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A brief introduction to the Chinese education system

This content is associated with The Open University Childhood and Youth Studies qualification .

Structure of the Chinese education system

In China, education is divided into three categories: basic education, higher education, and adult education. By law, each child must have nine years of compulsory education from primary school (six years) to junior secondary education (three years). 

Basic education

Basic education in China includes pre-school education (usually three years), primary education (six years, usually starting at the age of six) and secondary education (six years).

Secondary education has two routes: academic secondary education and specialized/vocational/technical secondary education. Academic secondary education consists of junior (three years) and senior middle schools (three years). Junior middle school graduates wishing to continue their education take a locally administered entrance exam, on the basis of which they will have the option of i) continuing in an academic senior middle school; or ii) entering a vocational middle school (or leaving school at this point) to receive two to four years of training. Senior middle school graduates wishing to go to universities must take National Higher Education Entrance Exam (Gao Kao). According to the Chinese Ministry of Education, in June 2015, 9.42 million students took the exam.

Higher education

Higher education is further divided into two categories: 1) universities that offer four-year or five-year undergraduate degrees to award academic degree qualifications; and 2) colleges that offer three-year diploma or certificate courses on both academic and vocational subjects.  Postgraduate and doctoral programmes are only offered at universities. 

Adult education

Adult education ranges from primary education to higher education. For example, adult primary education includes Workers’ Primary Schools, Peasants’ Primary Schools in an effort to raise literacy levels in remote areas; adult secondary education includes specialized secondary schools for adults; and adult higher education includes traditional radio/TV universities (now online), most of which offer certificates/diplomas but a few offer regular undergraduate degrees.

Term times and school hours

The academic year is divided into two terms for all the educational institutions: February to mid-July (six weeks of summer vacation) and September to mid/late-January (four weeks of winter vacation).  There are no half-terms.

Most schools start in the early morning (about 7:30 am) to early evening (about 6 pm) with 2 hours lunch break. Many schools have evening self-study classes running from 7 pm-9 pm so students can finish their homework and prepare for endless tests. If schools do not run self-study evening classes, students still have to do their homework at home, usually up to 10 pm. On average, primary school pupils spend about seven to eight hours at school whilst a secondary school student spends about twelve to fourteen hours at school if including lunchtime and evening classes. Due to the fierce competitiveness to get into good universities, the pressure to do well for Gao Kao is intense.  Many schools hold extra morning classes in science and math for three to four hours on Saturdays. If schools do not have Saturday morning classes, most parents would send their children to expensive cramming schools at weekends or organise one-to-one private tuition for their children over the weekend.

Find out more on Chinese education

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Learn about Mandarin Chinese as a tool for communication and gain insights into Chinese society and culture. This free course, Beginners’ Chinese: a taster course, provides a brief introduction to the Chinese language, its scripts and sounds, and how words are formed. You will hear short conversations where people greet each other and introduce ...

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• Originally published: Tuesday, 14 July 2015
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Tag: Essays

Essay: 《不死鸟》the immortal bird by sanmao.

• Post author By Kendra
• Post date March 25, 2023
• 4 Comments on Essay: 《不死鸟》The Immortal Bird by Sanmao

In this tear-jerker essay, famous Taiwanese authoress Sanmao ponders on the value of her own life. It was written as she grieved the drowning of her beloved Spanish husband in 1979, and is all the more tragic in light of her suicide 12 years later.

• Tags Essays

Essay:《爱》Love by Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang)

• Post date June 12, 2020
• 5 Comments on Essay:《爱》Love by Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang)

A tragic, dreamlike little essay from writer  Zhang Ailing  (张爱玲, English name Eileen Chang) about love and destiny. This is one of her more well-known works of micro-prose, written in 1944. HSK 5-6.

Essay:《打人》Hitting Someone by Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang)

• Post date June 10, 2020
• 1 Comment on Essay:《打人》Hitting Someone by Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang)

An essay from Chinese lit diva Zhang Ailing about a scene of police brutality she witnessed in Shanghai in the 1940s. HSK 6 and up.

Essay: 《感谢困难》Thanking Life’s Challenges by Lin Qingxuan

• Post date May 19, 2020
• 5 Comments on Essay: 《感谢困难》Thanking Life’s Challenges by Lin Qingxuan

You can skip your Instagram yoga gratitude break today, here’s another one from Taiwanese Buddhist essayist Lin Qingxuan (林清玄). HSK 4-5.

Essay: 《蝴蝶的种子》Seed of a Butterfly by Lin Qingxuan

• Post date May 7, 2020
• 2 Comments on Essay: 《蝴蝶的种子》Seed of a Butterfly by Lin Qingxuan

Taiwanese Buddhist essayist Lin Qingxuan marvels at the wonders of nature, time, space, and reincarnation. This piece is all about awe of the natural world, and you’ll learn some Discovery Channel vocab, like “pupa”, “mate”, “breed”, “spawn”, and lots of animal names.

• Tags Essays , Science

Letter: Ba Jin’s Correspondence with “Young Friends Searching for Ideals” – Part II

• Post date May 5, 2020
• 3 Comments on Letter: Ba Jin’s Correspondence with “Young Friends Searching for Ideals” – Part II

In Part II of this two-part series, we’ll read acclaimed author Ba Jin’s reply to the 10 elementary school students who wrote him a letter asking him for moral guidance in 1987. I’m not a super weepy person, but I legit cried reading this. This is a noble, elevating piece of writing, and reading it, I’m reminded that in all societies, there are those who struggle with the materialism that engulfs us.

Essay:《帮忙》 Helping Out

• Post date May 4, 2020
• 3 Comments on Essay:《帮忙》 Helping Out

In this one-paragraph read (HSK 2-3), Little Brother wants to help dad get ready to leave the house, but his contribution falls flat.

