Why do most American kids hate school but foreign kids love it?

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statnerd
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Re: Why do most American kids hate school but foreign kids love it?

Post by statnerd »

I remember being bored in school. The material wasn't challenging at all, yet many of the kids still struggled or just didn't care. It's not like high school matters in the grand scheme of things anyway.

I remember one guy who was brilliant but just didn't do any of the work. He graduated with a 68 GPA. He is now a computer programmer living in Silicon Valley.

I also hated the bullies. They were both mean and stupid.

Yeah, high school sucked.


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CannedHam
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Re: Why do most American kids hate school but foreign kids love it?

Post by CannedHam »

I'm pretty familiar with the situation in China, as my wife is Chinese. I can assure you that most Chinese students don't love school, but really have no option as there is an insane amount of family pressure. Even a hint of rebellion results in severe punishment. Many students are completely burned out by the time they reach college. And education in China = tons of rote memorization, no creativity, etc. As much as the situation sucks in the USA, it's way worse in China.

A Filipina friend of mine loved school when she was younger because they didn't do shit in school - just sang, danced, played games etc. Hence the under performance of Filipinos compared to other Asians.
Mercury
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Re: Why do most American kids hate school but foreign kids love it?

Post by Mercury »

Winston wrote:
June 30th, 2018, 8:21 pm
Mercury wrote:
June 30th, 2018, 7:59 pm
Winston wrote:
November 21st, 2009, 7:46 pm
Why is it that most kids in the US hate school and consider it to be like a prison? They get really excited and celebrate, for example, when school gets canceled for the day. But kids in other countries, like the Philippines, love school and consider it an honor and blessing to go to it?

Is it because the US school system dehumanizes kids, takes away their individuality and makes them feel like "raw material" to be processed? I certainly felt that way, like I was there to be indoctrinated.

This film makes some good points about that. It features a couple independent researchers and freethinkers explaining how the US education system dumbs down kids, turning them into a left brained slave labor force. One guy makes a good point about how artistic and music programs in schools are constantly cut to promote left brain programs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FnOxWTt1ZE
Because American schools have become literal prisons designed to turn kids into robots. Designed to dehumanize kids with the dreadful "Mind your own business" and "None of your business" phrases, with detentions for hugging, and with rules that completely discourage kids from ever making friends. American schools are designed to literally teach kids that it is illegal to interact with other people except for business reasons only.
How do you know? When I was in school in the 80's, you were allowed to make friends. The problem was the kids were not friendly but very snobby. You had to be "cool" to have friends and know how to fit in and be popular. I couldn't figure out how to do that. Being outgoing and sociable and friendly wasn't enough. You could be friendly and outgoing and sociable and not have any friends, if you couldn't break into any cliques. But no one in school said that friendships were for business only. I thought that was the adult world. Where did you get that? You mean today's schools in America are different? I thought schools today were more politically correct of course, but not that true friendships weren't allowed. Even I had friendships like shown in the movie "Stand By Me", before I was 14 of course.
Reportedly, in 1999, Morton High School District 201 in Berwyn/Cicero, Illinois banned all social interactions between guys and uniformed cheerleaders. And more recently, Jackson Heights Middle School in Oviedo, Florida gave a 14 year old girl a detention for comforting, with a hug, a male friend who was having a very bad day!

So yes, schools in America are immensely far different! They have literally crashed. They have become exactly like prisons. Most schools even punish students for crying, even if their favorite uncle died. American schools today are designed to "toughen kids up" by destroying their loving hearts and putting in hearts of stone and iron. Designed to make kids toxic, hateful, and socially disconnected. Schools today have become places designed to train kids to be business only people.

And both J Sterling Morton High School District 201 and Jackson Heights Middle School in particular have come to represent America's evil, prison-like school system. Especially Jackson Heights Middle School which in their hearts told that girl; "We don't care if your friend is having a bad day. It's none of your business!"
zboy1
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Re: Why do most American kids hate school but foreign kids love it?

Post by zboy1 »

East Asian kids in Asian countries certainly do not love school! As CannedHam mentioned, the stress and pressure associated with school can take an emotional toll on students. I'm in China--and I've heard many stories of kids committing suicide due to family or academic issues.

Plus, the schools teach nothing but rote memorization and no creativity, thus the lack of innovation coming from East Asians compared to Westerners'.
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Winston
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Re: Why do most American kids hate school but foreign kids love it?

Post by Winston »

Did any of you have fun in high school? Or am I the only one who didn't?

Did you guys at least have friends to hang with at lunch? Did you do fun things together? Like drive around and tipee houses, and pick up girls, etc? Did you go to parties and school dances? Did you drive around all night and cruise the town like shown in the movie "American Graffiti"? Did you get to experience that magical first kiss with the girl you had a crush on, and then fireworks went off in your head? lol.

Did you get to have those summers of fun or summers of love where you and your friends, or girlfriend, got to go to the beach or lake, and lay out in the sun, and make love at night, etc? Like in the movie "The Notebook"? lol. Were your friends from school available to do stuff with you during the summer and hang out? Am I the only one that stayed home and did nothing and was abandoned?

