An American Expat in China

This was the last week before our thanksgiving break and the accumulated stress among staff and students is palpable.  Everyone is ready for a vacation.   One of the dark sides of such high academic standards is the amount of strain it puts on students.  You can see bags under their eyes from a lack of sleep.  They have stress over their performance and are rarely happy with any score below a 93% because they all aspire to get into America's top 30 Universities or Colleges.  Their attitudes toward success leads to some unhealthy mindsets.  While I continue to praise the education system here as far superior to the idiot producing factory that is American education, it has it's flaws.  The cultural perspective on education is that every child should have a LOT of education.  They take additional classes after school and on the weekends.  What is most concerning is that they assess their self-worth in relation to their academic success....