The Best of East and West

Re-Education by Ann Hulbert was in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, April 1, 2007. The article describes how China is working to introduce an American style liberal arts approach to college education with more emphasis on critical thinking and originality and less emphasis on memorization. China wants to increase its competitiveness and seeks "a creative mix of the best of East and West."

This is in line with what I have been saying: we need to borrow the best China has to offer in education to better compete against China. Each side, East and West, has gone too far into its favorite approach and neglected the less favored approach. The West has gone over-board with critical thinking and has neglected teaching basic knowledge and skills.

In the Winding Spring Process of Education, acquiring knowledge and skills is the extension of knowledge in the learning phase of the process.

Robert