The Advantages of American Educational System
Parents and the older generation Americans always complain about the educational system of the country. They assert that their children?s knowledge and skills are below average as compared to their counterparts in other countries. The American educational system is not inferior to other systems in any other way. Instead, it is just teaching some other factors that are considered more significant than simply basic knowledge and skills. The American educational system tries to develop freedom and creativity among its students. From an American point of view, only in this way can the students contribute maximally to the future society.
Freedom is the trademark of America. Americans are admired by people in other countries because they have the freedom to do whatever they wish without worrying about the negative consequences. Therefore, the American educational system must be in congruence with this trademark. According to this system, children can learn effectively only when they are allowed to explore freely with their ideas, “without this they will not really be able to think or believe in themselves” . When children are forced to memorize some materials, they will remember the materials for a few days. However, they would have forgotten everything after a summer vacation. On the other hand, when children are allowed to think of their own ways of learning the concepts, they will tend to remember them longer and apply them appropriately since they are their own ideas.
In addition to promoting freedom, the American educational system also fosters creativity among its students. The system believes that brilliant and bright students are those students that have creative and unique ideas. In order to develop creativity, it neglects good academic performance that most systems treasure and tries to promote creativity among students and place academic performance on the second place. An example of how different systems teach the plays of Shakespeare demonstrates the point. The traditional system would require students to memorize Hamlet?s “To be or not to be” soliloquy without any mistakes. Under the influence of the American system, however, students are assigned to write a love letter to Juliet instead of straight memorization. In this way, students are encouraged to express their ideas with creativity and hence promote the atmosphere that learning is indeed a fun activity.
All in all, one can say that the American educational system is different from other educational systems. However, one cannot express the idea that the American system is worse than any other system. This is because the different systems are promoting very different concerns for their students and it is this difference that causes many critics to label the American system as inferior. Contrary to most systems, the American educational system develops freedom and creativity among its students. The system is convinced that this will help promote success in the students? future. Also, it is not going to change its teaching method in spite of the strong criticism it had received.