Chinese Education The education system in China, although different from that of America, has many good qualities. China's view of education has changed dramatically over the past forty years; we went from the absence of a real system to one considered one of the best in the world. In this article I will trace the history of Chinese education and show how much it has really changed. I will also look at what it is like now and what China can expect for its future. In 1949 the Communist Party founded the People's Republic of China. This happened after a long struggle between communists and nationalists. The leader of the Communist Party and the new People's Republic was Mao Zedong. When the Communists took control of China, they implemented many new ideas that were supposed to bring China up to speed with industrial development. He initiated the Five-Year Plan in which the Chinese people and government were to focus on developing industry and challenging old ways of thinking. The old ways were called “the four old”: they were habits, ideas, customs and cultures. After three years Mao asked for feedback on all the changes that had taken place, this was called “The Hundred Flowers Campaign”. All the people didn't like what was happening; especially the educated ones and gave negative feedback to Mao. He decided to eliminate these “poisonous weeds,” as he called educated people, from society because they challenged his authority. At that time all education was focused on the redness that is communist ideology. It was then that the government's battle against educated people began and continued for many years. For many years the various plans that Mao thought of were not as successful as he had hoped. In 1959 Mao Zedong resigned as the nation's leader, but remained the leader of the Communist Party. He did this to take responsibility for the failures of the Great Leap Forward and other problems that had been caused under his leadership. Then in 1965 Mao regained control of the government and it was then that he founded the Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Mao believed that educated people were responsible for China's many problems and thought they hindered Marxism. So from 1966 to 1976 the entire education system was closed to solve the problems caused and to focus attention on... middle of paper ......the differences compared to the American education system are mostly small things but there are also some bigger differences. Some of the small differences are that in China students attend school six days a week and have holidays in July and August. Some of the biggest differences are that standardized tests are considered more important than grades when being considered for colleges and that children should not ask questions in class but should only listen to lectures. In America, questions are considered one of the main keys to understanding what you are learning. Questions are encouraged to broaden the thoughts of not only students but possibly teachers as well. There are reasons why China's education system is the way it is and that is their choice to keep it that way. The government has more control over what is taught in schools and this affects what happens in them and what is learned. In America, the school curriculum is established by the local government and therefore can vary from state to state. This isn't to say that American education is right and Chinese education is wrong, I'm just pointing out the differences.