1958 High school exchange students. Full group discussion. Philippines, Iceland, Greece & other

uh, when this year's forum delegates were elected last October, each of them received a letter from the forum office and it said in part that most visitors to a foreign country complain that they see so many sites that They never get to know the people in the letter. He went on to say, well, your complaint is going to be the opposite, no one has really complained because I'm sure that each of the 34 delegates is aware that here in the United States it is the people rather than the places that are important, more important than the sites except In one site, here you have seen the site of our free public

school

s in operation, educating an entire town.

Each of the

students

has had four two-week terms, four two-week intensive terms in four different American

school

s and host communities, participating in school work. With their American student host, they spent a week in St. Louis visiting schools there and three days in Williamsburg, where they met with

high

school student council presidents from each of the 48 states, but now we want to hear some of their reactions personal to this. Intense experience in American secondary schools I have called the delegates from Italy South Africa Sudan Korea and Iceland to the round table I am going to ask Francois Moniere from France to start us, would you like Francoise?

I think almost all of us were very critical during the first weeks that we were here because it is seen that most of us, with a few exceptions, come from schools that certainly educate an intellectual elite, but now that we have had the opportunity to understand the purpose of American education, we have changed our ideas a lot. I'll stop you right there, Francois's conclusions later, but I think there is such a ferment going on in American education today that we would all like you to give us your first very frank opinions. Could you, uh, I think the difference between our education and that of American teenagers is what first struck me.

Well, I saw here that their schools are for everyone without any intellectual limits and that the emphasis is on social life because half of their

students

cannot continue. with the academic and I think it surprised me because our schools, for example the French lisi, only attend 50 of the adolescents who are selected through a very tough competition all the time, in fact, the entire basis of our system is competition and Those who cannot compete go to vocational schools until they are 14 years old. That's why I was very surprised, because the subjects you choose in

high

school are not purely academic and well, I thought your schools put too much emphasis on social life.

You also say that they encouraged intellectual laziness or you have changed your mind about it, of course, because you have very few options in the subjects, you choose the easiest ones and for me this encourages intellectual laziness and the teacher does not demand much from you and it would be useful work hard if the teacher does not require it. Oh, we'll get back to you in a minute, Francoise, yes, I say from Korea, in Korea, we not only study much, much harder than you. but also much more in quantity we go to school six days a week including Saturdays and we have six or seven classes a day and we study around 18 subjects a year did you say 18 18 not eight 18 18 subjects a year including three languages ​​calculus and trigonometry oh okay Anne from Norway yes I was wondering something Mrs Waller American high school students are free to choose many

other

subjects in high school but the purpose of freedom is to allow each individual to develop at their own pace. its maximum capacity and I think that freedom of choice prevents this may sound like a paradox, I know, but I think that freedom of choice reduces your perspective, prevents your

full

development, you also see that most of us, all of our subjects in the secondary school are mandatory and I know that it has affected me personally.

Well, take some subjects that I was not at all interested in at the beginning. Well, for example, Anne, you are going to be a linguist, I think you have had to take subjects that you were not interested in. Four years of mathematics, two years of physics, two years, one year of chemistry. and physiology two years of insology biology physiology those are things that have nothing to do with languages ​​but they have done me good and I think I can say that we are forced to think for that reason We are forced to use our brains in a way that until now I have noticed that American students have to do it.

I can't see how your brains can work. Yes, Ruth of Israel, I agree with Anne. Freedom reduces your perspective if there is no sense of responsibility. In my country, Israel, students take school and studying much more seriously and today they have respect, maybe this is due to the special circumstances of my country, but when a student goes to high school, he takes responsibility of himself. He is responsible to his parents who work hard to earn money to pay for his school, the demands of school are great if he cannot meet them, he cannot stay and he realizes that only through the education he receives can he improve. your situation. life and the life of your nation my point is not that you study out of a sense of responsibility towards your country but towards yourself the subjects you choose in high school do not help each

other

to train your thinking you do not learn to manage thoughts by the mere pleasure of being the most skilled like we do, even if it's stupid, that's how we play.

I agree that American schools do not accustom the student to hard and systematic work. It seems like the teachers don't want to bother the students with homework once I was visiting, go ahead, make your point last year, there is disagreement, but make your point. I was visiting a class on a Friday afternoon when the teacher seriously told the students: I don't want to give you any homework this weekend. I don't want to ruin your fun, it really surprised me because in my country the teacher gives so much homework in one weekend which by the way is one day instead of two days like in the United States, we don't stop learning with a class bill most of our learning is done through homework where we train our minds to think and search and here's another point once I asked an American student why aren't you taking a foreign language and he said I'm going To live my whole life in America I am not going to go abroad I think a teacher is to blame for not explaining to the students that to know other people and cultures you have to know them through their languages ​​here is mahipala from the classroom Are you right with that microphone?

I believe that today we cannot educate students who live under the bland assumption that the world will not be much different in 10 or 20 years. I suppose that the American educational system developed in a certain atmosphere, but not The country's educational system has changed as quickly as the position of a country in the world changes. Yes, Saraj from Thailand. Now I am sure that Russian education is much more advanced than American education. There are many reasons. One of the reasons is the latter. Last year there was a meeting in Moscow for students from all over the world and we also sent our representatives from Thailand.

