1. American education varies greatly in regions and categories.
Wan Weigang said in his book: "The United States is a country with serious class differentiation. The community is naturally separated according to the house price. In a sense, this is a de facto racial and wealth segregation. The funds of public primary and secondary schools mainly come from the property tax of the school district, which means two things: first, schools in rich areas are richer, they can hire better teachers, use better equipment and have higher teaching level; Second, students actually go to school with people of their own class. " There is some truth in this statement. Different regions, different cities and different communities have great differences in education level. Even in the same area, there are four types of schools: elite schools, public schools, private schools and community schools. Generally speaking, elite schools are the strongest, private schools are better, public schools are the second, and community schools are the weakest, which is mainly determined by the different investment in education funds.
Mr. Wang lived in New Mexico when he first came to America, and now he has moved to Minnesota. There are great differences between northern and southern cities. She said that the economy and public security of the original city were not good, and there were many illegal immigrants in Mexico, but the public resources and educational conditions of the city where she lives now are better than she thought. There is also a school district problem in American primary and secondary school enrollment. Private schools are not divided into districts, but the tuition fees are high. Tuition in public schools is cheap, but the quality of education is different. You can check Greatschool's scoring system on Google. Schools are ranked objectively. Each family can choose their favorite school and then buy or rent a house in this school district. After renting a house, they can register their children in school with the lease contract. Therefore, the rent of a house near a good school is expensive, and each family rents a single-family house or apartment according to their income.
Recently, Teacher C's daughter is learning figure skating performance. In this small city with a population of only100000, there are more figure skating professionals than in a northeastern province. The two daughters of a friend of hers, because they live on a farm and the educational resources nearby are weak, and because of family reasons, began to work to earn money for their college education. So now that I graduated from college, I am very confused about my career direction, and it is very difficult along the way.
It can be seen that the imbalance of education is a common problem in most countries in the world, even a superpower like the United States is no exception. If we don't have a comprehensive understanding and in-depth experience of American education, and fail to choose a suitable reference when comparing Chinese and American education, it is easy for the blind to touch the elephant or touch the whole body.
2. The teaching resources provided by schools at all levels are quite different, and the quality of children in different families is also different, further solidifying social stratification.
According to Wan Weigang's book, the school where Teacher C's daughter is located should belong to the level between "middle class" and "ruling class". After school at 3 pm, the school and community liaison office provide many interest groups for children to choose from. Because of financial subsidies, parents only need to pay less. Teacher C's daughter signed up for figure skating this semester. This semester, the school also invited two writers, an actor, several doctors and firefighters to give lectures, making full use of social resources and turning them into vivid and effective teaching resources. Ordinary public schools cannot provide these curriculum resources. After school at 3 o'clock, the children are basically in a state of "herding sheep". If you enroll in an interest class in a social organization, the cost is much higher, which is an obvious burden for ordinary families.
In addition, different family education environments have a great influence on children's learning ability. Teacher C found in her work in kindergarten that many four-or five-year-old children who just entered kindergarten have strong reading ability, high interest and longer concentration time. Because parents have been reading with their children at home, they have cultivated their children's good reading habits and abilities. However, families with low parents' own quality or knowledge level obviously lack training for their children in this respect. Reading ability is a very important basic learning ability in the basic education stage, which directly affects children's future academic performance. As a result, children from different families have different student qualities, which leads to great differences in the teaching quality of schools. This is also an important reason why many people in the United States want to pick rich areas and many people in China want to go to private schools.
Education is an important opportunity to promote class mobility. The imbalance of education makes the starting point of personal development unfair and leads to the solidification of social class.
However, are the teaching methods in different schools absolutely divided as the article says, and is the strict "class analysis method" in the article applicable? Both Mr. C and I are skeptical. Because according to our observation in many aspects, the classroom teaching methods of primary schools and children in the west have the common characteristics of flexibility, individuality and openness. Last year, even in the ordinary public schools in New Mexico with the lowest economic development level in the United States, Teacher C was deeply impressed by its open and personalized classroom teaching. American primary and secondary school teaching is only based on the syllabus, and there are no fixed textbooks. Primary school and early childhood are basically "playing middle school". Teachers pay special attention to encouraging children, finding problems and cultivating practical ability. These characteristics have been introduced in many articles, so I won't expand them in detail.
In many exchanges with Mr. C, we believe that there are some advantages behind American education that are easily overlooked, and these are exactly what our current education lacks.
Second, the advantages behind American education that are easily overlooked.
1. The concept of occupational equality and social welfare system have, to a certain extent, bridged the split of people's minds that may be caused by educational stratification and maintained social harmony.
It is an objective fact that education in the United States is stratified and unbalanced, but in reality, Americans' attitude towards this stratification is far from the anxiety that our parents in China may have, thus desperately forcing their children to take "key" exams in "prestigious schools", and there is no serious class opposition. There are two important reasons for this.
First, most Americans don't have the traditional thinking that China parents want their children to "honor their ancestors" and "get ahead". In the process of contact with Americans, Teacher C learned that many Americans do not have the concept that every child must go to college. They accept natural transfer. The headmaster and children from well-off families go to college. Many children choose community colleges or technical schools to learn a skill to work and support themselves. At the same time, American society as a whole can treat and respect different occupations equally and pay more attention to individual self-struggle. Even those social elites or administrative officials who are responsible for managing and making rules do not have the privilege of being "superior". Restricted by the strict system of power supervision and checks and balances, the idea of "official standard" is generally unpopular in western developed countries.
