A teacher from a western country visited a school in an eastern country．In one class，she watched sixty children learn to draw a cat．The teacher drew a big circle on the blackboard, and sixty children copied it on their paper．The teacher drew a small one on the top of the big one and then put two small triangles(三角形)on the top of it．The children drew in the same way．The lesson wept on until there were sixty-one cats in the classroom．Each student's cat looked exactly the same as that on the blackboard．
The visiting teacher watched the lesson and was surprised because the teaching methods were different from those in her country．A children's art lesson in her country produced a lot of pictures，and each one is quite different from the others．Why? What makes this difference in educational methods? In a classroom in any country, a teacher teaches more than art or history or language．
In a country such as the United States or Canada，students are asked to work and find answers by themselves．The students are helped to learn to have their own ideas．In countries such as China and Japan，students often work together and help each other in the classroom，but the teachers teach，and the students listen．The students are asked to memorize a lot．They have to learn the same textbook；do the same homework and give the same answer．
