Summary of Text A, Unit 1
During a visit to China for studying arts education, the writer got in the difference between Chinese and American ideas of education through an interesting phenomenon. When the writer’s son Benjamin was trying to place the key into the narrow slot, the writer was happy to see his exploratory behavior, while the nearby Chinese staff would come to his rescue, so called “ba zhe shou jiao”. The key-slot anecdote caused the writer to discuss with Chinese educators. According to the writer, American ideas attach more attention to innovation and self-reliance, emphasize the ability of solving problems on his own, and encourage children to boldly try new and challenging things. To some extent, they don’t care the initial success, instead, they care the fostering of children’s creativity. For Chinese, adults want to mold and shape children’s performance to master as many basic skills with extreme facility as possible. So adults tend to infuse children with all kinds of skills in direct ways, and don’t allow them to explore new things. Nearly all solutions must obey established rules, and some adults usually teach by holding their hands. Nevertheless, the writer still approves of Chinese creativity, and wants to strike a better balance between the poles of creativity and basic skills.
Summary of TextA unit1