Essay: 《丑石》The Ugly Rock by Jia Pingwa

• Post date April 29, 2020
• No Comments on Essay: 《丑石》The Ugly Rock by Jia Pingwa

Jia Pingwa (贾平凹) is one of China’s modern literary greats, and in this short story, it shows. I don’t know how this guy crammed so many insights on the human condition into a few paragraphs about a rock, but he undeniably did.

Letter: Ba Jin’s Correspondence with “Young Friends Searching for Ideals” – Part I

• Post date April 27, 2020
• No Comments on Letter: Ba Jin’s Correspondence with “Young Friends Searching for Ideals” – Part I

In the first of a two-part post, we’ll look at a letter sent in 1987 from a group of elementary school students to the anarchist writer Ba Jin (most famous for his 1931 novel The Family) as they struggle to cope with China’s changing social values. In Part II, I’ll translate Ba Jin’s reply.

Essay: Desk-chairs of the Future

• Post date May 28, 2014
• 15 Comments on Essay: Desk-chairs of the Future

This kid was asked to imagine the perfect desk-chair of the future – what it would look like, and what it would do – and boy, does he ever. The chair turns into all kinds of utopian machinery. It flies, it helps you sleep, and it carries your books to school. Sentence structure is pretty […]

Essay: Catching Frogs

• Post date May 7, 2014
• 52 Comments on Essay: Catching Frogs

Though this post is beginner-level, it’s also very condensed. I’d say you’ll have to stop and remind yourself what something means every few words or so.

Essay: My First Telephone Call

• Post date June 11, 2013
• 24 Comments on Essay: My First Telephone Call

Though the conclusion of this essay might fall a bit flat for all of us who are very used to having a telephone, this is an interesting glimpse into what a monumental rite of passage it is for children in rural areas to have one or use one for the first time.

Essay: Papa, Please Don’t Smoke!

• Post date June 3, 2013
• 17 Comments on Essay: Papa, Please Don’t Smoke!

In this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as “Intermediate”, beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below.

Guest Post: The exam of life

• Post date May 6, 2013
• 26 Comments on Guest Post: The exam of life

Well well well, lookie here. A guest post! Today we’ll be reading Rebecca Chua’s (Chinese name: 蔡幸彤) translation of an essay from her textbook. The post is about the rewards of honesty. I remember my own textbook being full of these types of essays, so thank you, Rebecca, for the traditional read.

My Gluttonous Elder Brother

• Post date January 8, 2013
• 10 Comments on My Gluttonous Elder Brother

I set out to do a beginner post since I haven’t done one in a while, but no joy, I think I have to classify this as intermediate. Beginners are welcome to try this out, as most of the words are simple and the subject matter is a bit immature (so of course it totally […]

News: Snowstorm has caused 15 deaths and 2000 flight delays or cancellations

• Post date January 2, 2013
• 8 Comments on News: Snowstorm has caused 15 deaths and 2000 flight delays or cancellations

In the spirit of the holiday season, which is winding to a blissfully overweight close, I give you an article about something you may or may not have just struggled through if you flew home for the holidays (which I did).

Our Family’s Jump Rope Contest

• Post date October 2, 2012
• 17 Comments on Our Family’s Jump Rope Contest

A single-paragraph essay about the results of a family jump rope competition.

After I Got My New Years’ Money

• Post date September 10, 2012
• 20 Comments on After I Got My New Years’ Money

For those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money – it’s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay […]

Essay: A Foolish Affair from my Childhood

• Post date August 29, 2012
• 20 Comments on Essay: A Foolish Affair from my Childhood

This essay is about a kid who takes his father’s advice a little too literally (with amusing results).

Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me

• Post date May 3, 2012
• 18 Comments on Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me

And now a break from all the intermediate and advanced exercises I’ve been posting lately. This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it’s never clarified) homework.

How to Write a Chinese Essay

Dec 16, 2020 | Guest Blogs & Media

The more essays you write, the better you get at communicating with Chinese. To write a good essay, you first have to reach a high language mastery level.

Do you admire the students who write seamless Chinese essay? If you do, then you should know that you too can achieve this level of proficiency. In the meantime, don’t be afraid to pay for your essay if you cannot write it on your own. Online academic writers are a resource each student should take advantage of.

Here are tips to help you get better at writing essays in Chinese.

Learn New Chinese Words

The key to communicating in a new language is learning as many words as you can. Take it upon yourself to learn at least one Chinese word a day. Chinese words are to essay writing what bricks are to a building. The more words you have, the better you get at constructing meaningful sentences.

Case in point, if you’re going to write a Chinese sentence that constitutes ten words, but you don’t know the right way to spell three of those words, your sentence might end up not making sense.

During your Chinese learning experience, words are your arsenal and don’t forget to master the meaning of each word you learn.

Read Chinese Literature

Reading is the most effective way of learning a new language. Remember not to read for the sake of it; find out the meaning of each new word you encounter. When you are an avid reader of Chinese literature, nothing can stop you from writing fluent Chinese.

In the beginning, it might seem like you’re not making any progress, but after a while, you will notice how drastically your writing will change. Receiving information in Chinese helps your brain get accustomed to the language’s sentence patterns, and you can translate this to your essays.

Be extensive in your reading to ensure you get as much as possible out of each article. Remember that it’s not about how fast you finish an article, but rather, how much you gain from the exercise.

Translate Articles from your Native Language to Chinese

Have you ever thought about translating your favorite read to Chinese? This exercise might be tedious, but you will learn a lot from it. The art of translation allows you to seamlessly shift from one language’s sentence pattern into the other. The more you do this, the easier it will be for your brain to convert English sentences into Chinese phrases that people can comprehend.

You can always show your Chinese professor your translations for positive criticism. The more you get corrected, the better you will get at translation. Who knows, you might actually like being a translator once you graduate.

Final Thoughts

by Adrian Lomezzo

Adrian  Lomezzo is a freelance writer. Firstly, he has been developing as a content manager and working with different websites, and the main goal of his was to develop the content making it in the first place. Secondly,  Adrian  had a big desire to help students and adults in self-development in this field and teach them to improve their skills. As a lover of traveling, he did not want to be in one place, and became a writer who could be closer to everyone, and share precious information from the corners of the world.

