Chinese high school
A school known as a leader of education for boys in China has signed an agreement to share best education practices with its Australian counterpart.
The agreement between the Shanghai No. 8 Middle School and King's School in Sydney aimed to deal with the phenomenon called the "boy crisis," which involves Chinese school boys who are underachieving and socially inept.
While the Shanghai No.8 Middle School is famous for leading all-boy high-school classes in Shanghai, King's School has 183 years of specialized education, over 1,500 students from kindergarten to Year 12, and a reputation of being the oldest independent school for boys in Australia.
As compared to their male counterparts, Chinese girls tend to show higher levels of social skills and better academic performance.
This is synonymous to the American Psychological Association's analysis published earlier in 2014 which revealed that, throughout their school years, girls make higher grades than boys.
To address the "boy crisis," a phenomenon when a boy has difficulty dealing with masculinity, the No. 8 Middle School started six boys-only classes in 2012 with approximately 300 students, who were taught by teachers trained to deal with education problems of young males.
The initial results of the experiment were positive, with the boys improving their physical condition and getting awards in science and technology contests, according to No. 8 Middle School principal Lu Qisheng.
"Principal Lu is a very brave man to lead such a new initiative. It is encouraging to see that single-sex classes are already bearing fruit and improving scholastic standards," King's School headmaster Timothy Hawkes told Shanghai Daily.
Aside from the goal to share expertise, King's School also selected the No. 8 Middle School as its first "brother school" in China to learn about the country's education system.
During his visit, Hawkes was impressed when an English teacher told a story about Starbucks's founder, considering that many boys aspire to become future entrepreneurs.
