In China, most international schools, including early education centers, actively advocate American ideas and take American schools as models. Compared with public schools, these international schools have three obvious characteristics. First, I don't pay much attention to mathematics; Second, put special emphasis on children's initiative; Third, teachers have no airs and are willing to get along with students like friends. These three characteristics, contrary to the traditional education in China, are particularly attractive to parents in China. Similarly, if parents in China have been immersed in the article "How good American education is", then they are particularly likely to complain about China's educational tradition. Think about it. Are you like this? Hate interest classes, hate pre-school literacy, hate pre-school reciting poems, hate the Olympics, hate the lifelong college entrance examination. ...

I have never personally experienced how good an international school is. But how good is American education? I have seen many different opinions put forward by Americans themselves. Let me give you a few examples.

The middle class in China yearns for American children to sleep alone early, but the author of Amazon's best-selling parenting book Parenting Without Borders: Parenting Without Borders, after comparing the sleeping habits of infants in the United States, Japan, Britain and other countries, thinks that the American way is not good, and it is more beneficial for children to sleep with their parents.

Parents in China always feel that American children have been playing since childhood, while their own children have been studying hard. However, in the book "Unequal Childhood", the author found through a series of surveys that American middle-class children did not enjoy much free time, and they also piled up from various interest classes. On the contrary, children from the lowest families in America are like herding sheep.

China's parents now very much agree that their parents' mode determines their children's mode, but Americans have written a book called The Myth of Education, which refutes this view and thinks that parents have little influence on their children.

China's parents yearned for Harvard's education, but a Harvard student wrote a book entitled Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class. In his eyes, Harvard education is simply a game played by the rich.

Parents in China think that the education in the United States is good enough for their children to study abroad at an early age, but in the book "World-class Education", the author thinks that the education in many countries with remarkable economic achievements in the world has made great progress, while the education in the United States is still stagnant.

You see, American education is not so magical in the eyes of Americans as it is in the eyes of China. American thoughtful people often doubt the lack of education in their own country, and they will compare with other countries in the world. This spirit of introspection is the reason why I like the book The Smartest Child in the World. The author is a senior American journalist. He interviewed many international exchange students, mainly writing about their exchange experiences and feelings of being educated in a foreign country. The three exchange students went to high schools in different states in the United States, and they were transferred to Korea, Finland and Poland. So this book actually compares the similarities and differences between American education and these three countries.