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The 20th national class essay contest.

The 20th Annual CLASS National Essay Contest 《彼此了解，彼此关怀》 Understanding One Another, Caring for One Another

Our increasingly isolated and polarized world has made it harder than ever to reach out and care for others. This year, we seek essays that discuss how to love and support all members of our communities, particularly those who are marginalized or misunderstood.

Respond to ONE of the topics below, depending on your grade level. In the interest of privacy and respect for others, please DO NOT use the actual names of people in your essay. 

Elementary School (K-5th grade)          《小小善行》 Describe a small act of kindness in your life that had a big impact. It could have happened in your own family, at school or elsewhere in your community.  What was this simple act and how did it have such a big impact?

Middle School (6-8th grade)

《关心别人》 Narrate a memorable instance in your life when you or someone else helped a person in need. Describe the condition this person had (physical, mental, financial, unfair treatment, etc.) and how they received the help they needed. What was the end result of helping this individual?

High School（9-12th grade)  

《如何针对不平事》 Analyze the challenges faced by individuals or groups due to their differences, and discuss any injustices you have observed or experienced in your community. How can individuals, groups, or institutions foster an atmosphere that welcomes and respects everyone to address these injustices?  

The 20th CLASS Essay Contest Topics

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The submission deadline extended: November 10, 2023

Copyright © 2024 CLASSK12 All Rights Reserved.

The Guide to Writing Your First Mandarin Essay

When you want to be able to make writing your first Mandarin essay nice and easy, it pays to put plenty of thought and effort into the preparation. As the old saying goes ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail.’ To give you plenty of food for thought we’ve put together everything you need to know to get things moving. All you need to do is work through the following steps, and you’ll be submitting your essay in no time at all.

Check you understand the basics

There are so many things you have to think about when writing an essay, particularly when it’s not in your native language. But as with any cognitively demanding task, the process for getting started is always the same. Check you understand the following basics and you’ll be heading in the right direction:

• Do you know what the question means?
• Have you made a note of the final submission date?
• Make sure you read some past examples to get a feel for what’s expected of you
• Do you understand the question that has been set?
• Do you know who you can talk to if you need advice along the way?
• Are there any restrictions on the dialect you should be aware of?

Once you can write the answers to the above down on a single side of the paper, you are ready to tackle the main part of the problem: putting pen to paper.

Set aside time to write

The chances are that you’re not going to be able to pen the entire essay in a single sitting, and that’s okay. It’s nothing to be ashamed of or to worry about, and it’s natural that you need to work across multiple days when writing your first essay.

If you want to be able to make great progress, the most important thing is sticking to a routine. You need to have consistency in your application, and you need to be able to know when you are at your most productive. It’s no good staying up late one night and then carrying on early the next morning. You’d be far better off writing for the same amount of time but on two successive afternoons. Think about how your studies fit in with the rest of your daily life, and then choose the time that seems most appropriate. If you box it off and decide it’s only for writing, you’ll be in a great routine before you even know it.

Clear space so you can focus

As well as having time to write each day, you need a place to write too. The world is full of distractions (most of them are digital and social) so that means you’re going to want to keep yourself to yourself, and your phone in a different room. It might seem a little boring or uncomfortable at first, but you need to practice the habit of deep work. It’s what will allow you to create the most in the shortest time — ideal if you want to have plenty of time leftover to spend doing the other things that matter to you.

Have a daily word count in mind

Telling yourself that you want to write an essay today is one thing, but if you’re really going to push yourself to stick to your goal then you need to get quantitative. If you have a word count in mind that you need to hit, then it will prevent you from giving up and throwing in the towel the minute you start having to think and concentrate more than feels normal. Just like working out in the gym, it’s the temporary moments of extra effort that really drive the big differences. It’s when you’ll see the biggest improvement in your writing ability, and the lessons you teach yourself will stay with you for years to come. Ideal if you want to become a fluent Mandarin writer, as well as an engaging face-to-face speaker.

Read widely to provide context

When you’re immersed in an essay it can be all too easy to become blinkered and fail to pay attention to everything else that’s going on around you. Of course, you want to be focused on the task at hand, but you don’t want to be single-minded to the point of ignoring other great learning resources that are just a click away.

Reading widely is one of the best ways to improve your essay writing because it exposes you to techniques and approaches used by the best of the best. You’re not expected to be able to instantly write like a native speaker after an hour of reading. But what you will be able to do with consistent application is build up confidence and familiarity with written Mandarin. Over time this will reflect on the quality and depth of your writing as you gradually improve and take onboard lessons you’ve learned.

Take a break before you proofread

Last but not least, you need to remember that essay writing is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s all about taking the time to get things written before you hand them in, not racing through to try and finish on time. If you want to get the most out of your writing you need to take a day off between finishing your draft and proofing it. That way your brain will have had plenty of time to reflect on the work you’ve produced, and you’ll be able to spot many more little mistakes and places for improvement than you would if you proofed right away.

Final Thoughts

Writing Mandarin is a challenging task that will test your language skills and make you think hard about how to apply what you’ve learned so far. It might be slow going to begin with, but that’s great as it means you’re pushing your limits and building on your existing skills. If you want to be able to master Mandarin, you need to persevere and stay the course. Once you do, you’ll start to improve a lot faster than you expect.

By Diana Adjadj | A Super Chineasian

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Primary 2 Chinese compo made simple & easy

After learning how to write basic Chinese sentences in P1 , children will move on to Chinese picture composition in Primary 2.

This is also one of the more challenging tasks that your P2 child will face in their Primary 2 Chinese class.

Unlike Chinese composition writing (看图作文 kan tu zuo wen) in Primary 3 and 4 where your child will be given 4 pictures and they need to write a composition that’s based on them, composition writing in Primary 2 involves putting sentences together to form a simple story. This is known as 看图写话 (kan tu xie hua).

How does Primary 2 Chinese composition look like?

