Academic prison

This is no shocker in China but it is just almost unbelievable for me. I personally do not think I have the capability of doing this but I guess once a person is locked up in this academic prison, he/she can do a lot more than what seems to be impossible.

I am talking about a local boarding school. The school is located in a somewhat remote area near the city. It is about 40 mins drive from my uncle's home. The school is literally built at a corner of the city since it is surrounded by a very big mountain from 3 directions. The one open direction faces a newly built road. We went there last night to pick up some review material for my cousin. The school, which was still under construction in the front gate looked like a black gaping hole that would devour everything and store its prey in its mountain belly. It looked almost like mythical creatures and the mountain eerily stood behind the school and watching over the little human beings passing by. The whole thing was just creepy and the place just felt chilling despite the fact that the air was warm and humid.

I got bit like 3 times by mosquitoes. The bugs here were skilled and persistent. They wouldn't back off or give up just because you strutted your arms like a chicken and hope that they would leave you alone. No. That is not going to happen. They would learn your strutting pattern and find a place that you apparently neglected and bite the shit out of you. Now they are itchy. I am scratching, hard. ARggggg...

Anyways, this is how the school works.

It is a high school. High school means a three years grueling journey toward college. In addition, high school also means National College Entrance Exam. There is a committee setup every year and the members of this committee are usually locked up for several months to design the problems in this exam. The exam covers 5 main subjects, literature, English, chemistry, physics, and combination. Combination is a mix of geography, history, political science, common chemistry and physics. Tests are spread over 3 days period and lasts about 2 hours each day.

Unlike the American system, your future here solely depends on the entrance exam. So, you have to know the questions, answer them fast, and you can't be nervous. Otherwise you can just kiss your future and your dignity goodbye.

Given the crazy condition, special measures have to be taken in the preparation of this exam. For this reason, local boarding schools come into existence. The students are literally locked up in the school 5-6 days a week and only be allowed to go home on weekends or just Sundays. 99% of the time school sends its students back to their homes using their school buses so that the students would not be able to go to any other places. For safety measures of course but also it helps to discipline weak parents who would tempt the students with delicious food or extra home time etc. School provides four bedroom suite, 3 meals, and a snack store on campus for its students. Even though it is co-ed, girls and boys are separated in their dorms. All students are required to wear uniform as long as they are on school premise.

Here is the schedule for the students at least for the Seniors since they are going to take the big test soon theirs is a little bit tougher than others:

6:30am wake up
7:00-7:30am morning exercise
7:30-8:00am breakfast
8:00-8:30am arrive classroom and study on their own
8:30-9:30am 1st period & 10 mins break (always 10 mins between each class)
9:30-10:30am 2nd period & break
10:30-11:30am 3rd period & break
11:30-1:00pm lunch and free time
1:00-2:00pm 4th period & break
2:00-3:00pm 5th period & break
3:00-4:00pm 6th period & break
4:00-5:00pm 7th period & break
5:00-6:30pm dinner and free time
6:30-7:00pm TV time, according to my cousin they watch political news.
7:00-8:00pm 8th period & break
8:00-9:00pm 9th period & break
9:00-10:30pm 10 period and study
10:30-11:30pm back to dorm
11:30pm lights out

You can petition for 12:00am lights out if you need to study more but you have to submit your petition beforehand.

This is how these people study and they have done second year college materials already. Because lots people's parents needed to work while they were young, their parents would fake their birth certificate dates in order to let them go to elementary school one or two years earlier. So a good % of these super kids are only 16 years old.

The school is literally out of no where, surrounded by mountains and the community has nothing but poor people who have no education or good jobs, is imprisoning these people according to their will. The prisoners are determined. Some of them are happy and driven to be here some of them are apparently forced to be here. Either way their emotions do not stand in the way. It is their revolution. Imprisoned, yes, brainwashed, maybe. But it is their choice. It is what it takes to be on top I guess.

It is overwhelming. I don't know if it is sad since I can't criticize it based on my environment. That won't be fair. But I am speechless nevertheless. I really do not know what to think.