China's Cram Schools Essay

                   Imagine taking a test that determines your future and the rest of your life. A bad grade, and all your hopes and dreams are gone. For students in China, they don’t have to imagine, it’s their reality. In the article “China’s Cram Schools” by Brook Larmer, the gaokao test is explained as an important college admission test that Chinese high schools students take to ensure a successful future. Getting a good score allows admission into a university, which later leads to a good job and life. But getting a bad score means a disappointed family and a hard life full of manual labor. It isn’t fair for the rest of a teenager’s life to rest solely on their score on one test.

            The fact that the gaokao determines a student’s future causes the pressure to do well to become almost unbearable. In the article it says, “Teenage suicide rates tend to rise as the gaokao nears.” As the stress levels rise because of the test, many teens break under the pressure. The students know how high the stakes are and after a while it becomes too much. But some students have no choice if they want a future. “Manual labor would be their fate too, if they failed to do well on the gaokao.” Many students from rural areas are hoping for a life better than that of their parents, and the gaokao is the only thing that will make sure their lives are successful.

            Wealthier students have more opportunity to prep for the test, which is unfair. Poor villages have poor schools with poorly trained teachers, meanwhile more wealthy families can “hire private tutors, pay for test prep courses, or bribe their way into the best city schools.” With these advantages, the students with more money have better chances of doing well on the test. Because of this, “rural students are allocated far fewer college-admissions spots than students from cities.” This means that sometimes the students can’t control how well they do because they are limited to good education and resources.

            Despite the immense pressure on the students to do well on their test, some still see the good in the gaokao. Recently, China had a big growth in their economy, but many parts of the country still remain in poverty. The test is said to allow people who would normally have no hope of getting out of poverty to get a share of the booming economy. “The question is whether those people will be able to grab a piece of China’s new wealth.” While a good score can ensure a new future for a student who grew up poor, this still only puts the stakes higher and adds more work and pressure to teens.

            As shown in the article, China's gaokao test causes a lot of pressure for Chinese high school students because the rest of their lives depend on a good score. While good scores allow bright futures, bad scores mean hard lives of work. Although some may say that the test is a good way to allow a spot in China's economy, some students have advantages because they already have money. And a spot in the growing economy in no way makes up for the tremendous amount of pressure and lost lives the test is responsible for.

Espada Essay

     Abuse of power is a serious problem and effects lots of people. Various poems by Martin Espada tell stories of people using their power to make others, particularly Mexicans, suffer. They show the unfair treatment that Mexicans endure or have endured. Espada’s meaningful poems “New Bathroom Policy at English High School”, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson”, and “Two Mexicanos Lynched at Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877” all express examples of abuse of power.

            The poem “New Bathroom Policy at English High School” shows a principal abusing his power. He overhears students speaking Spanish while he is in a stall. He hears his name come up in the conversation and assumes they are talking badly about him. He then bans Spanish in the bathroom so it won’t happen again. “The only word he recognizes is his own name and this constipates him. So he decides to ban Spanish from the bathrooms.” This shows how the principal jumped to conclusions and immediately thought the Spanish students were saying something bad. Because the principal didn’t understand a language that wasn’t his, he decided to take it out all together, which is abusing the power he has over the students. This is unfair to the students and shows the discrimination that probably happens everyday around the world,

            “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” is another poem that shows an example of abuse of power. In this poem, the speaker fantasizes what would happen if another person mispronounced his/her Spanish name. He/she talks about buying a toy pistol, hijacking a bus of Americans, and using other forceful and violent acts to get revenge. The author also used allusion and exaggeration. The poem reads, “push my beret at an angle, comb my beard to a point.” This describes an Argentinian military officer, Che Guevara, who was powerful and forceful. The acts that are described in this poem such as, “I want to buy a toy pistol,” are exaggerated revenges for when people abuse their power and say names wrong. The speaker was not using his power, only imagining, yet the Americans were when they said the Spanish names wrong.

            The third poem, “Two Mexicanos Lynched at Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877” describes a true event where two Mexicans were hung by vigilantes for being Mexican. In that time period, Mexicans were not considered equals by many of the white settlers. The vigilantes would hang many Mexicans because they did not want them there. The poem talks about Mexican customs and beliefs like La Dia de los Muertos and the Virgen de Guadalupe. The poem shows how the vigilantes treated the Mexicans because they thought they had power over them. Mexicans were killed simply because of their race and heritage, which is an unfair abuse of power.

            As shown in these three poems by Martin Espada, abuse of power has happened at many points in time and sadly still occurs today, in many different ways. The author believes that abuse of power is wrong and has a lot to do with opinions and what society deems acceptable. The author’s purpose is to inform people of the unfair ways that people abuse their power. He hopes that things will change by telling these stories in his poems.