High school look so fun on TV and in the movies, but I never got to experience that. I didn't even know how to act or be cool or fit in. It made no sense to me. All I understood was the logical characters I saw on Star Trek on TV. But in real life, nothing made any sense. No one liked you for you. In an ideal world, if you are a nice good guy, everyone should like you or love you, but my world was never like that after 1980 when I left Palo Alto where my childhood was like Disney movies and Romper Room and Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street. lol

It was a no win situation. I was checkmated from every corner and was never in the game and never given a chance, and had no confidence or self-esteem to do anything about it either, because those things were shot to hell.

And the universe taunts me and teases me about it, even to this day, by always showing me movies and TV shows where everyone is having fun in high school, except me.
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MattHanson1990
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Re: Why do most American kids hate school but foreign kids love it?

Post by MattHanson1990 »


Reportedly, in 1999, Morton High School District 201 in Berwyn/Cicero, Illinois banned all social interactions between guys and uniformed cheerleaders. And more recently, Jackson Heights Middle School in Oviedo, Florida gave a 14 year old girl a detention for comforting, with a hug, a male friend who was having a very bad day!

Especially Jackson Heights Middle School which in their hearts told that girl; "We don't care if your friend is having a bad day. It's none of your business!"
Indeed, a large percentage of schools stateside ban public displays of affection, yet the staff can get away with it apparently. I remember that Los Alamos Middle School banned hugging when I went there from 2002 to 2004 (unlike many other middle schools, it only had 7th and 8th grades, whereas in a lot of other school districts, middle school is 6th through 8th grades). But I think around 2004 or 2005 after I left and I was already in high school, the middle school finally loosened its policy on PDA; however, hugs could only last a couple of seconds. Another aspect that made the my middle school feel prison-esque to many was that you had to remain seated in the cafeteria until a staff member dismissed that table (based on what I heard from people from other cities like Albuquerque, the middle schools didn't implement that policy).

On the other hand, my high school felt more free, and allowed hugging on campus; only lenghthy kissing and sitting on laps were banned. It was also an open campus, and students were allowed to go anywhere in Los Alamos for lunch. But if you went across the street you had to use either of the two pedestrian overpasses. More refreshing was that even though Los Alamos is upper middle class, the students were more easygoing (even though there were some rather snobby people), you didn't feel pressured to "fit in" or join a clique to make friends; and school bullying wasn't a problem unlike most other parts of the U.S.

The public schools in Los Alamos offered elective education, but you still had to take subjects you wouldn't use in the real world like chemistry, biology, algebra, geometry, etc.; and you still had to memorize information and regurgitate it on exams.

That being said, it's absolutely sick how many school districts have strict policies on hugging; and even more disturbing, consequences are harsher for boys than for girls. For instance there was a case where a six-year-old boy got suspended for kissing a girl on her hand, and it was considered sexual harassment. This is a perfectly good reason I will NEVER raise my kids in the U.S. (the society disenfranchises males, and it's likely gotten worse as a result of #MeToo)
Mercury
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Re: Why do most American kids hate school but foreign kids love it?

Post by Mercury »

Bans on hugging not only occur at a large percentage of American schools, they are spreading like a California wildfire under roaring Santa Ana winds all over America's entire school system. And just the previous guy's post about the boy who got accused of sexual harassment for kissing a girl's hand has already gotten any future kids of mine permanently out of the American school system.

It's sicker how J. Sterling Morton High Schools (District 201, Berwyn/Cicero, Illinois) even has a zero tolerance policy on uniformed cheerleaders having any type of social interactions with guys. And reportedly, too, since 2011, Morton High School's football games no longer have open seating anymore! Current students are crammed like sardines into just two sections of the bleachers, parents, cheerleaders, and band members are in the middle, and alumni are all the way on the other end. Nobody is allowed to sit anywhere they want anymore.
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Aurelle882
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Re: Why do most American kids hate school but foreign kids love it?

Post by Aurelle882 »

Winston wrote:
November 21st, 2009, 7:46 pm
Why is it that most kids in the US hate school and consider it to be like a prison? They get really excited and celebrate, for example, when school gets canceled for the day. But kids in other countries, like the Philippines, love school and consider it an honor and blessing to go to it?

Is it because the US school system dehumanizes kids, takes away their individuality and makes them feel like "raw material" to be processed? I certainly felt that way, like I was there to be indoctrinated.

This film makes some good points about that. It features a couple independent researchers and freethinkers explaining how the US education system dumbs down kids, turning them into a left brained slave labor force. One guy makes a good point about how artistic and music programs in schools are constantly cut to promote left brain programs.
Hello
I do not understand why you say that the education system lowers the level of students.
MrMan
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Re: Why do most American kids hate school but foreign kids love it?

Post by MrMan »

Based on my experience in Asia, having more electives seems more American. Some Asian schools are test-focused and try to have a lot of rigor in mathematics. But I hear American kids have a high opinion of their own mathematical abilities.

Maybe Asian kids identify with school because they are all in-group members in a collectivist culture. Being a part of their school is part of their identity. For a while when I was in Indonesia there were lots of reports of groups of kids from one school beating up the kids from another school. The kids had the school numbers on their uniforms.

The school I worked at was probably a milder environment. I only remember hearing about two of the boys wanting to fight. It seemed like a whole class of kids were friends with one another.
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