American lauds Chinese education system

How is China's education system different from other parts of the world? Jennifer Holstein, a journalist from the United States who has studied and taught in China, may have the answer.

When she was 16, Holstein went on a gap year experience to a high school in Beijing. She would wake up each morning at 6:30 to a song playing on the school's loudspeaker. Classes would start at 7:15 and end at 5:30, and then dinner was followed by another round of classes — known as "night study" — which didn't end until late at night.

"It was no doubt the hardest year of my life as a student, but it was also the most rewarding. I left my study program with so much knowledge and so much respect for the learning process," Holstein said in her speech.