Non-Fiction Critical Analysis
     The Upfront article "China's Cram Schools," by Brook Larmer is about the Maotanchang High School in China. The Maotanchang High School is one of China's cram schools where 20,000 students train for multiple hours to prepare themselves for China's national-college entrance exam also known as the Gaokao. For many, passing this test is the most important thing in their lives. I think that putting so much stakes on one test isn't right. I believe it should be based on interviews and past records, they should let the colleges decide who they want.
     Yang Wei was a former student as at Maotanchang High School. He spent 3 years getting to school at 6:20 and getting home at 10:50. At Maotanchang High School, all they do is study, study, study. Yang said "If you connected all the practice tests I've taken over the past 3 years," he said "they would wrap all the way around the world." This just shows how much they do and how much the students at Maotanchang care about this test. Many families spend most of their money sending their kids to this school so they can go to a good college. An example is "Cao's family was heartbroken. His father had worked 12 hour days, 50 weeks a year, building high rises in eastern China to pay the Maotanchang fees." This is the life that kids who don't get into a college can expect. A lot of manual labor in construction or factories. Cao said "It's a lot of pressure," said Cao. "My mother constantly reminds me that I have to study hard, because my father is out working construction far from home to pay my school fees." The students feel all this pressure because they're not the only ones who need this. Their parents need it too.
    I personally don't think it's right to put so much into one test. It puts too much pressure on students because it's all or nothing. If you don't pass it then you can only expect to be working in factories or construction for the rest of your life. They should let the colleges pick who they want, because you can't learn personality through a test, you need things like interviews to determine this.
     I think that China's school system is messed up. They make it all or nothing, there's too big a risk for many people. It's not only students who suffer if they don't do well on the test, the parents who work 12 hours a day to pay the school fees suffer too because they've just wasted 4 years of their lives and so much money putting it all on their child to do well.