Little Soldiers
An American Boy, a Chinese School and the Global Race to Achieve
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
'I couldn't put this book down. Whip smart, hilariously funny and shocking. A must-read'
Amy Chua, Yale Law Professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
In 2009, Lenora Chu, her husband Rob, and toddler Rainey, moved from LA to the Chinese megacity Shanghai. The US economy was spinning circles, while China seemed to be eating the planet's economic lunch. What's more, Shanghai teenagers were top in the world at maths, reading and science. China was not only muscling the rest of the world onto the sidelines, but it was also out-educating the West.
So when Rainey was given the opportunity to enroll in Shanghai's most elite public kindergarten, Lenora and Rob grabbed it. Noticing her rambunctious son's rapid transformation - increasingly disciplined and obedient but more anxious and fearful - Lenora begins to question the system. What the teachers were accomplishing was indisputable, but what to make of their methods? Are Chinese children paying a price for their obedience and the promise of future academic prowess? How much discipline is too much? And is the Chinese education system really what the West should measure itself against?
While Rainey was at school, Lenora embarked on a reporting mission to answer these questions in a larger context. Through a combination of the personal narratives and thoughts of teachers, parents, administrators and school children, Little Soldiers unpacks the story of education in China.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An American journalist living in Shanghai, Chu enrolls her toddler son in a local school and comes face-to-face with the methods used to achieve the famed excellence of Chinese students: strict discipline including coercion and threats, relentless study, high parental involvement, and a classroom structure that operates on military precision, extras and gifts, Chinese Communist indoctrination, and high-stakes pressure. Concerned about the system to which she has committed her son, Chu begins a personal investigation and confronts, in discussions with Chinese teachers, students, and parents, and with foreigners, the central paradoxes facing China's traditional culture and booming economy. Attempts by the school's administrator at integrating a kinder, gentler Western approach to education collide with the Chinese emphasis on test taking and competitiveness, just as the Communist ideal of collectivity confronts the market impulses driving a still-developing country. The lively anecdotes, scenes, and conversations that Chu relates while describing her encounters with the Chinese education system will amuse or appall Western readers, and she outlines a system that, despite its high ideals, creates broad gaps in income and achievement. By the end, the successes of Chu's son, who demonstrates mathematical ability and self-discipline along with buoyancy, curiosity, and leadership skills, persuade her that, going forward, the global ideal is a blend of Chinese rigor and Western individuality, whatever that might look like.
