Some people who are against this practice think that young students choosing a course for their future development before their mind reachs maturity is surely not favorable to their intellectual growth, and may impair their creativity in their future work. Also, how could they know which suits them better at so young an age? Some people even think that we should hold this practice accountable for the fact that the PRC has not been able to produce a Nobel Prize laureate for so many years. To support their view, someone cited some great scientists like Albert Einstein, who was not only one of the greatest physicist of all time, but also had great artistic attainments in playing violin, and Mr. Qian Xuesen, the Chinese father of rockets, who avers that his wife, a musician, contributed a lot to his scientific research. And Mr. Qian himself once pointed out that men engaged in scientific research also need some literary or artistic attainments.
However, some people go for this practice. They think that the Chinese senior middle school students, in order to get enrolled into a good university, are already highly overworked and under a lot of pressure. If they don’t have to make a choice and study all the courses linked to both liberal arts and science, they would be put under a still greater pressure and be still more overworked, which would not be good for their physical and mental health. They think that our educational systems truly have some flaws and defects. But the thing to be corrected and reformed is not this practice, but the National College Entrance Examination itself.
Should I be asked about my opinion, I should say, I’m firmly against this odious practice because it prevents most students from broadening their knowledge and hence, makes them so narrow-minded, with the result that some students of science may not even know much about men like Su Tungpo who is the most illustrious man of letters of all time.
