American Education: You Assume Correctly
I have a friend who also grew up in Kenya who is a teacher. I used to think she spent a disproportionate amount of time complaining about her students but her miniature tirades seem validated by a new study on US Students grasp of geography.
Before you join in on the complaining, take some sample survey questions to see if you can even speak for your own education. <Boast>I had a perfect result so I feel comfortable making comments</Boast>.
That few students were able to recognize Israel, Iraq or Afghanistan was enough for outcry. That many were unable to locate France or the United Kingdom or the Pacific Ocean is shocking.
It contributes to the mindset of a coworker I was talking to once about politics. I asked her why, since she is in the most powerful democracy on earth, she refuses to vote. She said (I quote):
When there is something important happening in the world then I'll vote.
It wasn't shocking but very sad that Mexico outdid the U.S. in geographic ignorance. The Americans who refuse to make themselves aware of anything but their immediate surroundings still work at McDonalds, Burger King or as programmers (re: coworker). People in a developing country, however, are damned to hard labor and poverty unless they make education a priority.
Of continuous amazement to me, however, even more so than test scores, is the amount of confidence young Americans feel about themselves. I may be tainted by an origin in a culture that is recalcitrant on self-aggrandizing one's prowess but it is this attitude despite evidence that draws the surprise. I probably spend less than 24 hours between statements like "I'm really good at X" or "If I tried I could have done X" or "I'm really smart" and so on. I recently knew a person who showed no chagrin at calling herself a genius or telling me rather candidly "Einstein wasn't as much of a genius as people made him out to be." The world of ironies in which we live, no?
7:29:06 PM 
|
