介绍:
Xiaohua: At present, many universities are holding their physical fitness tests for students. The most challenging test, definitely, is the women’s 800m race and the men’s 1000m long distance race. And for some students who are afraid that they might fail the test, they choose to hire someone else to take the test for them. So, do you think it is problematic?
Zhou Heyang: It is wrong because it is effectively cheating and it’s hiring somebody to take an exam for you. Here, we’re talking about a PE exam, I guess, so you’re hiring somebody to do that for you and that is erroneous and you shouldn’t be doing that.
John: Yeah. Yes, you’re right, but I would say that this is the most benign form of cheating that we see in schools and universities across China. I would say that it points to a much larger problem that many Chinese students just feel comfortable cheating whether its copying answers from someone’s else exam, whether it’s copying other people’s homework, whether its allowing other people to copy your homework. My experience in local Chinese schools, as a teacher, short period of time, but I did teach for a little bit in a public school, was that cheating, of pretty much any kind you can think of, is pretty much the norm in most schools these days.
XH: And that’s sad. I know that some universities have stricter rules in terms of cheating in academic exams, especially finals and you get kicked out, basically, if you’re found cheating, but it seems that in terms of this PE fitness test that teachers are allowing it or teachers are not checking these, you know, so strictly. Do you there is a reason why this is specifically the case?
ZHY: Well, I guess, because this test is not really that important. It doesn’t carry that much weight and the PE teachers or the examiners, they are willing to turn a blind eye to it.
John: Yeah, because it barely even means anything. The only reason that we have it is that it’s somehow linked to scholarships and it’s somehow linked to your final score when you graduate. I think this also does reflect just the amount of pressure that… and also the amount of coursework that most people have in universities, especially when it comes to required coursework, we’re not talking about classes you can choose, but just the total number of hours every week they have to be in classes that they cannot choose. Perhaps PE is one of them. Also, I fail to understand what exactly is the link between someone’s ability to run a certain distance over a certain period of time and their actual health. It might say something about it, but if we want to have a full picture of someone’s physical fitness, we need to be looking at a lot more than 1000m.
ZHY: That is true, but I think what they’re looking at here is just if you can run, jog that distance within a limited amount of time, which really isn’t not that difficult to do.
John: It is really short, actually.
ZHY: And also for the 1000m race for men, it is 4 minutes and 33 seconds, you know…you get to pass. And for the females, it is 4 minutes and 23 seconds.
John: Why the girls get off easier?
ZHY: it is a shorter distance!
John: That is what I am saying. Why do you girls run a shorter distance than guys? Actually, girls are usually better at endurance sports than men are.
XH: Yeah…Now we are at a whole different page and I decide to ignore that.
ZHY: Yeah, let’s do that—ignore John. So, yes. It seems like it is not a big deal. It is not a difficult thing to do anyway and we hear so much about college students having too much time. I think they are just being lazy.
John: too much time? that’s not what I hear.
ZHY: yeah, too much time playing computer games and just having a lot of free time to do their own thing. It just seems that…I would just say people are just lazy. They are not exercising.
John: Or they are studying for their final exams and can not take their time to go running. Or they can’t take the time to even go to this exam because they have to study for their physics final, or their English final, or their literature final.
ZHY: That’s the final. You have the whole term to do all kinds of things. It doesn’t seem that “I don’t have enough time to just, you know, 4 minutes and 32 seconds of run?”
John: Blaming the young people’s never been a very good argument.
XH: We are never going to be popular with the young people, I guess, that is true. In terms of what is the fix, some people are suggesting we should take multiple forms of examinations, for example, have swimming or have something else that also can evaluate your fitness.
John: Why even have exams tied to physical fitness? Why not just have compulsory PE courses like swimming, like boxing, like tennis, anything you can possibly think of. Do that and let students choose the course and then maybe we’ll get more fit university students.
XH: Yeah. It seems in China, test is still the ultimate answer to everything, to evaluate everything at least.
