>3) I suspect your friend is working at an after-school
>school for retards. After-school school is something
>that most Chinese parents waste their money on... they
>have their kids study an extra four hours after they
>get out of school, so that the kids pass their exams.
>Again...this is the fucked up Confucian Education
>mentality. And they know it fucked up and they still
>do it.
>
It's also completely counterproductive. If you want to make it as hard
as possible to learn and remember, just make sure the mind never has
time to rest. Nothing ever has a chance to go into long-term memory. A
few days later; it's gone, poof!
I experienced this when I was an in intensive Latin workshop at U.C.B: class was 9-5; and there was another four hours of homework (at least). Starting from nothing, you learned Latin grammar in four weeks. The Monday after the grammar final, you'd come in and start reading Virgil.
I was working graveyard shift as a security guard so I could work/study. I'd go to workshop 9-5, then go home and sleep; then work 11- 7. All through the night, I would study vocabulary/grammar or, later, translate hundreds of lines of verse. Usually my study was interrupted every hour or so by some "guard" duty. But one night, I got to study with no interruptions all night long. I was jazzed cause I thought I would do really well on the test the next day -- we had a quiz every day. I went in, took the test, and got a D. Usually, I got A's. Not only that, I had no idea I had done so badly. Problem? NOTHING had gone into long term memory -- there had been no breaks of whatever kind the previous night.
The stupid mind always tells you that more is better. Often wrong.
Joanna