Reply to Teaching in the U.S. vs. the rest of the world

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have taught in three countries (Japan, USA, and Cameroon, Africa in the Peace Corps). We have “low power distance” culture in the U.S.  children are taught that they should have the same rights as adults.  Look at movies here. Parents and teachers are usually treated as bumbling idiots while the kids are in charge.   Students are taught to disrespect authority and education in general.  Our social structure has also destroyed upward mobility for most kids, so it is hard to argue that education guarantees success in life unless you have the means to pay for college.[/quote]

You don’t think children should have the same rights as an adult? WTF?! Children are just as human as adults and deserve the same rights and respect. I really hope you no longer work in education.[/quote]

I answered the topic of the thread.  Teachers in other countries benefit from cultures of filial piety, high power distance, confuscism 
, and strong family traditions.  All of these reinforce traditional respect in the classroom even if a student doesn’t like the teacher or material.

Here is the U.S. teachers are expected to entertain and/or engage students to “earn” respect.  This not easy to do because certain topics/ content and individual teacher and student personalities never align perfectly.  If a disruptive student is having a bad day and is able to pull a couple of peers off task a lesson can go downhill pretty quickly through no fault of the teacher.  Teachers end up teaching the same content three times to counter a lot of this.  So, we never up reaching the higher level creative thinking and engagement.  The end result is that student “ lose respect” for the teacher and think class is not fun.  Again, not the teacher’s fault.  Although after a long time it can lead to teachers giving up on being engaging.[/quote]

This PP seems to be confusing all countries with a couple of Asian countries.  I don't think Norway, Finland, or New Zealand have a history of confuscism.  And yet they are way better than the US in education.  Having been a public school teacher and also worked overseas and with foreign students in the USA, I can promise you that the poor ranking of our educational system is not due to lack of respect among students, although that is what many ignorant teachers and parents will say.  It is due to curriculum design, management structure, school day structure, behavior management, government interference, and lack of respect for teachers by other adults.  In other words, everything about our schools is pretty much the opposite of what makes for good education.  Except for the students - good education does not require good students, or it isn't good education.[/quote]

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