The system in China is simple: To even have a CHANCE of successful, professional, middle class (by Chinese standards) life, you MUST get a university degree. To get a university degree, you MUST score in the top Nth percentile of the college entrance exam.
Students get sent to top schools because top schools produce results on this exam, as absurd as the actual exam may be. You have to consider that despite the fact that for the country as a whole these things may not be ideal, for any individual student you would be stupid not to put everything you can towards that test.
And if you don't get a degree, you end up as a laborer of some sort. And in China these people work their asses off and are poorer than a homeless jobless American. It's a different world.
The country has so many people there is far more competition for jobs and resources, and because of the government the current rules are the only way up through the system. Obviously there is a problem with the system, but it should be abundantly clear that it would not be in your best interests to rebel against it before getting through it--you would only hurt yourself turning down the best schools and the entrance exam, and you would not be in any position to effect any changes.
Of course the system can be hacked, bent, manipulated by family connections within the party. The sad thing is by manipulating the "system" China is widening the gap between those who have the theory but pitifully short of application knowledge (University graduates) and those who do things but lack the requisite knowledge (everyone else).
I really have a hard time believing that's even true to begin with, but if it is what a completely pointless exercise.
You just put the numbers to music or make a rhyme - how much you want to bet there is a little industry making CD's for this?
But it is totally pointless. Learning to memorize stuff is useful, but learning to memorize a single thing isn't.
Do you think Chinese parents make their kids learn piano because they themselves were inspired by Mozart and Chopin? No, they learn piano because it is something that the kid can show off (to relatives, colleges, etc).
Those kids learn PI much in the same way.
'Ah, such economic ignorance! What is this "country" that "can't provide" if it isn't the people themselves who are to be provided for. People both take and create jobs.'
For another, this is a largely controlled economy.
Is there something wrong with that? What else are you supposed to test?
Ah, such economic ignorance! What is this "country" that "can't provide" if it isn't the people themselves who are to be provided for. People both take and create jobs.
the national college entrance exam—China's magnified version of the SAT
The SAT is (or was) a covert IQ test. If the Chinese test is the same, then these kids are wasting the vast portion of their energies.
At one top Beijing kindergarten, students must know pi to 100 digits by age 3.
Why would you send your kids to a "top" school in order to destroy them intellectually? Who in the world thinks that such insane tasks could be valuable?