Here’s a Primary 2 Chinese composition sample to help you see what’s expected.

As you can see, your Primary 2 child will be given a picture and they’ll be required to write about a minimum of 5 sentences to describe what they see and turn the picture into a short story.

This will act as an introduction to Chinese composition in Primary 3 where they’ll need to write a more completed version of a story using paragraphs.

(If you’re curious to know more about P3 picture compositions 看图作文 (kan tu zuo wen), you can check out this blog post.)

How to write Chinese compositions in P2?

When it comes to writing Chinese compos, many children in P2 have problems knowing what to write.

For example, they might not know how to start a Chinese composition, how to write sentences that are grammatically correct or how to end their compositions. These are important skills that should be taught early so that they have the right foundation in their Chinese writing early on in their primary school years.

Here’s your friendly P2 Chinese composition guide

If you need help teaching your child the basics of Chinese picture composition in Primary 2, check out this Chinese compo video guide for P2.

I’ll take you through everything you need to know about Primary 2 Chinese compo writing step-by-step and we’ll cover things like:

• What Chinese picture composition is all about
• What’s the ideal structure of a good Chinese composition
• How to manage your time while writing
• How do we start writing a good Chinese composition

What about grading? How are Chinese Compositions graded in P2?

If you are worried about the P2 holistic assessment on compo writing, here’s what you need to know about how your child will be graded.

For P2 Chinese compos, teachers will usually look out for 2 things – whether a child can write a grammatically correct sentence and how well they can put the sentences together to describe the given picture.

These 2 parts will usually contribute 5 marks each and the total marks for the composition will be 10.

Gauging the standard of your child’s Chinese Composition

Many parents find it hard to mark Chinese compositions themselves and turn to model composition answers instead.

Although model compositions serves as a good guide for writing inspiration, they can’t really tell how much progress your child is making on their Chinese creative writing journey.

If you want to understand your child’s Chinese writing skills in Primary 2 better, free feel to send me a copy of your child’s composition practice along with the picture and I’ll gladly provide some free feedback to help your child improve their writing skills.

Additional tips on Primary 2 Chinese composition

Here are 3 tips that you can do with your child to help them improve their Chinese Composition writing skills. Doing these activities on a regular basis will not only expand their vocabulary, but get them used to the sequencing of sentences.

• Read Chinese storybooks that appeals to your child’s interest together. This exposes them to new words and they’ll learn how to use them over time.
• Watch Chinese cartoons with your child. As your child listens to how Chinese is spoken, they’ll develop a natural “language sense” to the Chinese language
• Create opportunities for your kid to practise speaking in Chinese and learn how to express themselves better.

Follow my blog for updates

• Composition Tips
• Comprehension Tips
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Talking about School Life in Chinese

Posted by Lilian Li 15440

Are you studying in China? Whether it’s university, high school or middle school, today’s article will show you basic words and expressions you can use when you want to talk about school life in Chinese.

1. Imagine you are at school, these are vocabularies of school places you may mention when you talk with your friends!

Assuming that you’re the first time to be in your school, it’s common you may ask for directions . Let’s put the above words in practice:

　 Hànyǔ jiàoshì zài jǐ lóu? A:汉语教室在几楼？ (Which floor is the Chinese classroom at?)

　 Zài sān lóu. B:在三楼。 (It’s on the third floor.)

　 Wùlǐ shyàn shì zài nǎli? A:物理实验室在哪里？ (Where is the physics laboratory?)

Zài yī hào jiàoxué lóu de èr lóu. B:在一号教学楼的二楼。 (It is on the 2nd floor in No.1 teaching building.)

　 xǐshǒu jiān zài nǎli? A:洗手间在哪里？ (Where is the washroom?)

　 Zài yī lóu. Nán xǐshǒu jiān zài zuǒbiān, nǚ xǐshǒu jiān zài yòubiān. B:在一楼。男洗手间在左边，女洗手间在右边。 (It’s on the first floor. Man’s washroom on the left, woman’s on the right.)

2. School is a place where you have diffirent lessons, homework and exams:

Actually, everything will be interesting and amazing when you arrive at your school at the beginning, and you will be so excited to express your enthusiasm even to grasses and flowers.

3.The following paragraph shows you how to talk about school life:

Wǒ jīnnián yǒu shí mén kè, Yīngyǔ, Hànyǔ, yīnyuè, shùxué, diànnǎo, wùlǐ, huàxué, shēngwù, dìlǐ hé lìshǐ. 我今年有十门课，英语、汉语、音乐、数学、电脑、物理、化学、生物、地理和历史。 (I have ten different subjects this year: English, Chinese, music, maths, computer, physics, biology, geography, and history.)

Wǒ xǐhuan shàng Hànyǔ kè, yīnwèi Hànyǔ hěn yǒuqù. 我喜欢上汉语课，因为汉语很有趣。 (I like Chinese class because it’s very interesting.)

Wǒ měitiān shàng liù jié kè. Wǒmen bā diǎn kāishǐ shàngkè. Wǒ shàngwǔ shàng sì jié kè. 我每天上六节课。我们八点开始上课。我上午上四节课。 (I have 6 lessons every day. We start at 8 o’clock. I have 4 four classes in the morning. )

Wǒmen zhōngwǔ shí’èr diǎn chī wǔfàn. Wǒ xiàwǔ zài shàng liǎng jié kè, wǒmen sān diǎn fàngxué. 我们中午十二点吃午饭。我下午再上两节课，我们三点放学。 (We have lunch at 12 o’clock. Then I have 2 classes in the afternoon. We finish school at 3 o’clock.)

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Scaffolding Instruction of Chinese Essay Writing with Assessment as Learning

• First Online: 18 May 2018

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• Cheng Gong 2 ,
• Chee Lay Tan 2 &
• Chee Kuen Chin 2  

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This article shares ideas of how to teach writing through activities based on constructivism and scaffolding. The findings suggested that there is little relation between teacher’s feedback and students’ writing improvement. Instead, the relation is found between the numbers of communication seeking feedback the students send out.

