Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 14:47     Subject: Re:I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:- School is laughably easy
- Curriculum is substandard,
- School year is very short
- Instruction is substandard,
- No real testing,
- No textbooks,
- Massive grade inflation,
- Incompetent and burnt out teachers / stupid, checked-out and uneducated parents
- STEM and Foreign Languages are very poorly taught by incompetent teachers
- Students are disruptive and there is poor discipline in the classroom
- Students are not differentiated
- No one fails. It is a conveyor belt system, which is producing illiterate students. School is childcare.
- The only kids who are actually learning and thriving are being supplemented at home.

- Immigrant mom.


Then if you smart enough, there is really no reason you decided to be an “immigrant mom”.


Yes, there is. This is a land of opportunities. Most kids here cannot compete. It's like taking candy from the hands of babies. Why not?
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 14:42     Subject: I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:He’s from Germany. He 17 and has quite an ego. His English is formal, but excellent and he also speaks German and Spanish fluently.
He’s not taking any math or science classes while he’s here because he doesn’t like those subjects.
He comes home from school every day telling me how the Americans can’t read, don’t know geography, history etc. I’m really tired of hearing it.
Help me survive this until June!


I’d point out that STEM is the primary focus and classical liberal arts is fading away. If you are in the DMV, point out that there is a split in education with the higher stat kids tracking toward the Asian model of highly competitive, high stats and acceleration while the humanities are being pushed down to the more vocational level. Offer to sign him up for multi variable and honors chem at a local community college if he needs more challenge.

Schools don’t teach history and geography anymore.


Really? That is tragic.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 14:36     Subject: I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
I’d like to point out that a significant number of US Nobel prizes (40%) have been earned by immigrants.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 13:00     Subject: I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
Immigrant Mom is here because the US just offers more: better jobs, better pay, and better enhancement and innovation in many fields.

The US also offers clean and sanitary streets and cutting edge ADA.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 12:58     Subject: I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
Germans can be super blunt. If he’s getting on your nerves about it, be a bit blunt back. You can affirm what he’s saying but also point out that your kids or your nieces/nephews/friends’ kids are in the cohort he’s insulting, so maybe he can scale it back a bit when talking to YOU about it. Ask him if he’d like to find extracurricular enrichment opportunities for harder academic work. If you’re in the DC area, make sure he’s taking advantage of all the museums and other cultural offerings in the area. Ask him to join debate or model UN another extracurricular where smart kids participate.

Interesting that he’s avoiding hard topics like math and science. Sounds like he’d get his @ss handed to him by some US peers if he’s a junior or senior.

Is he also homesick and it’s coming out this way? How’s he doing socially?
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 12:49     Subject: Re:I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
Anonymous wrote:"- School is laughably easy
- Curriculum is substandard,
- School year is very short
- Instruction is substandard,
- No real testing,
- No textbooks,
- Massive grade inflation,
- Incompetent and burnt out teachers / stupid, checked-out and uneducated parents
- STEM and Foreign Languages are very poorly taught by incompetent teachers
- Students are disruptive and there is poor discipline in the classroom
- Students are not differentiated
- No one fails. It is a conveyor belt system, which is producing illiterate students. School is childcare.
- The only kids who are actually learning and thriving are being supplemented at home.

- Immigrant mom. "

Then if you smart enough, there is really no reason you decided to be an “immigrant mom”.


That immigrant mom is here because America's immigration system is very lax. She isnt' able to park herself nor her family in European countries where the academic standards are indeed higher. But she is afraid of the competition in her own country and perhaps her chiildren couldn't cut it back home.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 12:47     Subject: I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
Anonymous wrote:I heard that alot too, but really US (before new administration) is the only country where international students will do everything to get in, not China, not Germany, not French universities and etc…
I never heard an american so desperate to be accepted at Tsinghua uni… why though?


