At the same time, Chinese parents are increasingly turning against their education system which gives them high PISA scores and sending their children to the US to be educated. Why? They want more US-style creativity.
The truth is that innovation and entrepreneurship are not correlated with test-taking and high scores in math or science. A start-up culture is correlated with a culture of creativity–of learning how to discover and take what is original and turn it into something of value, economic value.
The best K-12 schools in the US in both the private and public spheres know this and teach kids how to be creative. Montessori and other progressive education schools teach kids how to be innovative and creative. They teach children how to become founders of new companies.
Ironically, tens of thousands of Chinese parents know this and are sending their children to the US for creativity education. We should learn from these Chinese.