Paul ...

A very well-stated commentary that took my earlier perspective of the serious need for reform in the Chinese educational system a bit further. BRAVO! As I am no longer in China, I fear I can only relate to what I had witnessed during the relatively short period I spent in Shenzhen. I was not working for a government affiliation, but a quickly organized private outfit headed by two Chinese-American investors from Los Angeles. It was obvious from the get-go that what they actually knew about running a school could have been stuck through the eye of a small needlehead, still with plenty of room for the sunlight to come through! So, who were the
"experts" that would make this investment pay big yuan to this acquisitive duo? They were, of course, counting on the quickly-assembled band of ESL adventurers (of which I was one), but mainly the Chinese staff left over from a school in Harbin that had failed miserably. TEXTBOOKS, you say? What textbooks? CURRICULA, you say? What curricula? ACCOMMODATIONS FOR THE NEWLY-ARRIVED FOREIGN STAFF, you say? The most exiguous quarters my wife and I had ever been offered in all our travels. In fact, she surprised the hell out of me by having recalled and utilized a most fitting line from that 1949 Bette Davis masterpiece, to wit, "WHAT A DUMP!" These inequities are, more or less, to be expected in a private operation, while one would assume that conditions would be better organized in a goverment-run school. Ergo, what you are saying is that there is hardly any difference between the two. If this BE the case, then surely what you say about China's eventual failure to meet a major reform (becoming proficient in the English language) will become quite evident to the world community. Perhaps there are far more in China than we realize who -- with the profoundest of apologies to the late, great Clark Gable -- really don't give a damn! God, I hope this isn't truly the case.

Cheers,
Ellis