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Gong, C., Tan, C.L., Chin, C.K. (2018). Scaffolding Instruction of Chinese Essay Writing with Assessment as Learning. In: Soh, K. (eds) Teaching Chinese Language in Singapore. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8860-5_9

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The Shenandoah County School Board’s Terrible History Lesson

O n May 10, 2024, 161 years to the day after General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s last breath fighting for the Confederate insurrection intended to continue enslavement of human beings in America, the Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 to restore his name on a high school in rural Virginia.

More than 50 concerned community members, students, and parents, including one of the first African Americans to integrate Stonewall Jackson High School in 1963, and hundreds of their supporters, continued to advocate a new reckoning of the county’s heritage of enslavement, segregation, and racial injustice. They affirmed the names a community committee selected in 2021 renaming the school as Mountain View High and another school named after Confederate generals Turner Ashby and Robert E. Lee as Honey Run Elementary.

But the school board heard none of it. Instead, the board sided with those idolizing the faith and loyalty of “heroes” like Jackson, condemning pandemic-related processes that did not take into account the voices of “we the people,” and complaining about “woke outsiders.” At the end of the board meeting, the board had delivered a disgraceful new chapter in our community’s history and a terrible lesson for the children they are sworn to educate.

Historians will debate the consequences of the board’s vote and perhaps whether the nation’s current political mood has rekindled racial tensions. But the school board members and their embittered supporters made it clear that the shadows of our segregated past still loom large.

For context, we should look at 2020, particularly the 8 minutes and 46 seconds of video that emblazoned the truth of racial injustice in America. After George Floyd’s murder by police in May of that year, national, state, and local leaders across the nation took up resolutions against racism, including Shenandoah County’s Board of Supervisors and the county School Board.

At around the same time in our mountain-cradled county, another incident reminded us of America’s lingering racial unrest: an encounter between a white mob and a black pastor in Edinburg, Va. On June 1, 2020, Pastor McCray approached a couple illegally dumping a refrigerator on his property, asking them to leave. They left, returned with three more people and began “attacking him physically, saying ‘they don’t give a darn’ about ‘my black life and the Black Lives Matter stuff,’ and telling him they would ‘kill’ him,” according to Associated Press reports. McCray put distance between himself and the mob by brandishing a gun that he was legally licensed to carry. When the police arrived, they arrested the Black man with the gun.

The Shenandoah County Sheriff later apologized for the incident, but it reinforces the need for formal resolutions against racism and leaders willing to make difficult decisions for a more inclusive community. The Shenandoah County School Board at the time agreed. They chose action, encouraged by then-Department of Education secretary Atif Qarni and then-Governor Ralph Northam, both of whom supported statewide removal of Confederate leaders’ names of public schools.

The 2020 school board, tying in as the next step to its June “Resolution condemning racism and affirming the division’s commitment to an inclusive school environment for all,” retired the names of Confederate leaders, and developed a process for community and student input into choosing more unifying public school names. On September 10, 2020, the then school board reaffirmed the foregoing motion, as well as moving forward with renaming the schools on southern campus. Community committees met during the next three months, with new names chosen at the January 14, 2021 meeting, after seven months of public input.

By 2024, recently elected school board members focused their arguments for restoration on the former board’s “secret” process during the COVID “plan-demic,” stating that community input was not taken into account at the time. Two years before, three current school board members ran on a campaign to restore the school’s Confederate leader names, an attempt that ended at the June 9, 2022 school board meeting with a 3-3 stalemate. The current board consists of three more new school board members, elected in the fall of 2023. Like many school boards around the nation, ours has committed to reversing civil rights often under the lost-cause banner of Confederate pride.

The memory of Stonewall Jackson High School as a whites-only public institution until its integration in 1963 is not a distant echo of history but an agonizing experience for many Black residents of Shenandoah County. These individuals are not just statistics in history books; they are our neighbors, friends, and family—and they were intentionally harmed in Shenandoah County as the Civil Rights movement gained momentum in the 1950s.

Read More: Confederate Monuments and Other Disputed Memorials Have Come Down in Cities Across America. What Should Take Their Place?

And now again in 2024. Dozens of citizens, alum, parents, and current students of the schools addressed the board, offering poignant testimony about lived experiences with institutionalized discrimination or in support of others who had. Approximately two-thirds of the speakers opposed back-naming the schools. For them, returning to Confederate leader names makes the damage linger.

Aliyah Ogle, a student who represented her school in three sports this year and would be attending the renamed high school next year, said it best: “I'm a black student and if the name is restored, I would have to represent a man that fought for my ancestors to be slaves. That makes me feel like I'm disrespecting my ancestors and going against what my family and I believe, which is that we should all be treated equally, and that slavery was a cruel and awful thing.”

Most of the board members could not have cared less about the county’s 252 year history. They were more concerned for judging the 2020 school board’s actions and recognizing the Confederate heritage of the county. Their brand of leadership consisted of telling the people they represent that we all have problems of one kind or another; it’s time to move on. “War is hell,” said Dennis Barlow, chairman of the Shenandoah County School Board. They were joined by two dozen pro-Confederacy speakers, claiming there is no evident racism in Shenandoah County, and never has been.

Board member Tom Streett used his decision to discuss pro-slavery General Jackson. “When you read about this man — who he was, what he stood for, his character, his loyalty, his leadership, how Godly a man he was — those standards that he had were much higher than any leadership of the school system in 2020,” Streett said.

Streett, however, neglected to mention that even Jackson’s descendants have weighed in on this legacy issue. For the past seven years, the general’s great-great grandsons, William Jackson Christian and Warren Edmund Christian, have said they support removing Confederate statues and other monuments—including in Shenandoah County this week—as “part of a larger project of actively mending the racial disparities that hundreds of years of white supremacy have wrought.” They added that they were “ashamed to benefit from white supremacy while our black family and friends suffer.”

