Chinese girls published articles in Australian media attacking the elite education system and immigrant remedial culture. (photo of Sydney Morning Herald)
It is common for Australian Chinese parents to force their children into the elite school canoe in order to squeeze their children into the canoe. In fact, do elite schools really have to go to school? In the face of the parents who have the highest scores, what is the view of the "second generation" who is born in the middle and lower strata and graduated from ordinary public schools because of the highly competitive environment of growing up and the disparity between the rich and the poor? Such a Chinese female college student wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald about her bitter way to study.
The article compiles as follows:
Ten years ago, I didn`t go to elite high school.
At the age of 11, I think my life is over. In the words of my Chinese immigrant parents, I can only live on prostitution or cleaning.
For the past three years, I have gone to remedial school every Saturday. The Chinese immigrants who run schools do not care about my progress or whether I can keep up with it. For the good, they just want me to stay there. Week after week, I took one test after another in the tutorial school and failed again and again, which broke my heart. After a while, I felt that my self-esteem had fallen.
I am a girl, which is inferior in my parents` eyes and in our culture. Not only that, I was a quiet, unambitious girl, which made me feel worthless.
Australia`s East Asian immigrant communities create a culture of academic achievement, which shows that they want to succeed, want to be a comfortable middle and upper class, and want to get a good job. This is exacerbated by the presence of elite schools.
From grade 7, I was ashamed when I passed the local elite high school, my primary school alumni, and my Saturday cram class. They still have a lot of things on them, which I don`t have in an integrated school (comprehensive school) uniform. I`m afraid they`ll laugh at me (it used to happen, even to this day). In the public school system, supported by all taxpayers, the students of elite schools still have an elitist mentality of isolating "alien" groups, feeling that they are inherently superior to other groups. I don`t think the, (goverment) should ask taxpayers to support such a culture.
This elite culture seems to stem from the competitive mentality of East Asia (immigrant families), and most of the students enrolled in Sydney`s elite schools have an East Asian cultural background. When I took part in the (HSC), I thought: if I had a low score, my parents would be extremely disappointed and would have beaten and scolded me as usual. Today`s system makes it easier for young people in many East Asian countries to be exposed to a high-pressure academic culture and to increase the risk of suicide in this group.
As I grew up, immigrants equated elite schools with well-known private schools, and I couldn`t understand why. But I understand now-they are the children of skilled immigrants, from the most economically privileged families. At that time, they did not let those of us from the lower class know.
As I expected, I was not able to go to elite schools, which allowed me to walk in two worlds: I was bullied and called a "Chinese loser" in a weak public comprehensive school filled with anti-intellectualism and ethnic tensions. Nerds "; At home, I was also subjected to corporal punishment for not loving study.
At an inter-school event, students with immigrant backgrounds like me laughed mercilessly at me because an East Asian nerd from elite high school was interested in me.
In previous relationships, my partners always looked down on me because they felt that they had received an elite school education and were better than me.
However, after going to college, this is not over. I have too many highly qualified students graduated from elite schools and too many privileged young people who are obsessed with social status. I often weep in the face of pressure. When I fight with anxiety, I often fail to learn. But I dare not tell my parents that they will respond violently. As scholar Christina Ho points out, children from immigrant families in Australia cannot escape the influence of their parents.
In my view, under the concept of "academic achievement first" and "elite schools should be superior", Australian society is taking the risk of promoting harmful culture-the promotion of breathtaking elitism and inspiring competition.
