Population Quality and Sustainable Development

Abstract

In the early 1980s, as a visiting scholar in the United States, I had an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the differences between American and Chinese children in psychology and the way they deal with unfamiliar things. American children are generally out-going and competitive. Being confident, they like to say “I can make it” or “I can have a try”. Chinese children, in contrast, lack self-confidence and often say “Can I make it?”, for fear of not doing things well. A similar scenario was seen in a summer camp for Chinese and Japanese high school students. Chinese students were more knowledgeable, while Japanese students excelled in coping with problems flexibly. Why did Chinese children appear less intelligent or capable? Does this have anything to do with education? This reminds me of what Qian Xuesen once said: “No university or school in China is run in a way to cultivate scientific and technological talents who are creative. There is no innovation. They can barely produce outstanding talents”. The prevalence of “producing no outstanding talents” shows that problems exist in our educational system, which must be reformed.