A Chinese teacher explains in detail an American high school: Studying abroad can make other people stupid and have too much money, but the American dream is not that easy

A Chinese teacher explains in detail an American high school: Studying abroad can make other people stupid and make too much money. The American dream is not that easy. When young international students go to high school in the United States, there are only a few options. Public high schools and...

Generally, public high schools in the United States are funded by the government and provide compulsory education to students. Textbooks are also provided by the school. The school's hardware conditions are relatively good. Teachers must take the unified examination and obtain a teacher's certificate before they can teach in public schools. Public high schools have a large number of students, ranging from hundreds to thousands of students in a grade, and the students' families come from different levels of society.

Private schools are not large in scale. They usually have a few hundred students from preschool to high school. They follow the "small but refined" schooling route. Compared with public schools, private schools have a higher teacher-student ratio, and students can receive more attention and guidance from teachers. The school attaches great importance to preparing students for college, an aspect that public high schools cannot match. On the other hand, the main income of private schools is tuition fees. In addition, textbook fees, school uniforms, lunches (which are more expensive than public schools), and various donations and sponsorships add up to a considerable expense in a year.

Although the city where the author is located is not a metropolis, it is ranked among the top fifteen in the United States and is a medium-sized city in a state. In recent years, young Chinese international students can be seen in various high schools. Now, based on my knowledge, I will talk about the pros and cons of various high schools for young international students.

Young international students in public schools come in the name of exchange students. The advantage is that apart from agency fees, schooling and accommodation are free, and you usually live in an American home. The disadvantage is that you can only study for one year. In the second year, you either transfer to a private school or return to your country to continue high school. In addition, the high school you go to and the family you live in are all designated by specialized agencies. You can't choose. It all depends on your luck.

Let me talk about a few foreign students I know.

Girl A came to a public high school where I taught Chinese in grade 10. I was surprised when she showed up in my Chinese class because the American students in this class started learning Chinese with "Hello, what's your name?" I asked her why she didn't choose Spanish or French. She said it was too difficult because other students had already studied it for one or two years, and the school required every student to choose a foreign language, so she could only choose Chinese. I felt very sorry for her and thought it was such a waste of time. The school district of this high school is very poor. The girl told me that the school’s learning atmosphere is much different from the key high schools she attended in China. A year later, she moved to Canada to continue her high school education.

Girl B is from Shanghai and is in grade 11. She has a cheerful personality, is sociable, and can dress herself up, so she is very popular among her classmates and she can quickly catch up with her studies. A year later, her financially powerful parents transferred her to the best private high school in the city. The girl said: "Since my parents paid for me to attend such a high school, of course they hope that I can go to a good university, and I also hope to live up to them."

Girl C is also from Shanghai, but her impression of the school is very different from B. She said that except for English, she felt that she had learned nothing, and math, physics and chemistry were not as good as those taught in China. This girl is introverted and unsociable. She feels lonely in a public school with more than 1,000 people. A year later, she returned to Shanghai and said she did not plan to come to the United States to attend college in the future.

American high schools do not have fixed classes like domestic schools. American students can choose courses freely. It is common for students in a class to come from different grades. There are six or seven classes a day, and students shuttle between teachers' classrooms like a revolving lantern. For Chinese students who are new to the school, they must have a very cheerful and outgoing personality and actively participate in extracurricular and extracurricular activities. Otherwise, it will be difficult to get to know their classmates in a short period of time and integrate into the campus.

There are a large number of private high schools in the United States, just like private universities. Although the tuition fees are high, the quality and reputation are far different.

There are one or two top private high schools in every city, and non-residential tuition fees are about US$20,000 per year. The number of students in these schools is much smaller than that in public schools, generally less than 100 students per grade. Because the school is strong, the teachers hired are of high standard and have a strong sense of responsibility, and the courses are much more difficult than public schools. It can be said that students can get a first-class education in private schools.