Maybe because it's hard to overstay your visa in other countries. Their immigration system is pretty tight.
For a long time, and for most Indian students today, they are hoping to land a job after schooling here. Some overstay their visas. In general, it's easy to stay here after your student visa expires.
Was it either Sweden or Denmark that recently really tightened their foreign student entries? They plainly said that the international student program was being used as a "backdoor to the labor market".
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 12:32     Subject: I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
The German school system splits students by aptitude early on. They identify students who should probably head to trade school and those who could perform at university level. The dont have a 'college is for everyone' school system.
It is likely that what this German teen's observation is the result of American educational flattening approach to everyone's potential. The classroom is dumbed down to a median in order to be inclusive of all academic levels.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 11:54     Subject: I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:He's probably on the spectrum - smart, but socially inept. If you want to, you can address that with him, and say: "I can see you're intelligent and above average, even for a German high schooler. But socially, I'd like to remind you of the rules of etiquette. It's not done, here or in any other country, to repeatedly criticize people. You've already told me how American students are behind academically multiple times, so I don't need to hear this anymore. And going forward, applying rules of social etiquette will help you with your professional and private relationships."

Cast it in the form of "social rules" and in light of his future interests, and he will understand it better. I have close relatives on the spectrum - being direct but neutral helps them a lot.

FYI... I lived in the UK, France and Germany as a child, and went to high school in a private international school in Paris. The average American student IS behind the average continental European student!!! It's true But it doesn't mean it should be said.

My kids went to/still attend good public high schools, and they were or still are in all AP/advanced tracks, which puts them below my high school level in writing and the Humanities, but higher in STEM and math.



I think he just sounds German.


Stop it with the xenophobic stereotypes. People are the same everywhere and politeness is a thing outside of the US.


Disagree that this comment is xenophobic. The Germans are like indeed this and there are quite a lot if people from other countries who love the rule abiding straight to the facts highly structured Teutonic culture.
And bless your heart, people are not the same everywhere. Been to India?
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 11:44     Subject: Re:I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
Anonymous wrote:You just say "you know, I'm glad you're finding school to be easy for you but it's starting to really irritate me that you come home every day and insult your peers. Can we keep our conversations about school a little more positive, or at least focused on problems we need to solve?"

IMO this is part of your job in loco parentis.


Yikes. Pretty douchey way of putting it.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 11:23     Subject: Re:I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
I can’t believe all of the people who think it’s ok to bash not only our schools but the children who attend them. No one is making exchange students study here. Of course the school systems have lots of room for improvement. But people need to remember the rules that apply to public schools that have to be followed.

When Americans are overseas complaining about their host countries they are labeled as rude and arrogant Americans and rightly so. Why is it ok for others to express such negativity when we are the host.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 11:13     Subject: I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
Teens are like this around people they feel comfortable around. He is right and it must frustrate him. I'd just listen and maybe Council him not to voice that around certain people as it could offend them but your job is to be the comfortable figure for him here so I wouldn't snap back on your account. Just deal with an upsetting observation for one semester.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 11:03     Subject: Re:I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:- School is laughably easy
- Curriculum is substandard,
- School year is very short
- Instruction is substandard,
- No real testing,
- No textbooks,
- Massive grade inflation,
- Incompetent and burnt out teachers / stupid, checked-out and uneducated parents
- STEM and Foreign Languages are very poorly taught by incompetent teachers
- Students are disruptive and there is poor discipline in the classroom
- Students are not differentiated
- No one fails. It is a conveyor belt system, which is producing illiterate students. School is childcare.
- The only kids who are actually learning and thriving are being supplemented at home.

- Immigrant mom.


Then if you smart enough, there is really no reason you decided to be an “immigrant mom”.


She might immigrate to flew the country for safety reasons, but again what country that produce the brightest mind make their citizens flew their country to the shitiest country on education… (according to her)..
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 10:59     Subject: Re:I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
Anonymous wrote:- School is laughably easy
- Curriculum is substandard,
- School year is very short
- Instruction is substandard,
- No real testing,
- No textbooks,
- Massive grade inflation,
- Incompetent and burnt out teachers / stupid, checked-out and uneducated parents
- STEM and Foreign Languages are very poorly taught by incompetent teachers
- Students are disruptive and there is poor discipline in the classroom
- Students are not differentiated
- No one fails. It is a conveyor belt system, which is producing illiterate students. School is childcare.
- The only kids who are actually learning and thriving are being supplemented at home.

- Immigrant mom.


Then if you smart enough, there is really no reason you decided to be an “immigrant mom”.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 10:56     Subject: I’m tired of my exchange student talking about how easy school is here and how dumb the American kids are.
I heard that alot too, but really US (before new administration) is the only country where international students will do everything to get in, not China, not Germany, not French universities and etc…
I never heard an american so desperate to be accepted at Tsinghua uni… why though?