Yet Shenandoah County’s school board and its grievance agenda does nothing to provide historical context, advance dialogue, or heal the feelings of well-meaning citizens. Using the same policy the 2021 school board used to name Mountain View and Honey Run, the 2024 board defiantly focused on undoing the decision and giving voice to the people they wanted to hear. The decision unfairly places our children as pawns on a rhetorical battlefield, keeping the board’s focus on vengeance and political control—not due process or heritage. But it’s more dangerous than just talk and hard feelings: The county remains on the radar of the Southern Poverty Law Center , which tracks white supremacists, including ongoing activity by the Patriot Front. To address this reality, we need better, sensible leadership from our school board. But for now, we must live with a stark reminder that elections have consequences.

Looking ahead, the many good people of our county will strive to ensure that our complete history, good and bad, remains available to students and the public. We must find a way to truly honor our whole heritage without insisting that students salute pro-slavery traitors or the treatment of their ancestors as subhuman property for almost 400 years.

If the U.S. Department of Defense can rename military bases once emblazoned with Confederate leaders’ names, then our public schools can do the same. After all, these are the spaces where the first lessons of civic duties are learned. History is complicated, no doubt, but there’s no better place to examine complex issues than in a good school. Other nations and communities reckon with difficult pasts. In Germany, for example, students still learn about Adolf Hitler, but they are not forced to wear sports jerseys and school-pride t-shirts that glorify symbols or names associated with murderous war crimes.

Our fight for what’s right in Shenandoah County is not over. We will continue to oppose historical injustices and help all constituencies in our community learn from the lessons of our past. As it has throughout our nation’s history, the work of decent people striving for a better, more united America will go on. We hope the school board here can find a way to join us along the way.

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Exiled Chinese Businessman Stole $1 Billion to Fund Luxury Lifestyle, Prosecutor Says

FILE PHOTO: Billionaire businessman Guo Wengui speaks during an interview in New York City, U.S., April 30, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid//File Photo

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) -Exiled Chinese businessman Miles Guo scammed his followers out of more than $1 billion after Chinese authorities seized his property, a federal prosecutor said on Friday as Guo's fraud trial began in New York.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Micah Fergenson told jurors that Guo, who was a real estate developer in China and moved to New York, amassed an online following through videos criticizing the Chinese government.

After authorities in China and Hong Kong seized his assets in response, Guo started pitching fraudulent investments to his followers, Fergenson said.

"Miles Guo ran a simple con on a grand scale. He lived a billionaire's lifestyle using money he stole from people he tricked and cheated," Fergenson said.

The Manhattan jury of 12 will weigh allegations that Guo used his prolific online presence and hundreds of thousands of followers to bring in funds he spent on himself and his family.

Guo, who is known by several names including Guo Wengui, Miles Kwok and Ho Wan Kwok, has been jailed in Brooklyn since his March 2023 arrest.

Guo's attorney Sabrina Shroff said in her opening statement that his businesses were legitimate, and that his aim was to build a movement against the Chinese Communist Party.

"It was not a bet, it was not a scheme. It was not a con. It was none of those things," she said.

Many of Guo's actions, such as owning multiple phones and bank accounts, were common-sense protections as the Chinese government continued to try to disrupt his work in the U.S., Shroff said.

The defense lawyer also urged jurors not to judge Guo for the way he spent the huge fortune he had amassed through real estate.

Starting in 2018, prosecutors say Guo touted financial opportunities in Mandarin-language online videos, offering investments in his media company, a purported cryptocurrency venture, and a farm loan program, as well as membership in what was billed as an exclusive club offering concierge services.

Prosecutors said Guo stole from the funds to buy a New Jersey mansion, a yacht, several luxury cars and other extravagances, including two $36,000 mattresses.

Guo faces 12 counts of fraud, racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering. The trial before U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres could stretch into July.

The Beijing critic has been a business associate of former U.S. President Donald Trump's onetime adviser Steve Bannon.

It was on Guo's $37 million yacht, the Lady May, where Bannon was arrested in 2020 in a separate fraud case. That case ended when Trump pardoned Bannon in the waning hours of his presidency. Bannon had pleaded not guilty.

Guo left China in 2014 during an anti-corruption crackdown under President Xi Jinping. Officials there accused Guo of bribery, money laundering and other crimes, which he has denied.

After moving to the United States, Guo bought a home in the luxury Sherry-Netherland building on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, and drew ardent fans through his criticism of China's government, including by accusing leaders of corruption.

At Beijing's request, the global police organization Interpol in April 2017 issued a "red notice" for Guo's arrest.

Shroff said in court on Friday that the notice was an attempt to silence Guo after he gave an interview with U.S. government-backed Voice of America.

(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Sonali Paul, Bill Berkrot and Jonathan Oatis)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

Tags: United States , crime , New York City , Hong Kong , New York , financial regulation

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Why have rates of ADHD in kids gotten so high?

ADHD cases have risen considerably in the U.S.

As of 2022, around 1 in 9 children had been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder at some point in their lifetimes, according to a study published Wednesday . Roughly 6.5 million children ages 3 to 17 had ADHD that year — up from 5.4 million in 2016.

The study’s lead author, Melissa Danielson, a statistician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there are two main reasons for the trend. First, doctors, parents, teachers and kids are becoming more aware of ADHD symptoms, making cases easier to identify. Second, because more treatments are available these days, doctors have more reason to test and diagnose children.

“There’s more providers that are comfortable with making those diagnoses and treating ADHD, which can allow for children to be helped by different medications or behavior therapy or school services. So since there are more opportunities for these kids to be helped, I think there’s more incentive to get that kind of diagnosis,” she said.

Because the study results suggest that more children are being screened, she added, it “could be a positive finding.”

A third factor in the trend, Danielson said, may have been the Covid-19 pandemic, which could have aggravated ADHD symptoms or allowed parents to observe their children more closely.

The estimates in her study, published in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, were based on more than 45,000 responses to the 2022 National Survey of Children’s Health. 

