Essay og Blog om "Views on Education"

Uddrag

A: Essay
How to raise your child and how to prepare them for their adult life is not something that is universally agreed upon, or done the same way around the world. How to be good parents is culturally determined, and Chinese children are not necessarily raised the same way as American children. The set of values used in connection with parenting and education by Chinese parents and American/Western parents have more differences than similarities. What seems to be universally agreed upon is that, “All parents want their children to grow up happy, confident and strong,” according to Chinese born Amy Chua, author of the book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”. Even though all parents want happy, confident and strong children the means for getting them there are very different in the two cultures.

You always have to be careful when you use individuals to represent whole cultures, but in the case of Amy Chua, research of Chinese children's performance in the school system, seems to indicate that a certain truth can be led from her descriptions of how she has raised her own children. Being a mother of two daughters, Amy Chua believes she has the recipe for success. Both girls have been raised the strict traditional Chinese way, where things such as playdates, sleepovers and watching TV and playing computer games are banned and grades less than A release negative comments and critical questions. Chua was raised this way herself and believes that such an upbringing has made her strong, confident and thereby successful and happy as an adult. She wants to teach her daughters the same Chinese values that helped form her into the person she is today. These are values such as obedience, respect and most of all hard work. Chua believes that respecting and obeying your parents is important because they have set you in this world and know what is best for you. Growing up in a traditional home, with strong authority figures that tell you what instruments to play, what sports to attend, what grades to get, helps children form into strong, independent and competent individuals, according to Chua, who also believes that this is where her and her daughters' upbringing differ from an American upbringing.
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B: Blog
Right now the American education system stands at a crossroad. We are faced with enormous problems that we need to find solutions to today. We used to be at pioneers in public education and sit at the front of the class when it came to the world's educational standards, but we are now at a 20th place in graduation rates overtaken by countries such as Greece, Japan, Korea, Slovenia etc. It is a frightening picture since education is what determines the America of tomorrow. We need well educated students to become doctors, lawyers, military personnel, senators and presidents, we need well educated students to invent new iPods, open new markets and research cures for diseases, but at the rate we are going now we are in deep trouble.
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