TianGong

"At eight-and-a-half by fourteen feet, Christ's Entry into Brussels is an enormous and brilliant indictment of humanity. The scene is a street in contemporary Brussels at the height of a Mardi Gras parade. The monumental canvas is densely packed with row on row of marching figures that swell toward the viewer like a wave. At the head of this sea of sneering faces, a parade master marches with his baton. A cast of thousands agitates in the background: figures playing musical instruments and carrying political banners, a well-fed judge, a decorated general and a bishop alongside courtesans, church ladies and a scattering of demons. Even Death makes an appearance, but only a peasant who stops in the middle of the frenzy to gawk, bug-eyed and open-mouthed, notices his presence."

Jan WRONG! To quote another, "Comparing Mao's Cultural Revolution to gardening lessons in Canadian schools is almost a crime in itself. As others have already argued: there is not a shred of evidence of any correlation between the gardening and the test results. It is a common pitfall to think that results will improve if children spend more time in the school working on their subject matter. The evidence is, that less is often more. Children need to learn in many ways: physical activities, outdoor activities and arts not only have a value of their own, they support the development of a healthy, well functioning mind. International data show, that a 14 year Finnish child has spent 2000 hours less in school than a 14 year old Dutch child. Yet the Finnish children outperform the Dutch on the international Pisa ranking on reading. The main reason: Dutch children don't enjoy reading (50% of the Dutch children never read anything for enjoyment, not even comics). Forcing children to work hard all day long on their subject matter in reading, math and science, in order to pass state tests will not only prove to be counterproductive, it also resembles more of the mindset behind Mao's Cultural Revolution, than school gardening programs.
-- Jan Tishauser, The Netherlands."