Top private high schools generally have no worries about the number of students. Sometimes local students who want to get in have to wait on the waiting list for a while. Therefore, they will have higher academic performance and learning ability requirements for foreign students, and they cannot get in just by spending money.

Many of the students in the school come from local upper-class mainstream families. Their parents are usually doctors, lawyers, university professors, company bosses, etc. Of course, there are also students from ordinary families. In recent years, more and more local Chinese who value their children's education have begun sending their children to private high schools. However, no matter how superior the external environment is, it cannot guarantee that students will eventually enter a prestigious school. I once saw the admission report of such a high school. The final destinations of more than 80 students ranged from Ivy League schools to ordinary state universities and even community colleges.

Ordinary private schools, including Christian and Catholic schools, have tuition fees ranging from five to six thousand yuan to ten thousand yuan a year. These schools are generally small, with only twenty or thirty students in each grade. Because teachers' salaries and benefits are lower than those in public schools, teachers in these schools are highly mobile and have varying levels of skill. I once worked as a Chinese teacher in such a school for two years. At that time, I was very puzzled. The quality of the school was not better than that of public schools in the same school district. Why did parents spend so much money to send their children? Later I learned that some American families have this tradition. They like their children to grow up in the circle of "the same social class" and don't like to go to a hodgepodge of public schools. There are only 20 to 30 students in each grade in the school. The school has very strict requirements on teachers in terms of attitude towards students and parents. Sometimes it feels like the relationship is like a relationship with customers, and they dare not offend the teachers in the slightest. In such an environment, students are like bean sprouts in a greenhouse, often very self-centered and lacking the energy to work hard.

Five or six years ago, the private school where I worked had its first student from China. He was a boy from Shenzhen, tall, handsome and sunny. When he checked in, the mother who accompanied him revealed her high expectations for her child's future when she talked to me. But a few months later, the boy told me that he was a little disappointed: the school was too small, with less than twenty students in each grade of the high school, many AP classes were not offered, and there were not enough sports activities. The most important thing is that many of my classmates are son-in-law types, who don’t work hard on their homework, and often complain about the difficulty of teaching, strict grading, etc. The boy is worried that he will not be able to get into a good university in such a school in the future. Clearly, the reality of the school was far from what he and his parents expected.

In recent years, these ordinary private high schools have begun to regard Chinese international students as their main source of income and continue to expand their enrollment. In a Catholic school not far from Washington, there are more than 250 students from preschool to high school 12th grade. Among them, there are more than 50 Chinese students in the high school department, accounting for more than half of the total high school students. Just think about it, if most of the students in the classroom are Chinese, it would be better to go to an international school in China.

For families with strong financial strength, sending their children to boarding private high schools is the most worry-free way. The school is responsible for the children's food, clothing, housing and transportation, eliminating the trouble of finding a host family. In addition, most boarding schools have strict rules and regulate students' daily behaviors. In such an environment, children will reduce the chance of taking drugs, drinking alcohol, and making bad friends.

Such schools are called aristocratic schools, partly because the schools have a long history and have a high reputation in the local area. On the other hand, it is really “expensive”! The annual cost of most schools (tuition plus living expenses) is between $50,000 and $60,000. Calculated this way, if their children graduate from high school and continue to attend college in the United States, parents will have to prepare about half a million dollars.

It is worth noting that in some boarding schools, Chinese students are now "gathered together", and even one dormitory is filled with Chinese students. So much so that some Chinese parents complained to the school: "We send our children to such a school to live with American classmates and improve their English, not to live with Chinese students and play games."

Faced with all kinds of American high schools, when parents are preparing to send their children out, they must weigh their considerations on the one hand. On the other hand, for your own pocket, you need to have a comprehensive understanding of the school, such as through relatives and friends in the United States or other information channels, to understand the school's local rankings, teachers, student composition, and admission information, etc., so as to reduce blindness as much as possible, so that children can learn something from high school life in the United States, and the expensive tuition fees paid by parents can be worthwhile.