Upfront Essay-- “CHINA’S CRAM SCHOOLS” by Brook Larmer

Dr. Seuss once said, “Only you can control your future.” This quote applies to many people around the world but not to students in China. One test, the gaokao, is all that universities look at when choosing applicants. Students develop health risks and many other problems arise. The gaokao does not benefit the students health and determines their lives.

When it comes to the gaokao many students are put at risk medically. Because their lives ride on their scores, students are put under an immense amount of stress. This causes suicide rates to soar and just like Yang Wei, a then senior, had classes starting at 6:20 in the morning and ending at 10:50 at night for three years leading up to the exam. A picture shows students in Hubei Province hooked up to IV drips in order to keep studying. This is an extreme because it is   pushing the students beyond their point of exhaustion. The gaokao causes students to be put at risk in order to study and do well.

Everyone in China is affected by the gaokao, even if they aren’t the ones taking it. Many parents work extra hours when high school nears because even public schools like Maotanchang cost money. Many students move with their mothers or into the dorms so that they can attend the “cram school”. Students are taught with “military rigor” because the teachers’ job security and bonuses depend on raising their students’ test scores. Maotanchang High School goes to extreme lengths to ensure their students education with security guards that roam the campus and surveillance cameras that track the students. Although the results pay off, about 80 percent score high enough to get into university, the conditions are very severe.

It is unfair to base a persons’ life off of one test because it only shows how well they can take the test and how much they can memorize, not what they are good at or smart in. A lot of tests don’t show how intelligent a student is but more how much they are paying attention to what they are reading and how tired they are. A student could get all the questions of the last passage wrong because they were tired and just circled random answers. The article did not describe the test but a test doesn’t always show a students’ best talents, putting them at a disadvantage.

Many event in Chinese cultural revolve around the gaokao. Students are put at risk and teachers, parents, and others go to extremes to help students do their best. Millions of lives every year are determined by the gaokao, which is studied for for three years. Students attend cram schools such as Maotanchang High School where they are taught everything they need to know for the exam.Cram schools for the gaokao cause many problems in Chinese lives.