Mental health professionals who diagnose and treat ADHD said the data is consistent with their experiences.

“This is something that we’re seeing every day. We’re having more and more families coming in and patients wondering if they do have ADHD,” said Dr. Willough Jenkins, a psychiatrist at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego who was not involved in the study.

In particular, Jenkins said, doctors have gotten better at recognizing the disorder in girls and older children.

“Before, it was thought very much ADHD was an illness of just young, hyperactive boys,” she said. “In the last 15, 10 years, that’s really quite changed. And even within the last five years, we’re seeing a lot of improved diagnosis.” 

ADHD is one of the most commonly diagnosed neurodevelopmental disorders in children and teenagers. Cases have been rising for several decades as awareness has increased. The disorder is often characterized by difficulty concentrating, sitting still or exercising self-control. 

Danielson said younger children with ADHD tend to be more hyperactive or impulsive, while in adolescence, the disorder tends to shift more toward inattention — behaviors like daydreaming, hyperfocusing or having trouble finishing tasks.

Other mental health experts agree that the pandemic most likely accelerated ADHD diagnoses.

Thomas Power, director of the Center for Management of ADHD at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said the stress of remote learning, social isolation, family health scares and disrupted routines may have worsened kids’ symptoms, leading them to become more visible.

“Particularly for children who had some mild attention difficulties, learning in that type of context would be that much more challenging and could be enough to trigger an attention-deficit disorder,” he said.

As parents spent more time at home, they may also have noticed their children struggling, said Yamalis Diaz, a child and adolescent psychologist at NYU Langone’s Child Study Center. 

“It gave parents a prolonged observation period of their child trying to focus and trying to do academic work,” Diaz said. “Parents are now observing, ‘My gosh, my child interrupts me 50 times a day just to do one task.’”

But Jenkins said there may have been a small uptick in misdiagnoses during the pandemic, because rates of depression and anxiety increased during that time, and the symptoms can overlap.

“People might not have realized that anxiety and depression could be a reason why you can’t pay attention,’” she said.

Discussions of ADHD on social media rose during the pandemic, as well, according to a 2022 study . Danielson said that may have led some older children to self-diagnose.

“As kids and adolescents are spending more time on social media and learning more about ADHD, they might see it a little bit more in themselves,” Danielson said. 

Excessive screen time, however, has been shown to increase the risk of ADHD , according to some past research — so it may be another, though lesser, reason for the trend, Power said.

“There’s been certainly a lot of attention recently on the downside of a lot of involvement of children in social media and in video games, so I think that those may be contributory factors,” he said.

Jenkins highlighted one other important contributor to ADHD rates: changes in diagnostic guidelines from the American Psychiatric Association. 

Until 2013, doctors would not diagnose a child with both autism and ADHD, because of concerns that attention issues related to autism would be confused with ADHD. A child also needed to have ADHD symptoms before age 7 to be diagnosed. But for the last decade-plus, an updated diagnostic manual has said children can be diagnosed with ADHD if they have autism, as well as if their symptoms appeared before age 12.

Diaz said expanding the criteria most likely helped more kids access treatment. 

“The reason for the diagnosis isn’t simply to label kids,” she said. “It really is to identify where there might be some challenges that we can actually rectify and course-correct.”

Doctors usually recommend behavior therapy for younger children with ADHD, while older children may get a combination of behavior therapy and medication.

But according to the new study, 30% of children with ADHD in 2022 did not receive behavior therapy or medication, compared with 23% in 2016.

Danielson said some kids receive behavior therapy in school, so virtual learning during the pandemic may have cut off access. The Food and Drug Administration also reported a shortage of ADHD medications starting in 2022 — an issue that continues to some degree today, though some of the shortages were resolved recently , the FDA said.

Some drugmakers have attributed the shortage, in part, to high demand due to rising ADHD diagnoses.

Diaz said it can still be hard to find appointments with doctors who treat ADHD.

“Even in places where the treatment options are saturated, like New York City, there are waiting lists everywhere,” she said. “It’s possible that parents would have wanted to or tried and just could not get access to good treatment.”

Aria Bendix is the breaking health reporter for NBC News Digital.

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Taiwanese People, Markets Stay Calm Despite Chinese Drills Around Island

A Chinese warship is pictured while navigating at an undisclosed location in waters around Taiwan in this handout image taken on May 23, 2024, released on May 24, 2024. Taiwan Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (Reuters) - As China staged a second day of "punishment" drills on Friday in response to Taiwan's new President Lai Ching-te, some residents of the democratically governed island told Reuters they would carry on with their normal lives despite Beijing's pressure.

China staged mock missile strikes in waters east of Taiwan and dispatched fighter jets carrying live missiles, state media reported, as Beijing tested its ability to "seize power" and control key areas of Taiwan.

But on the island of 23 million people, life has continued as normal, with no overt sign of worry, the Taiwanese having gotten used to decades of living with Chinese threats.

China's military exercises "don't really affect our daily lives. We still have to work to make money," said Chen Sian-en, a tyre repair shop owner in the southern city of Kaohsiung, home to a major Taiwanese navy base.

"From childhood to adulthood, it means that we've gotten used to (China's) threats," said Chen, 66, adding that the drills were "some kind of intimidation tactic" and a "show of force" from Beijing to Taiwan's new leader.

"They've talked about it so many times, but there hasn't been any real action. If they wanted to take over Taiwan, they would have done it already."

While Taiwanese media has covered the drills, a lot of their focus has actually been on continuing protests against efforts by the opposition to push legislative reforms, and occasional fighting by lawmakers on the floor of the chamber.

"I feel no reason to be scared," said Taipei taxi driver Chuang Jun-sung. "If China really attacks Taiwan, there's nothing Taiwan can do but deal with it. But we should still have the guts to fire our missiles back at them."

The drills are being conducted all around Taiwan, as well as areas close to the Taiwan-controlled islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin next to the Chinese coast.

China has been infuriated by Lai's inauguration speech on Monday in which he said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are "not subordinate to each other", which Beijing has viewed as implying China and Taiwan are two separate countries.

