Chinese Professor on 'Rotting' American Education 'Here and There at Harvard College'

The following article by Huang Ch'ang, associate professor of Physics at Peking University, is taken from the "Chung-kuo Ch'ing-nien Pao" of Peking. It first appeared under the title "Here and There at Harvard University" on January 25, 1962.

I spent several years studying at Harvard University in the United States. I came into contact with quite a number of American university students. In my view, these students have the following characteristics:

1. They are busy with money all day long and have no heart for study. The reason is simple: tuition is, too high, generally beyond the ability of the average student to pay. Over the past ten years or more, the school fees of a private university have jumped nearly ten-fold! Except for the children of rich families, most students have found it exceedingly difficult to pay such a big sum for school fees. In order to make some money, they cannot help, as soon as the school bell rings to dismiss school, rushing to various hotels, restaurants, and coffee houses to fight for jobs as dish-washers, waiters, baby-sitters, etc. They often work from 4 o'clock in the afternoon straight to midnight; after that they drag their tired bodies back to their dormitories. And the wages they get are pitifully small. In restaurants near, or even far away from some universities, university students can often be seen rushing here and there, scrambling for work.

2. They do not, or dare not, inquire about politics, being afraid of getting themselves into trouble. As far as politics is concerned, it can be said, American university students are ignorant in the extreme. They do not know who Marx was or what the world situation is like. Furthermore, they basically do not dare to inquire about politics. The United States is a country full of secret agents. There, political persecution is perpetrated in an endless stream. Whoever utters the slightest sound of discontent is immediately suspected as a Communist. In that country a student, once tinged with "red," is unable to continue his studies--much less, to graduate. His relatives and friends will keep away from him. His fate is thus sealed! As far as I know, at Harvard University there is no progressive activity among the students. Some Chinese students once held a gathering of a purely friendly character, but immediately afterwards the immigration bureau found out who had attended the meeting and had them finger-printed, interrogated, voice-recorded, and warned not to hold any more meetings. The students became bewildered. Those who had corresponded with friends in China were also located by the secret agents of the Federal Investigation Bureau who put unreasonable obstacles in their way and asked them hundred and one questions. Students have simply been deprived of all their political freedom.

3. They worship money and are doped by religion. Money is the thing most thought of by American students because it is the key to enjoyment. As a means of making money, "knocking other people down to step into their shoes" has been fostered since their childhood as a kind of philosophy of life. To seek personal advancement, they may, with a dagger, pierce the back of the person who "obstructs" them, be that person one of their best friends! In Chicago there was the conspiracy of two university students to kill a baby. Their motive was very simple: to do a shocking thing like that would make them famous!

Another spiritual repository of the students is religion. They believe in God. They believe that God is "almighty." They have been told by the American government that they should pray to God for world peace and pray to God to "save" the youth of the socialist countries.. The aggression of American troops abroad is committed also to obey the will of God! In the United States "God" has become a tool of the monopolist clique to dope the youth.

4. They are decadent, degenerate, and morally corrupt. Many children of rich families play truant the whole day long and spend their time in clubs drinking, merry-making, and indulging in orgies of debauchery. Some of them even operate clubs themselves so that they can loaf all day long. A Harvard University student went as far as openly bringing in a group of prostitutes and running a brothel inside the school. To girl students the Harvard campus means a prohibited area to be dreaded. Unescorted girls dare not walk on it. It has been the scene of robberies, molestation and all sorts of bad things!

At the American Massachusetts Institute of Technology there is by tradition a bad custom of ragging new students. It is perfectly legal for senior students to humbug the newcomers. A "school regulation" is in force whereby a student, having just entered the school, is blindfolded, taken to the suburbs, and then allowed to grope in the dark for his way home. It was in this way that a new student once fell into a hole of frozen water and got drowned. And, in the view of many senior students, this innocent boy who had lost his life "deserved it!" This bad custom of ragging new students, called "dragging the corpse," is prevalent in many American schools.

Girl students in America are of a lower class. Harvard University admits no girls but has set up a separate institute for them. Superficially this looks like mere segregation of girls from boys. In reality it is discrimination against the girl students. Large numbers of university girls study domestic science. All day long what they study is how to marry wealthy husbands of their choice, how to manage their home affairs, and how to help their husbands climb up the ladder. These represent the outlook on life of many an American girl student.

ANY WORK IS BETTER THAN TEACHING; ONE BY ONE PROFESSORS SWITCH TO OTHER OCCUPATIONS

The poor academic results obtainable from a university of this description can be readily imagined. The low standard of American education is really astonishing. The dearth of teachers is an outstanding reason for this.

The professors in American universities receive very low salaries. Their pay is generally one-third and even one-half lower than the income of workers in other social occupations. This being the treatment of university professors, there is no need to mention the salaries for secondary school teachers. When a summer or winter vacation comes, the problem that worries the professors most is how to make their living during the long, long holiday. Many of them are forced to change their calling to become waiters, to toil as farm hands or to act as circus clowns. Any work is better than teaching; naturally they have no heart for teaching. So strange are the educational circles in the United States! University students are being brought up only to become waste products, and the teachers, one after another, are switching themselves over to other occupations. American educational enterprises are rotting!