very interesting” Excited to ex-
education
and enjoyable. Al- Sutton Higgins
Exchange student Stacey Ni has jumped
perience

a CHINA
though many Blake into life at Blake with enthusiasm.
year in Amer-
Students take the ica, Stacey Average math score of
small class sizes occasionally
for granted, Stacey marvels at the in- laughs that she “never wants to go
8th graders on stan-
dividual attention available to Blake back!” because she loves Blake so dardized TIMSS test =
Students. At her old school, “there are much. Next time you see Stacey Ni 605
fifty people in a class that take all of in the halls, be sure to welcome courtesy of: http://www.shielalee.
com/1/previous/2.html
the same subjects together.” Her fa- her with a wave and a big smile.
A Chinese classroom
ture
t 10
hool Rival?Sutton Higgins
Page Editor
room for true comprehension. Ac-
cordingly, American students did not
perform as well as Chinese students
on the standardized TIMSS math
exam administered to students in
fourth and eighth grades worldwide.
So what does this mean for
us at Blake? In general, Blake stu-
dents are highly motivated, driven
people; after all, a core value of the
school we attend is love of learning.
However, most of the motivation to
do well in high school comes from a
desire to do well on the ultimate as-
signment: college. The stress to do
well in order to get into a good col-
lege and therefore succeed is not
unique to students at Blake or even
in America. If anything, this pressure
is magnified in China due to the sheer
volume of people vying for the lim-
ited number of university places. The
solution in China? Students spend
more time in school and use sum-
mer vacations for academic pursuits
to get ahead, according to chinadaily.
com. Summer break is fun, but the
extra time away from school puts us
at a disadvantage. Over the course of
a student’s lower, middle and high
school career, Chinese students re-
ceive an average of 756 more days
of teaching, not including outside
classes that many students in China
take. That is the equivalent of about
four school years. How good do you
think your chances would be apply-
ing to college as an eight grader com-
peting against high school seniors?
Blake teaches us how to write
well, problem solve in the real world
and be creative, all of which are ad-
vantages in both the college process
180 school days per
year x 6.5 hours per
school day = 1170
hours of school per year
UNITED STATES
Sutton Higgins
A typical Blake classroom
and the job market. It is the mentality
of American students towards school,
at Blake and elsewhere, that is a major
source of any disadvantages we may
have. We long for breaks and dread
returning to school. We resent en-
tire subject areas if we struggle with
them. Take physics. Physics is com-
plex and often difficult, but because
students expect to struggle with it,
they do. When gaps in understanding
are reached, students accept their ig-
norance as “normal” and maybe don’t
even bother to try to grasp the con-
cept. If the subject were approached
with an open mind and eagerness to
learn, students would be more likely
to work at it and eventually succeed.
Neither the United States nor
China has a perfect educational sys-
tem. However, if there is anything we
can learn from the Chinese, it is to ap-
proach school with a positive attitude
and dig deeper. Students who love to
learn and are genuinely interested in
what they are studying do the best
and learn the most. When we don’t
fully understand concepts, we should
try to deepen our understanding rath-
er than glossing it over and moving on
to the next topic. Ultimately, we don’t
have to spend eight hours a day in
school to get into college or lead happy,
worthwhile lives. However, putting ex-
tra effort into our education and even
grade-less assignments will benefit us
in the long run – if we invest ourselves
in everything we do now, we will be
engaged in careers or extracurricular
activities that don’t give out grades in
the future. Learning to be curious is
the biggest tool we are given at Blake
and it is this that will lead to success.
99% literacy rate
5.70% of government
expenditures go towards
education
Average math score of
8th graders on stan-
dardized TIMSS test =
504
Spectrum
07
The Great Adventures of Khyle
Khyle Eastin adventure. I’ve gotten lost for more
than 2 hours, been mistaken for an
Contributing Writer
African, been told all Black people
F or the first three days in China I
stayed in the countryside with my
new classmates for orientation. Vil-
can fly, picked up a new sport (var-
sity jump rope), gone to the Buddhist
lama temple and the Confucius tem-
lage life was pretty boring, but it was ple, discussed the definition of human
a nice way to be introduced to China rights and who decides what’s morally
for the first time. During orientation, just, and nearly passed out from the
we played TV tetris, hiked a moun- mental strain of attempting to have
tain, and learned more about each a conversation entirely in Mandarin.
other. After orientation, we drove into It’s an experience I can’t adequately
the city to meet our families for the describe beyond saying it’s eye open-
next 9 months at the school we would ing. I firmly believe that this is what
be attending. From that point on, my learning is all about; going out into
time has been spent at school or hang- the world and experiencing and em-
ing out with my host family or with bracing differences. Everything has
friends, just like back in the States. been a great experience so far, but
My life in Beijing has been an I miss everyone in Minnesota, too!
An Educator’s Experience
Two Blake faculty members teach in China
Jonah Sandy of text to memory. In general she saw
little student participation in classes;
Contributing Writer
students learned by absorption rath-
T his past summer two of our Blake er than active engagement. A major
faculty members traveled to Chi- advantage she saw in the curriculum
na to do service work and teach stu- was that every student at the school
began study
dents. 10th grade
of English at a
science teacher
young age and
Ms. Williams and
continued all
Chinese teacher
the way through
Ms. Johnson par-
high school –
ticipated in a pro-
by the end of
gram called “Per-
their schooling
spectives: China”
they had a very
which works with
good grasp on
migrant children
the language.
in Shanghai. “In
Most of the 7th
China everyone has
graders Ms. Wil-
a right to an educa-
tion,” Ms. Williams Janet Williams liams taught
Ms. Williams and Ms. Johnson pose for a took
classes
says, “but if you
picture in the Souzho garden. not only dur-
move from prov-
ing the school week but also on Sat-
ince to province, you don’t have as
good of rights as Chinese students”. urday and Sunday and felt very pres-
The students that Ms. Williams and sured to do well in school, especially
Ms. Johnson worked with not only on tests and exams. “The pressure an
came from China but from all around exam in China [places on students] is
the world to study Chinese and do very much more than what any single
community service work around the exam does here,” she says. Students
city. Ms. Williams says the program also do not participate in any extra
“tries to help them in a lot of ways, curriculars – “just a lot of studying.”
“China is a fascinating coun-
socially and academically”.
Ms. Williams first traveled try because it’s changing so much,”
to China in 2001 as a tourist and re- Ms. Williams says. “It’s an interest-
turned in 2003 to take a year long ing place to watch change and go
sabbatical teaching English to 7th through development.” She says China
graders. She observed that Chinese is one of the most amazing and in-
classes were very oriented towards triguig places she has ever been, and
note taking and memorization; often her experiences visiting the country
students would commit full bodies have only deepeened her interest.