A Tale of a Common Core

Once upon a time, in a land far away, in a vast country lived a population 4 times of the U.S. Not only did they have a common core, albeit called something else, there was a common curriculum--national standard curriculum. Furthermore, there was only one national standard college entrance exam. Ah, the beauty of standard and the efficiency of centralization!

That's right. It was true for all the years of primary and secondary education (12 years in all) and for all the school aged children (over 200 million). All the elementary kids used the same curriculum. All the middle school kids used the same curriculum. And all the high school kids used the same curriculum. There was no private schools, let alone home school. Each year, on the same dates (three hot summer days in July), all high school graduates from all provinces who intended to go to college had to take the same national standard college entrance exam, which was the sole determinant of their college entrance and usually their fate too. That extremely important exam was not even in standardized test form during most of the years.

You guessed it right! That country was China, where I was born and educated all the way through college. This "one common standard", "one common curriculum", and "one common college entrance exam" system was put in place in 1950's right after the Communist Party came to power.

As I am learning of the U.S. common core, I cannot help thinking about the highly centralized Chinese education system. During the last decade, however, that centralization of education in China has been gradually weakened by a series of reformation. National standard curriculum is no more. Many provinces and districts are given the freedom to choose curriculum from quite a few publishers. Private schools appeared in every city and town. There are even a handful brave souls homeschooling their children. Although the college entrance exam is still held on the same dates (now moved to less hot days in June) for all examinees, the exams are now province specific or district specific. Some colleges and universities are even privileged to glean a portion of new students through their own admission process. The picture is far from rosy, but even a small amount of decentralization is progress.

How ironic it is that in the United States of America, the land of the free, some people are attempting to steer the education system seemingly toward the path that was once trod and then diverted from by the communist China.