It’s quite difficult to believe that two months have passed since I first arrived at 七中 as a wide-eyed foreigner who took (and still takes) ten second breaks between every bite during lunch because everything is so spicy. Of course, many things beyond the spicy food first took me by surprise: the turf field (which my high school didn’t have) that seemed like an inconsistent luxury on campus; the students’ intense school schedule that ends only at 9 PM (whereas my classes in the States ended at 3PM every day); no community service requirements (from what I can tell); the students’ willingness to come to English Corner night after night, even after a long day of classes; the teachers’ efforts to try new things in the reform classes so that the students might, this time, finally fully engage.
But I was most surprised last week, when Ms. Gao handed me big piece of paper, lined with endless columns of numbers. “The test results of 致远三班,” she said. Just the weekend before, all second-grade students had taken exams in all subjects. First, I was taken aback by the publicity of major test scores, which was regarded as an extremely private matter at my past schools; then I did a double take when I saw the numbers. They couldn’t be true, I thought. They ranged from 7 to no more than 85. And there was such inconsistency in each of the students’ scores across different subjects; a student who scored above an eighty on English, for example, had received a mere 16 on math. Even within the same humanities or math/science area (history and Chinese, for example), the differences in a student’s scores were dramatic. I asked Ms. Gao if the tests are made to be particularly hard. She resolutely shook her head with an unrecognizable smile. “No, definitely not.”
Of course, students are bound to do better in certain subject than others. Nonetheless, the extreme inconsistencies across each student’s grades shocked me. I’m not saying that I’d expected all students to score at least a seventy or eighty in all subjects. I understand that 七中 is not very academically strong. So why was I so surprised? What the drastic differences in each of the students’ scores across the subjects told me was not how academically lacking the students are; rather, they told me how unmotivated most students might be. I’m no expert—but from what I can see, the extreme score inconsistencies are the result of one of two causes: either the tests were designed unfairly, or the students are in the habit of paying attention to ONLY one or two subjects that truly intrigue them; they simply lack the motivation (and perhaps discipline) to do well in general. If, as Ms. Gao said, the tests weren’t hard—the latter reasoning would explain how a student who is capable of scoring above an 80 on one exam scores 16 in another: she’s willing to study for a subject that she likes, but that’s about it. Speaking as a recent high school grad, I don’t believe that dramatic score inconsistencies result simply from a student’s lack of intelligence. If she’s smart enough to score decently on one exam, she’s most likely capable of doing at least half as well on another.
So is the essential question, “How can we make students care about their academics? How can we make them see the importance of their studies?” Perhaps. But then there are students who I know try to do well on all subjects—and still manage to produce a report card that looks somewhat like a spikey stock market graph. Shortly before the test, a student who is very passionate about English mentioned that she hadn’t been coming to recent English Corners because she had been busy studying math, a subject she has always done poorly in. I have no idea how much she actually studied—though she is known to be one of the most diligent students in the class—but she didn’t do well on the math exam. The difference between her English and math scores was more than sixty. How come?
Perhaps what is missing is the bridge between the students’ willingness to study and their literal devotion to studying. Maybe the two factors don’t always come hand in hand. Students know that the right answer to “Is academics important?” is yes. In theory, they are willing to work hard. However, in a school environment that provides little time for real-life application of what they learn in school, students probably cannot develop a solid understanding of the actual impact that their knowledge can have on the world and in their lives, in college and beyond. Maybe the “missing bridge” is the students’ understanding of the fact that their hard work can make tangible changes beyond their 高考scores.
Obviously, I don’t have all the answers; I’ve only recently begun to ruminate upon this subject. A couple days ago, I read an article regarding some research based on the correlation between extracurricular activities, community service, and academic performance in low-income middle school students. It stated a surprising fact about what the NYU researchers found, based on 625 low-income NYC middle school students: students’ academic performance and participation in community service have a positive correlation, whereas participation in extracurricular activities have zero impact on students’ grades. Of course, there may be contradicting study results—and extra curricular activities definitely enrich other aspects of student life, if not the academics. However, that students’ academic performance increases with community service makes sense: by serving their community with their own skills, students can discover issues that they care about and think more deeply about their future steps. Students can also gain more confidence, and come to believe that they are capable of catalyzing change, no matter how big or small. After all, human beings make decisions based on two simple emotions: pain and pleasure. If students don’t feel firsthand the reward of their work, the effect of it—then they’ll most likely lose ambition. The closest thing to community service that I’ve seen at the school is the students’ assignment to take out the garbage every day. I wonder if bringing about small changes to provide more gratifying service opportunities—such as the school’s organizing community service trips to tutor younger students in the area, or even just setting up a peer tutoring system within the school—can allow the students to realize: “Yes, how hard I discipline myself to work matters, because only then I am capable of bringing change.”
本文作者Jiyoung Jeong，长沙县七中挚行者。
