The “miseries” of authoritarian education in China have been mistaken for success and western cultures should avoid emulating them at all costs, a Chinese academic has warned.
Yong Zhao, author of the book Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?, said that the United States had made a Faustian bargain “with the devil of authoritarianism” by copying China and introducing high-stakes testing.
He claimed that this had led to cheating and corruption in America. He told The Times that Chinese methods produced short-term mastery of tests, but damaged curiosity and creativity in children.
“That damage is much harder to make up in later life,” he said.
Chinese teachers were seen in the BBC documentary Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School last night, struggling