When they got off the plane, they were greeted by some Russian students and were surprised because all the Russians could completely speak the Thai language fluently when asked. how they learned it they said they learned it in their own school but can you interrupt me yes go ahead the topic of this

discussion

is education so maybe Russians educate students better but they do it freely and so that they become free citizens. that's the question yes bjorn i think it was oscar wilde who once said that the old

iceland

ers were very wise people who saw america 500 years before columbus but they didn't tell anyone that the

iceland

ers of today are probably not as wise as they were their ancestors, but they are As for one thing, I am sure that education is the most expensive item in our national budget each year in the United States.

I think much more is spent on defense than on education. Yes, I truly believe that education should be considered more important than advocacy. A certain way that education can be is the defense of free people and well, in Italy we discuss a lot about the crisis in our school, but as always there are more words than actions and well, when I came here for the first time I had many prejudices against my school and now I have lost some of them being at yours has made me appreciate mine a little more and oh our teachers are like dictators they are so stuck up and rigid sometimes they don't even look like human beings and sometimes the Americans The teachers don't they learn enough You say that sometimes American teachers don't teach enough You say that those in Italy teach too much Oh yes, one hour and you say that ours is not enough Well, it continues since I have been here I always found the lesson very interesting and more interesting when the teacher is old and strict the younger American teacher the product of strange that word you say the lesson is interesting when the teachers are old and strict but the young the young American teachers seem to know a lot about how to teach them what to teach uh and here comes a sputnik gives a very convenient excuse for students to blame their schools also i think there is too much emphasis on sports in their high schools basketball players and restless are the school idols while the school achievements They don't get the attention they deserve.

The only thing the world doesn't need. The only thing the world doesn't need today is basketball. We will remember that you said that the only thing the world does not need today is basketball. basketball, what do you say to that arena? I don't agree with what you said at the beginning. Not too much emphasis, but the wrong kind of emphasis on sports. You mean American schools. Here sports belong to a small elite, the team, only the majority of students. go to the games to see the others play but you don't understand the bullfight the americans don't go to the basketball games to see the teams oh they don't go for two other reasons one is shouting oh boy the americans really say it i the americans I really like it They have opened their eyes to the value of shouting for the moment.

I can only think of one thing I like more than cheerleading and that is cheerleading. Wow, the man who invented them. I think he really made a great contribution to the search. of happiness in this world but I have a complaint American schools are too big when you see the pretty girl in a school it is very difficult to find her again now can I continue please what I want what I wanted to say is that when we have sports in school It means that around 300 students will participate. An entire Saturday is reserved for sports and many games of all kinds are played.

This is much more democratic because here everyone has the opportunity to be heroes on the field. Many of us feel that, far from being democratic, American schools are actually undemocratic in lumping together the gifted and the less gifted, neither getting a fair chance. Oh, can I interrupt? You should remember that some American schools are beginning to separate students based on ability and us. we must recognize it well, well, we will do it. Another thing we consider undemocratic is the fact that you don't wear school uniforms. At school, they would kill you. School uniforms are much more democratic because they cross class lines, but there are, but there are.

There are no classes in America to cross and haven't you noticed that even though American students don't wear uniforms, they all seem to look alike and they all talk the same right after coming here? The first thing I noticed about American students. is that what they talk about most of the time among themselves is mainly gossip, especially about relationships between boys and girls, everywhere I go I have heard the students here talk about it so many times that now I am sick of it and I can't bear it more. Of course, we also talk about our gossips, but not constantly like you do here and not always about the same particular topic called dating, we talk more about our studies, right? and we never waste time worrying about our clothes and putting makeup on our faces.

Here is Ben Kofi from Ghana, yes Ben, excuse me, I have heard enough criticism of the American way of education. I have always been in favor of the American way of education and after three months in this country, I am more in favor of it than we ever achieved in Ghana. our independence only a year ago and we need mass production of educated people which is much more important to us than individual intellectuals. It is the middle class of people who develop a nation and not isolated intellectuals. I feel that the United States is great and is a rapidly developing country. country has the highest standard of living in the world today only because its educational system prepares the student to take on responsibilities after school.

Well, I think the Americans emphasize what the Greeks stood for: versatility, ahealthy mind in a healthy body. I interrupt as an Athenian opinion at least I find an opportunity I would like to say that I have seen here in some in many schools that in art classes they actually teach advertising now this in Greece has been incredible and of course it certainly surprised me but hey, it's a good way, a very good way to use art if art can be used and still be art in just a second. I cut to Reena a second ago. Did you want to go back to that point?

And reader, yes, I would. I would like to return to a point that Anne mentioned earlier. I suggest that some enforced conformity in schools, such as compulsory subjects, disciplinary uniforms, and separate schools for boys and girls, create more real freedom in the end. This may seem illogical, but my personal experience in American high schools was that everyone He knows that he is really free and feels that he has to act that way and then he becomes a slave to conformity without knowing it. Okay, Ben, now you want to answer, tell us more about why you prefer the American system. that their system in Ghana, well can I continue with my form of education? develops a bookworm, a stupid, crooked intellectual who can't fix a tie, was imposed by the British who needed people to work in offices and train to public officials and I think it is outdated, it taught me more about Australia, Canada, the United States than I know my neighboring African states, but to work towards the United States of Africa I feel I must know more about them.

