[pin]

On the big lychee blog today there is a review about a book in relation to the HK education system. It seems to suggest the book is very biased and a bit jaded, but the review does detail some interesting insights.

Review: ‘Does it Have to Be Like This? Education and Socialisation in Hong Kong’ by Anthony J Solloway Big Lychee, Various Sectors

[geaton]

That's the strangest plug for your own book Anthony!

[geoffreybuttons]

I knew Anthony when we worked together for many years at EF in Shenzhen. He had novel teaching ideas, including a really wacky way of using The Chuckle Brothers videos to get kids interested! However, he really HATED the education establishment in China then, so I wonder if this is anything more than the same old tired 'east v west' education discussion?

[shri]

We had deleted some spam for this book over the weekend ...

[drumbrake]

Interesting insights such as "there is a particular type of Westerner who works in Hong Kong educational institutions and is, or becomes, mentally unhinged." From people I know, possibly very true!

Also, that while there are three bands of Hong Kong high school which segregate children by academic ability, they all follow the same curriculum which is designed for the elite minority. So why don't the kids in bands 2 and 3 "drop out, do drugs, join the triads and do ‘compensated dating' "?

Finally, kids at local universities do very little reading. Yes, too true!

[pin]

Originally Posted by shri

We had deleted some spam for this book over the weekend ...

Sorry did not realise this was being spammed. I just read the review on the big lychee blog and thought I would post the link here.
Posted via Mobile Device

[PDLM]

It was an interesting review, and I agree with many of the points, particularly

Other local assumptions explain much. “Learning has to be structured and instructional; it is never unstructured or self-structured, and is never experiential.” This is why, when I pontificate in certain company on the theory of evolution, plate tectonics or the history of man’s expansion across the world, some locally educated people assume I must have a formal education, and of course credentials, in these fields. The possibility that I, a non-scientist, would read and learn about these subjects out of curiosity – for pleasure – seems to escape them.

Regrettably I feel that this isn't just limited to the local community; it is more and more becoming the case that, even as people have such easy access to so much information, the actual level of interest in and knowledge about a breadth of subjects is declining quite rapidly in most communities. The whole concept of reading and learning for pleasure seems to be very much a minority pursuit these days. In so many fields people just take what is fed to them because they can't be bothered to educate themselves about the issues (which could be anything from H1N1 vaccines, to terrorist threats, to the likelihood of a cellphone triggering an explosion in a filling station). This gives governments and the media huge power to control people as they wish.

[jgl]

Originally Posted by pin

On the big lychee blog today there is a review about a book in relation to the HK education system. It seems to suggest the book is very biased and a bit jaded, but the review does detail some interesting insights.

Review: ‘Does it Have to Be Like This? Education and Socialisation in Hong Kong’ by Anthony J Solloway Big Lychee, Various Sectors

Off topic, but that website was a great example of why not to use paragraph justification. That page was really painful to try read.

[geoffreybuttons]

Originally Posted by PDLM

It was an interesting review, and I agree with many of the points, particularlyRegrettably I feel that this isn't just limited to the local community;

Really? In the UK popular science and history are booming. Authors like Simon Schama, Niall Ferguson, Richard Dawkins, Malcolm Gladwell, Anthony Bevor and Bill Bryson sell by the million. There has also been an exponential increase in the number of book clubs in many countries recently - suggesting that people are reacting to the overwhelming splurge of information they can find online.

[PDLM]

But I suspect it's the same couple of million people buying all the same books. Two million people is 0.03% of the world's population. Many of the other 99.97% seem happy to wallow in their ignorance.