Seeing that the atmosphere was a little sad, one of them smiled and said: "Why do you say this, if you want to say something, let's say something happy, when my daughter was in elementary school, there were a lot of interesting things happening in the school, although I was tired, but I had fun a few times a year." ”

"What's the fun?" Gao Xi also felt that it was not interesting to discuss those serious topics, education is not something that the people can change, and talking too much will only add to the troubles.

"Before I came to the United States, I always thought that American primary and secondary school students should be free and happy, not have to suffer, and they didn't pay much attention to their grades. But later I found out that in order to get students to get good grades, American teachers also tried everything they could, and sometimes they would rather pretend to be ugly. My child's original elementary school, before the time to evaluate the grades, if the children in the class have good grades, or if there is a child who has won any awards, then the teacher must perform a very distinctive program, my daughter's teacher is a man, I remember that time my daughter won a prize in a piano competition, and then this teacher wore Marilyn Monroe's skirt and high heels, and wore a wig in front of the whole class and the parents of the students, and then danced, which made us laugh at that time. ”

"Well, speaking of which, my son's original elementary school had something similar. At that time, the grades of their class were very good, and as soon as the teacher was happy, he cooked a meal for the whole class and parents, and one person had to cook for dozens of people, which was really tiring, that is, fortunately, the Americans ate relatively simple, and she was also smart, so she chose barbecue, which was considered to have completed the task. ”

Gao Xi said suspiciously: "I thought that American children don't pay attention to grades, and they just play on weekdays, how does this feel completely different from what I used to see on the Internet?" ”

"Actually, elementary school is fine, but in middle school, it's not ordinarily tired. My daughter is in high school and her name is Lele. Middle schools in the United States start classes at 8 a.m. School ends at 3 p.m. At first glance, it seems that students have an easy time in their studies, but the reality is that many students go to bed at 1 or 2 a.m. every day and only sleep four or five hours a day. In addition to completing homework, they devote a lot of time to extracurricular activities and find their 'differentiating highlights'. ”

"What's the difference?" Gossey asked.

In addition to going to the Juilliard School on weekends and practicing the piano every day, her spare time is filled with various activities: running a school newspaper. Interviews and scripts; Participate in tennis training, 1 hour per week; Create clubs with classmates and go to the community to raise funds for tree planting; In addition, there is also her favorite school math team training, and she is a rare female captain among the math leaders who are mostly boys. Every week after school, Lele has one or two intensive trainings, doing all kinds of strange problems, and going out to participate in large and small competitions. Lele's team won the first place in the mathematics competition in which more than 100 local secondary schools participated. This type of school club is very popular in American high schools. The main clubs include the debate team, the Olympiad science club, the school newspaper, the math team, etc. They tend to be based on a point system, with club members accumulating 'points' based on the number of matches played and their performance. ”

"Oh my god, that's a lot of work." Gaucy stuck out his tongue, which was completely different from what he imagined American high school.

"yes, it's busy. And these things are still very troublesome, usually, inter-school competitions are more frequent, but only members who have accumulated a considerable number of points. to be eligible to represent the team at interstate and even higher levels; If the points are consistently insufficient, it means elimination. Sometimes, the pressure of joining a club or society can even outweigh academics. Lele's best friend joins the debate team. Tournaments are played almost every week, and a lot of time is required to prepare materials and revise arguments repeatedly. Some students participate in Olympiad science clubs, such as conducting "genetic" research, which is a hundred times more difficult than classroom studies. These extracurricular activities are all at least two hours after class and even more after reaching the finals. Students go home at the earliest time for dinner, sometimes at seven or eight o'clock, and then put in their homework. Going to bed at 12 o'clock at night is considered early, and going to bed at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning is the norm. ”

"This is more exaggerated than when I was in my third year of high school, I was already crazy in my third year of high school, I went to bed at twelve o'clock at night, and got up at less than five o'clock in the morning, just to take the university exam, but fortunately, I have no distractions, and I don't have to worry about other things, but you Jia Lele seems to be busy with other things?"