Kinmen resident Tim Chang, 52, said that Beijing has been threatening war for decades.

"If war is bound to happen, if they planned to attack, they would have struck 20, 30 years ago," he said.

Taiwan's benchmark index is at a historic high, scarcely impacted by China's drills. The market closed down 0.2% on Friday; on Thursday, the day the drills began, it closed up 0.3%.

The stock of Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest contract chip maker and a major Nvidia supplier, is also at a historic peak.

"The drills will have a short-term psychological impact, but won't reverse the long-term upward trend of Taiwan stocks," said Alex Huang, vice president of Mega International Investment Services.

Vasu Menon, managing director of investment strategy at OCBC in Singapore, said that investors were not expecting any dramatic escalation in tensions.

"China's military has over the past few years carried out regular activities near Taiwan, making investors less sensitive to such drills," he added.

Still, Kaohsiung resident Angeline Liao said that she was personally "very worried" about the drills.

"If, hypothetically, there were some military (war) activities today, I think I would be the first one to wave the white flag," said the 36-year-old insurance agent.

(Reporting by Joyce Zhou in Kaohsiung, Jeanny Kao, Faith Hung and Ben Blanchard in Taipei, Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; writing by Laurie Chen in Beijing; editing by Mark Heinrich)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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Opinion American students have soured on China. That’s bad for the U.S.

As fewer American students study in China, the U.S. will suffer a shortage of China experts.

For nearly three decades, throngs of young Americans looking for an exotic overseas adventure have headed to China. They studied Mandarin. They went on exchanges at universities in Beijing and Shanghai, and far-flung cities such as Wuhan and Nanjing. They found jobs teaching English, writing for the proliferating number of English-language magazines and newspapers, or gigging as models or TV show extras as Chinese-speaking foreigners.

China’s economy was booming, and American businesses were expanding, lured by the prospects of more than 1 billion Chinese consumers. For a generation of young Americans, being proficient in Chinese and having experience living and working in China could lead to a successful career.

Now, that’s all changed . China isn’t cool anymore.

Fewer American college students are studying Chinese . And the number of them on exchanges has dwindled to about 700 in 2023 from a high of nearly 25,000 a decade ago. This mirrors a drop in American tourists, businesspeople and journalists in the country.

Friends in Beijing and Shanghai tell me they see far fewer foreigners on the streets and in restaurants and bars. In the mid-1990s, when I traveled to China regularly from Hong Kong, and from 2010 to 2013, when I lived in Beijing and Shanghai, Chinese cities were filled with young Americans. They were playing in bands, spinning discs in clubs, blogging, packing the bars of Sanlitun and the French Concession, and generally having a blast.

But for today’s young people, familiarity with China doesn’t hold the same appeal. The next generation of China experts is shrinking. And this will hamper the United States’ future ability to conduct business, trade, diplomacy and scientific exchanges on an even footing with the world’s second-largest economy.

The shift started with covid-19. For three years, China largely isolated itself from the world with its draconian pandemic restrictions. Academic exchanges were scrapped, visas canceled, and flights into and out of the country sharply curtailed. The few foreigners who remained found themselves barricaded in their apartments for weeks at a time, usually with no warning and without adequate food on hand.

Also, in 2020, the United States shut down its Peace Corps program in China and its successful Fulbright China Program , which had since 1979 nurtured the China experts now serving as government officials and journalists.

More recently, U.S. multinationals have been reducing their staffs and footprints in China, as the Biden administration pursues a policy of “decoupling” or “de-risking.” Many of these firms have moved some of their operations to other Asian countries such as Thailand.

At the same time, China has become a less hospitable place for foreigners.

China’s Ministry of State Security, which oversees the country’s intelligence agencies, has been issuing alarmist warnings for citizens to be on guard against “ foreign forces ” trying the steal state secrets and foment unrest. Foreign consultancy firms have been singled out as potential spy nests. Last year, the government warned female civil servants to be wary of handsome foreigners trying to woo them, because they might be espionage agents.

“Americans are afraid of the security police and the omnipresent surveillance in China, as well as being suspected of being spies by their Chinese classmates,” said Susan Shirk, a China expert at the University of California at San Diego and author of the book “ Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise .” The current geopolitical tension, she said, “discourages young people from betting their futures on business, academic or other careers related to China.”

Also, a wealthier, more confident China under President Xi Jinping — who has spoken of restoring the country’s greatness on the world stage — has seen a rise in nationalism, xenophobia and anti-Western rhetoric, made evident by an army of trolls on social media. Many Chinese believe their country no longer needs foreigners.

U.S. travel warnings haven’t helped. The State Department advises Americans going to China to “reconsider travel due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans and the risk of wrongful detentions.” It warns that Americans can be forced to take drug tests and be detained if they test positive, even if they used drugs in places where they were legal before entering China.

Chinese students, however, are still heading to U.S. universities in large numbers — around 300,000 at last count . And they are learning English at a rapid clip, often as early as elementary school. For seven years, I taught journalism at the University of Hong Kong, and I always marveled at the English proficiency of my mainland Chinese students — some of whom had never left China. One young woman with a distinctly American accent told me she learned her English “by watching ‘Friends.’”

This imbalance — Chinese learning about us, Americans learning less about them — puts the United States at a huge future disadvantage.

“If the current trends hold, we will have a serious deficit in the kind of human capital the U.S. needs in the future to deal with China,” said Minxin Pei, who teaches Chinese politics at Claremont McKenna College in California. “Our government’s ability to make the right policy decisions will deteriorate.”

We’re also not building the people-to-people exchanges vital to building trust and understanding — and avoiding misunderstandings that could lead to conflict.

Trends can shift, of course. I recall how Japan, before China, was all the rage among American students. And both the United States and China have expressed interest in more U.S. students making the trip. But first, Washington and Beijing need to work at rebuilding the bridges. They should start at the top by lowering the temperature and reining in the harsh rhetoric between themselves.