The US is a strange place. On one hand, teachers do not treat academic performance as prominently as those in hyper competitive countries, say, China. Classes in high school are easy. Exams are generally easy. Teachers normally do not spend lots of time coming up with enlightening or challenging problem sets. SAT and ACT are embarrassingly not challenging or differentiating. They have only multiple choices, for fuck's sake -- the simplest form in an exam in other countries! The message from the US education system appears to be that it's okay if you don't want to excel in school but we will give you lots of resources if you're an elite student.
On the other hand, the competition is not going away. It just gets hidden or gets distributed to families. So, kids take 10+ AP courses, if not 15+ as in many of Bay Area schools. Kids participated in hyper competitive ECs to show that they are made to change the world to appease the admission officers. In the meantime, they still need to maintain high, if not perfect, GPAs. As a result, they sacrifice their sleep and therefore their health.
It's as if there are two worlds in the US. When I read the novel Folding Beijing, I felt that I was reading about the US's education system, which is sad.
On the other hand, the competition is not going away. It just gets hidden or gets distributed to families. So, kids take 10+ AP courses, if not 15+ as in many of Bay Area schools. Kids participated in hyper competitive ECs to show that they are made to change the world to appease the admission officers. In the meantime, they still need to maintain high, if not perfect, GPAs. As a result, they sacrifice their sleep and therefore their health.
It's as if there are two worlds in the US. When I read the novel Folding Beijing, I felt that I was reading about the US's education system, which is sad.