1. Tell me about the typical homework you had to do in high school.
Every day students get set homework by the teacher. It’s really tiring having to do work every single night! Most of the questions are boring to be honest. They’re mostly geared towards getting you to practice what you learnt in school that day. Sometimes it’s so boring it can be something as boring as just copying an article. It’s designed to make you remember facts rather than use your brain actively. This is a terrible way to learn! All it does it make you remember things; it doesn’t make you more educated or more intelligent. More interesting homework like essay writing or creative projects would be much more useful.
2. Do you think students in high school have too much homework?
Absolutely! All the Chinese people I know never stop telling me how horrible it was to do so much homework in school. Most of them have put it behind them now, but I can tell it still grates on them. They say that having so much homework ruined their social lives and meant that they never had time to do anything else. Personally I think they’re right, and that it’s dangerous to give children so much work to do. It means they can’t develop socially or in other ways if they’re always stressed out with homework. Some people even commit suicide because they are so depressed about their gigantic workloads.
3. Do you think homework is necessary?
As much as I am loath to admit it, yes I do think homework is necessary. Students need work to complete at home as well as in school for several reasons. It’s important to complete extra work so you can really hammer home what you have learnt from the teacher. Homework allows you to practice your writing skills in preparation for tests. You can research extra information you wouldn’t learn from school lessons and improve yourself. There are simply not enough hours in the school day for someone to achieve their best; they need to do some homework as well to really push themselves to the limit.
4. How do you think modern science and technology has influenced education today in China?
Very little. Although new technology has come into the classroom, it isn’t used to improve the teaching much. Education methods are still highly traditional, with rote learning and repetition a common way of learning something. Outside the classroom I think many students are beginning to use technology to help them with their education by using personal computers or doing research on the internet. The internet especially is a godsend to people who want to find out information or learn something not taught by their classroom teacher.