Second, social welfare is sound. For example, children from single-parent families and disabled families in the United States have financial difficulties, and the government will provide various security funds to let children go to school like children from normal families. The year before last, the parents of a classmate in Mr. C's daughter's class divorced. According to the laws of the state government, the father pays a certain amount of alimony every month, and the children and mother can also receive living allowance from the government, so they can rent a house in a good school district, and the mother also goes back to college to study and look for new opportunities. Another boy's mother is Indian, because of glaucoma, her eyes are almost blind. The government gives basic living allowance, and some non-governmental organizations help the disabled to bear the monthly rent. Therefore, most children in the United States can get basic education resources fairly. Although there is an objective polarization between the rich and the poor and educational stratification, social welfare and relief play an important role in compensating and stabilizing people's hearts.
2. The school attaches importance to the guidance of children's vocational skills and career planning, which reflects the practical value of education.
In his book, Wan Weigang regards Americans' emphasis on vocational skills and training workers as "low-end", which is biased.
Education itself should be both humanistic and instrumental. It is not a bad thing that American daily teaching attaches importance to the combination with life and the cultivation of practical ability and vocational skills, but it is an obvious lack of our current education. There is a National Vocational Information Coordination Committee (NOICC) in the United States, which organized and issued the National Career Development Guide as early as 1989. The guide advocates planning vocational education from the age of 6. They divide everyone into four categories, the first category is primary school, the second category is junior high school, the third category is high school, and the fourth category is 18 years old. There are different occupational divisions in different time periods. According to the planning requirements, schools often let children know their interests, specialties, characteristics and abilities through various curriculum systems, and cultivate their practical ability; Through publicity and exhibitions, children can obtain and use career information; The school set up a career planner to guide students to learn career decision-making and carry out "career planning". The application and application of this kind of learning is the embodiment of the value of education itself.
In the past, we have always had a misunderstanding: equating vocational and technical education with hard work, low-end and worthless. However, many developed countries attach great importance to children's vocational skills education and run it through the whole process of primary and secondary education. In higher education in Switzerland and Germany, the ratio of research universities to vocational and technical universities is about 3∶7. The strategy of strengthening the country through science and technology not only provides a steady stream of professionals for the country's development and innovation, but also lays the foundation for individual employment. Although the new round of curriculum reform in China also pays attention to students' career planning, we still lack a correct understanding and effective ways to educate students' vocational skills.
3. The United States has a strong sense of family, parents in place, close cooperation between home and school, and a good educational ecology.
Unlike our imagination that Americans only pay attention to personal freedom and enjoyment, most Americans have a strong sense of family. After they get married, they have little daily entertainment, and most of them take care of their children and accompany them. Therefore, they pay more attention to children's physical and mental health and actively participate in school education and teaching activities.
The year before last, Mr. C's daughter attended a chick hatching class. In class, a parent who runs a farm enthusiastically provides teaching services. Eggs are hatched on the farm in the early stage and brought into the class for children to observe and record in the last three days. At the same time, the teacher infiltrated the teaching of bird structure, which was intuitive, vivid and scientific, and left a deep impression on the children. There are also parents who open boutiques, and teachers will arrange for their children to experience management in boutiques for half a day. Teacher c also went to the class to have a Chinese class. Because the children are curious about Chinese, the classroom atmosphere is positive and warm.
The school also has various large-scale outdoor activities, and parents are also the main volunteers. Last year, Teacher C organized a school outdoor activity. Parents went to the school playground in advance to set up a arbor. When the children arrive at school, they put the fruits and drinks prepared at home on the table. Then all the children started running laps according to the grade order, and left when they couldn't run any longer. There is a sticker on the back of every child. Finally, the teacher counted how many laps they ran and how much money parents could donate to schools or other charitable activities. These activities make children happy and parents enthusiastic, which not only harmonizes parents and children, but also narrows the distance between home and school, which is a win-win result.
Generally speaking, American parents respect their children's individual differences and personality choices. Therefore, family education is more peaceful in mentality, less forced and persecuted for quick success and instant benefit, and more parent-child companionship promotes better parent-child relationship, which also provides a good social ecology for school education.
At present, with the rapid development of China, based on the national conditions, with a more open international perspective, a more rational, objective and comprehensive attitude to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese and Western education, and a pragmatic attitude to promote education reform is the only way for us to move towards national rejuvenation!
Under the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, some deep-seated contradictions and problems in American education are emerging.
At present, whether thousands of colleges and universities and tens of thousands of primary and secondary schools in the United States can start school as scheduled in autumn is puzzling American society. The White House wants to resume classes in the fall, so it puts pressure on universities by introducing new visa regulations, but American universities don't buy it. Harvard and MIT even take the White House to court. The New York Times reported that most of the 3.5 million teachers in the United States are opposed to restoring full face-to-face teaching, but surveys show that more than half of parents in the United States want their children to return to school as soon as possible. The resumption of classes highlights the interest game and many contradictions of all parties in the United States under the spread of the epidemic.
At the same time, the number of American high school students applying for federal university grants has dropped sharply year-on-year, and some poor or economically affected families are considering whether to let their children receive higher education. The problem of unfair education is also more prominent because of the epidemic.