A paper which compares the educational institutions of China and the United States with a general focus on secondary education (high school).
The purpose of education is to prepare an individual to be a productive member of their society. Therefore, this paper draws conclusions as to the best educational system, with specific regard to secondary education, for a given social structure. The paper analyzes the policies of Communist China and Capitalist United States. Though the paper focuses on all types of education, it has a more detailed description of policies/standards in secondary education. Also, some attention is given to describing the governmental structure of these nations, as the thesis suggests that different governments require different educational strategies.
“When exploring the educational institutions of China and the United States, it is most logical to first examine the model that each nation claims to support and how its social and political institutions affect its educational standards. The academic model, or the “Western model,” as explained by Theodore Chen is, embraced by the U.S. and is designed solely for the promotion of academic learning. The academic model emphasizes the school as the central place of learning. The United States, in following with this model, puts high priority on the building of schools and universities. While the U.S. education system does promote some learning outside of the classroom, all learning is designed in some way to return to the school system for evaluation. Emphasis is placed on the classroom, laboratory, and library as places of learning.”