"Who says no, but there is no way, you don't know, around Lele, almost everyone lives such a busy life, and this atmosphere prompts everyone to pursue their own interests This is the culture of American middle schools, of course, it is also mixed with the American-style 'college entrance examination baton' effect. According to one statistic, 14,000 of the students who applied to Harvard this year scored more than 700 on the SAT in reading, 17,000 in math, and 15,000 in writing, and another 3,800 graduated with honors in their high school...... When students are unable to distinguish between winners and losers in grades, extracurricular activities become another battleground for competition. A harsh reality is that there has always been a 'specialty' column on the U.S. college application form, and students are not only required to list their specialties, but also have a 'region: state, national, world' grade prompt under the form. If it's not an achievement, it's not a specialty, and the specialty must be 'different'. Students who have blank specialty columns are basically unlikely to be admitted to prestigious schools. ”

"My mother, compared to American high schools, our Chinese high schools don't seem to be anything at all, as long as you learn the knowledge in the books well." Gao Xi was surprised.

"Alas, that's it, many American children participate in various activities from an early age, in fact, to discover what they are good at, so they have many hobbies. But it must be admitted that it is not easy to find your true expertise. ”

"It's not so easy to find a specialty, some children's interests and specialties are not the same at all." Gao Xi has also read books, so he knows very well that sometimes the things that interest you are not your specialty, but the things you are good at may not be interesting, and life is so contradictory.

"Who says it's not, Lele's math teacher once sighed when he listened to her play, 'Watching your two hands fly quickly on the keyboard, it's like watching you solve mathematical inequalities, attacking left and right!' Mathematics and music are Lele's interests, and they are also her 'good points', which is not easy, so she is undoubtedly one of the few 'successful students'. But in this kind of education ecology, there are also people who can't hold on, almost collapse, and some students will run to the teacher's office to cry, but in fact, their grades are not very bad......"

"Your family is really giving you a long face! I will definitely be able to be admitted to a good university in the future. Gossi encouraged.

Some people say that it is this characteristic of American education that allows students to develop many interests and consider "integration" when choosing a major. Some people have also seen that American students feel a lot of pressure on this, and the tricks of taking medicine and cheating psychologists have intensified. It is common sense that there are no shortcuts to studying in the United States, and there is no way to surprise "excellent".

It's just that Gao Xi didn't understand this before, just like he didn't understand college before he went to college, and took the university he saw in books and TV as reality, but after going to college, he found out that it wasn't like that at all, and he was disappointed and a little helpless.

Probably the same is true of American education, but this person may not be talking about the whole team, there are so many middle schools in the United States, but one or two or even a dozen schools are like this, and it doesn't represent the whole thing, maybe there really has to be that kind of place where you can read high school while having fun, and then be admitted to an Ivy League university.

"Look at you, you just said two happy words, why did you go back again, really. This Halloween is coming, the West Field Lord arrived in the United States not long ago, there should not be a Halloween, this year can be fun, very interesting, and like China, every festival, many things in the store will be discounted, at this time there are a lot of people who buy things, and things that are usually unaffordable can be bought at this time. If the owner of the west field has anything to buy, he can also choose this day. Gao Kefeng saw that this topic became heavier and heavier the more he talked about it, so he quickly led the topic to something else.

"I know Halloween, there are also young people in China who like it in recent years, Chinese just love to be lively, and they have thought about any festival." This Christmas has been celebrated as Valentine's Day, and I think Halloween is almost over. However, it doesn't mean much to me whether or not I have a discount, and I still prefer to buy things according to the plan rather than buying frantically while on sale. Gao Xi said with a smile.

A few people then began to talk about American holidays, from Halloween to Easter, then from Easter to Thanksgiving, and then to Christmas, Valentine's Day, anyway, the American holidays all talked about.

Gao Xi didn't care about these festivals before, he didn't like festivals in the first place, and he didn't have much interest in Chinese festivals, let alone foreign festivals, for this, he was also severely criticized by his good buddies, saying that other festivals don't care, but there are two festivals that must be lived.

At that time, Gao Xi asked him what the festival was, and he said that one was Valentine's Day, which was an excellent time to pick up girls, if you were smart enough, you could definitely take this opportunity to find the girl you like, and then successfully get off the list.

According to the good buddy, Gao Xi has always been single, but he doesn't celebrate Valentine's Day, and he is always bored at home alone, so how can a girl chase you to your house, and I really believe that a fairy daughter can fly down from the sky?

Another holiday is Singles' Day, since it is a single, then this day must be well lived.

Of course, the purpose of Singles' Day is not for you to commemorate, but to be able to find a compatible other half.

This single man meets a single woman, it's like dry wood meets a fire, see if you can light it. (To be continued......)