Essay/Term paper: American education system versus asian education system

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Education

American Education System versus Asian Education System


Today the American education system is no longer the best in the world.
With declining test scores and poor academic achievement, people have questioned
whether our current educational system is working for us? On the other side of
the Pacific, the situation is totally different. Students of Asian countries
achieve higher academic achievements, and they rank at the top on math and
science tests. If their educational system is better than the U.S system,
should we adopt their educational system or not?
America the land of opportunity, which is famous for its democratic
society and unique culture. People in America like to be free, to do whatever
they want to do without any restrictions. This belief is reflected in the
American educational system. In American schools, teachers and students are at
the same social level. Students are encouraged to exchange their own opinions
with the teacher. From an early age, students in the American educational
system have been taught that they have the ability to achieve whatever they want
to be, but rarely have been told how they can achieve their goal. This is
because in America there are so many ways to achieve one's dream.
Because of this belief in natural born ability in the land of
opportunity, students receive very little pressure in school, so whatever they
do in school is totally based on their personal beliefs. If a student wants to
be successful he or she can study very hard and get in to a very good college.
On the other hand if a student doesn't have any self control and just wants to
get school over with, it is OK too, because nobody cares. The advantage of this
kind of educational system is that , it really developes student's individual
thinking skills, they are encouraged to try out different options to achieve
their goal. For example Bill Gates, who dropped out of college, started his own
company, now he is one of the richest man in the world. That bad thing about
this system is that not that many students don't have the responsibility to get
good grades or become successful many believe that even if you don't have a good
education you can still get a good paying job. That's why many students in
school are doing poorly on their school work.
In Asian countries, the cultures and social standards are totally
different from the U.S. In those countries most of their values are based on
Confucius which heavily stresses education and group values. One's social
status is based on their education level. Starting from elementary school,
students have been taught that if you want to be successful in life you must
have a good education, any other way is considers inappropriate. In the Asian
school systems, educators rank students by their scores. So, if your rank is
high you are a good student and you will have a good chance to get into a good
school. If your rank is low then you are a bad student it is a sign of your are
going to be a looser. Nobody cares if you are talented or not. Under these
pressures, students compete hard with other students. They study five hours a
day just trying to gain more points on a test so they can get into a higher rank.
In school, teachers try to stuff more knowledge into students so their class
can be better than other class in the School. Schools set stricter rules so
their students can be better than the students in other schools.
Through these efforts of setting high standards it's no surprise that
Asian students rank at the top of academic achievement. The advantage of this
kind of system is that the school systems can provide the society year after
year with high quality personnel with the same academic standard, although most
of those students are that creative, because they are not allowed to do much
free thinking in school. Free thinking is considered a waste of time.
In reality, a person must be very creative on a job otherwise he or she
will be replaced by someone in no time. Because the American educational system
allows and encourages free thinking in school, U.S is still the #1 in innovation
and scientific research. If the U.S adopts the Asian educational system it's
probaly going to be in confilict with the constitution on the issue of freedom
of speech. Because of this, I think the current educational system is well
suited for America.