Cram school culture is common in Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Although Asian parents believe that by sending their kids to cram schools kids can improve their academic performance, cram school culture is hurting both kids and parents in different ways.
1. Cram school is a waste of time
The time students spend in cramped, uncomfortable classes is a total waste. Evenings and weekends are dominated by problem after problem in math cram class and word after word at language schools. Instead of wasting their youth in these awful places, students should be discovering their own interests or engaged in something enriching, whether it be art, sports, or even just flirting with their classmates when school is out.
Even though cram schools force students to review their normal school materials, it is not quite the same compared with students reviewing themselves. In cram schools, teachers just throw information at students. For example, students could be daydreaming while the teachers are reviewing. But when students review on their own, they will have to think about what they have learned and engage the specific parts they don’t understand. It is important for students to actively engage while they are reviewing, but cram schools never help students to process information in this way.
In addition, learning can only happen if students are focused. Students can only focus, and thus learn efficiently when they are willing; when students are forced to learn, they are passive and disengaged. Therefore, the “cramming” required by these schools results in very little knowledge and growth.
2. It is a waste of money
Apart from wasting students’ time, going to cram school is also a waste of money. Going to cram school in Taipei costs, on average, ten thousand NT per subject, per semester. That is a huge amount of money for lots of families. They should instead save that money.
Many students decide to go cram school rather than improve their own study habits when they can’t keep up in school. However, most decide to go to cram school before they try solving the problems by themselves. Many students don’t need to go to cram school because they could ask their peers and teachers if they have questions. They just don’t put much effort into solving their problems themselves.
3. Students become dependent on cram school
Some students claim that cram schools provide an environment in which to study. This is just an excuse. What those students mean is that someone has to supervise them when they are studying because they are unable to motivate themselves.
In other words, cram schools are also students’ babysitters. Not only do cram school teachers push students to do work they should be able to do independently, but cram schools also provide summarized texts and notes for their students. This causes students to think it doesn’t matter if they don’t take notes in class – cram schools have done their job for them.
Some may argue that students can still be learning even if they are not taking notes. However, students are analyzing what they have learned while taking notes, thus allowing them to learn better. Students won’t take notes if cram schools provide them, which makes students gradually lose their ability to organize their thoughts and observations.
Thus, students that go to cram school will gradually lose their ability to learn by themselves. Cram schools are hurting students in the long term rather than helping students get better grades.
4. Cram schools teach the wrong way
The reason parents send their kids to cram school is because they are not satisfied with their kids’ grades. In addition, parents that send their kids to cram school want to see improvement in subjects in a short time. Thus, cram schools make students memorize formulas and tricks so they can solve problems quickly and get better grades; teachers in cram schools teach students what and how, ignoring why.
Make no mistake, formulas are important, but instead of simply telling students to memorize them, teachers should be explaining the meanings of formulas and demonstrating formulas through exercises.
It is only possible for students to improve in subjects when they truly understand why they should memorize certain formulas and techniques.
5. They put too much pressure on students
Students already spend lots of time in school every day. Going to cram school means extending school time into evenings, which makes students more stressed because this is when students should relax instead of being trapped in crappy classrooms.
Cram schools also stress students out by making them take tests every class. Taking tests does allow teachers to understand students’ progress, but taking too many of them is useless.
When students take tests too frequently, it is impossible for them to always be ready, so they are just giving students more stress. Sometimes what students really need is time to digest and think through what they have learned.
In addition, students also feel stress when cram schools compare their grades with their peers. This comparison never helps anyone improve. Instead, teachers should compare students’ grades with their past performance to help pupils to really improve.
Conclusion
Even though sending kids to cram school may help them in getting better grades in the short term, going to cram school harms students in lots of ways in the long term. Thus, parents should stop sending their kids to cram school.
Thank you for your thoughtful essay. As an English cram school teacher, I’ve got to add a few things:
1) We usually don’t choose what we teach. My lessons, which are prepared by the cram school, are so full of exercises that if I stop to let students do any other class activity we will not manage to finish them.
2) A lot of the time, I am not really teaching anything. I am testing students on things they are supposed to know.
3) A lot of the material is just bad, copied from American and British textbooks for native speakers, so it focuses on the wrong things. It will use complex grammar to explain easy grammar, advanced words mixed in with basic ones. It will assume that students know US/UK geography and culture, which is just confusing.
Teach well or let kids play!