American Attitudes in Education

Hello everyone,

Many of you come from countries other than the United States, and all of you have heard about the models of education in other countries (notably Japan and Germany), and I thought we ought to address the quality of the American student.

I have thought a lot about the cultural differences that affect education in America.

It occurs to me that, as teachers, we face the great difficulty of working in a culture that values and fosters rebellion. We teach our students to "think for themselves." We teach them the literature of rebellion. We encourage them to be creative. We question previous knowledge and authority all of the time.

This means that we're working with little Americans that are always on the brink of rebellion. We can't teach them that rebellion is wrong, necessarily, because that undermines the entire American system. We can, however, teach them that rebellion brings consequences, which must always be weighed.

We can teach them to direct their rebellion into creativity and discovery, which is the thrust of much of what is currently being urged in American education. "Thinking outside the box" is a way of rebelling against current thought, but it's also a way of creatively solving problems, which is something Americans value.

I think we have an obligation to teach our students that the best upper level thinking is built on a foundation of solid lower-level thinking. We must persuade them that they must have knowledge before they can analyze and synthesize. We can also be economical in the ways in which they gain knowledge (gaining knowledge by solving problems is such an economy--it passes through several of Bloom's levels in one exercise).

Of course, we need to combat the effects of American entertainment on our students. Many of them honestly but falsely believe that all their dreams can come true if they only dream firmly enough, rejecting all disqualifying factors or necessary hard work. This may be suggesting that the old American ideal of hard work is eroding (ya think?), but we are in a good position to teach our students that hard work is still rewarded, and that realistic dreams (I don't intend that to be an oxymoron) can come true with a combination of good planning and hard work.

One of the things that comes with American freedom is the freedom to fail. Our cultural legends are full of how often failure leads to success. Edison's series of failures before his success with the light bulb is a famous case in point. American students need to be taught that to try and fail is virtuous; to fail to try is bad. Our grading pattens should allow for the possibility of virtuous attempts that don't succeed, and we may perhaps define true failure as the failure to try. They must be given the right to fail, it's true; but they must also be given a full understanding of the consequences of failure (usually at the beginning of the semester, not the end when it's too late), and they must be given reasonable opportunities to be successful. They must not have laziness or procrastination rewarded.

You have learned that they will not sit placidly and learn while you talk. They must be "engaged." Don't fight their need to be "engaged." Work to engage them and keep them that way

Americans are rude. This is partly a result of our having been descended from the poor and poorly educated of the world. We are a nation of refugees and outcasts, to a large extent. When our native rudeness shows up in the classroom, it shouldn't be a complete surprise. However, if we want to function on the world stage (and many of our alumni do), we must learn that there are standards of behavior that the world expects of us. Personally, I think those standards are best taught as an integrated part of everything we do, especially how we act toward our students. I constantly get into trouble when I descend to my native rudeness with my students; I have much better success when I treat them with courtesy as if I expect them to be young ladies and gentlemen, even when they aren't.

This isn't a comprehensive analysis of American attitudes and how they affect education. It is, however, a decent observation of some of the things I see you all struggling with on a daily basis.

Jeff Combe