On topic: a secular state would be ideal, followed by a non-secular state with high religious freedom. Mandated atheism would be horrible, but preferable to mandating one particular religion.
Wolfram87 wrote:
Considering China's propensity to lie in order to make themsleves look good, I find it hard to trust their numbers.
On the specific case of education, China’s numbers in certain international metrics have historically been inflated because they only assess students from highly-funded schools in Shanghai, while most countries have nationwide cohorts. Shanghai’s education system is, by these metrics, comparable to Singapore or Finland (noting that Singapore also benefits from basically being one very rich city). These metrics are not necessarily the be all and end all though. In the U.K. there is a strong emphasis on analysis and creativity and critical thinking in the curriculum - we are taught how to think, not what to think. In Shanghai and throughout China, there is more emphasis on rote learning, which I would argue is less useful. (The UK is by no means special other than being what I am most familiar with)
02 Sep 2020, 12:30 pm