Yes, now from Vietnam I would like to tell you something. At least in your country you only have one education system: the British one. colonial, but in my country we have two systems, French and Vietnamese, and French was much better just because a child with a French diploma can find a job much easier, but that means we have to learn French like our native. language and Vietnamese we have a foreign language in high school when we took the French system and it was a shame now that we have our own government, it is difficult to change or unify our education system without imagining the students and but the worst thing is that Some people They still think that they still have a good opinion about the students who took the French system.

I guess we really don't know anything about educational problems until we realize that in your country you have to develop a system with two different languages. What about the Philippines? Patsy, oh I just have to say something about that, when Spain came to rule the Philippines, they acted like the British in Ghana. Well education was for a select few but when the United States came one of the first things they did was establish schools right now I would say the Philippines is the only former colonial zone in both Asia and Africa that has pre-compulsory education after of the sixth grade.

Ah, but we also have a similar linguistic problem as in Vietnam, what language should we use as a medium? of instruction in schools almost all of our textbooks are in English at this time we are experimenting with the use of the vernacular in the primary grades, but the real problem is that currently 87 different dialects are used in the Philippine islands, in addition to others ask, I'd say I'd rather have a well-adjusted lock than a misfit intellectual, at least our adjusted rocket can still find happiness. I would like to ask my African neighbor a question, if I could, would I prefer to have the American education system? in Ghana now or the system you are having, surely you would rather have the United States, what about you in Sudan?

I wouldn't do it yet. I think your country and mine are still in a period where we need intellectual leaders more than educated masses we have to concentrate for a few more years on producing doctors, scientists, experts, educators who will reward the nation in the near future by educating the masses and this reminds me of something important: when we criticize the American education system, we forget that each of us has been displaced and displaced many times before we even reached high school and then selected from all over the country to come here. The American students we know represent the entire population and something really surprises me.

In my country, a high school graduate is considered so-so. an educated person from an educated class, while in America a street cleaner may be a high school graduate, yes, bjorn from Iceland, the American system certainly serves its purpose, its purpose of providing for its teammates is under the guidance of teachers for 12 years, keeping them out of the labor market and educating them equally. I doubt that anywhere in the world you can find a large nation without a man more public-minded and more capable of social activities than here, unless you give me a chance to say what I want to do and excuse me.

I turn the microphone around, Marcy, you interrupted me, you know, I was going to say that our school system in Italy and I think it's true in many other countries was good at educating the elite, but now that it has to educate the masses, It is a failure instead of adapting the school to the masses, they try to adapt the masses to the school and the result of this in Italy is a very, very serious problem that we call reversal illiteracy, this means that when people finish the number required years in school. are not intended for their needs, they become illiterate again and perhaps that is why for many Italians, especially in southern Italy, there is no relationship between education and a better life.

One minute omar I want to ask ibrahim from Lebanon about his experience in Lebanon in the different types of schools we used to have two school systems French and Lebanese but my school took a mix of them and lemon teaches about 14 subjects, while the American teaches only four, we took a mix and We had eight and this makes a good combination. I think thank you. I wanted you to give us that because Lebanon seems to have a mix of the European and American systems. How's this whole thing about Omar from Morocco? Well, I'd like to tell you.

Matchella, I don't think we can ever have this problem of mass education in Morocco, where there was 90 percent illiteracy under colonialism because people are too eager to learn to read and write a month after we got our gas literacy. the independence league. Many volunteers were created, they offered to teach the masses thirsty for learning, very easy books were printed, a special newspaper was created, and both boys and girls participate because the struggle is the same for women as it is for men. Many educational projects were organized last summer. there last summer There were about 12,000 people in total, those who are students teach those who have not gone to school while they thought they would all work together and built a 40 mile highway that connects the old French part with the old Spanish part.

Well, we don't have this. problem of educating the masses in our country yes I can move on I have been complaining about the lack of individual thought that I have seen here and maybe it is like that but now I come to think that the application of the idea of ​​freedom uh recognizing the rights of the individual exist more than in the average American than in the average uneducated Greek and I think maybe we should try to adopt a system that takes care of the mass people like you have done here, but I wonder if we can do that without neglecting the gifted, since I see what has happened here and well, I am sure that sometimes everyone is moving towards the goal of mass education that has already been achieved in the United States.

We have started on this. address, what would you say, Krishna? Well, I guess I would say that your system is our solution and ours is your remedy. Indian education has slipped from its moorings and resulted in too many brilliant social misfits, perhaps America could use a few more, our biggest social problem. It is the chasm between the educated and the uneducated. You have closed this gap so well that education here seems insubstantial. Somehow it doesn't challenge the student enough. It is becoming less a vital creative process than the imposition of a stereotype. Tastes must not only be fed but also cultivated