International Schooling and American Independence

Dear Mr. Friedman, I teach fifth grade reading and social studies at the Annie Wright School, a private school in Tacoma, Washington. While many of the families I teach are ethically diverse and well educated, most are white, upper middle class American families. I recently rinished your new book "The World Is Flat." I wish i could have shared these thoughts with you before you write this. Parent conferences are one of the more interesting aspects of my job; I never realized that they were such a cultural study, though. Two parent conferences two years ago were my flat earth moment. One conference was with Deven and Swati Vora. (Guess where the Vora family immigrated from?) As we chatted about their daughter Sonia, they told me not only did our school not give enough homework but also that it wasn't challenging enough. Later that day in another conference, Irena Mikeladze, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, wanted to know why her son Timothy had no science book and such a flimsy science curriculum. How could we be a competitive school when we didn't have a science book? Representing two different national characters, the three parents made me think. Sadly, many... white, American, middle class parents told me that the fifth grade work was too hard on their kids. They couldn't possibly complete it and have time to "be a kid." Soccer, gymnastics, music lessons and dinner out squeezed their education time. Some parents would ask for my colleagues and me to lighten the load. These worrisome parents merely set low expectations for children by running interference; the scary parents... think everything is great and never demand more. If their kids do OK and have fun, then they must be getting a great education. Our schools tend to live back in an 11/9 mindset (referring to pre-internet era). I know as a school, my school compares itself with schools down the road or in the next town. If my students' parents believe that we are better than the local public, parochial and private schools, then they are content. As you wrote, and I realized in the two conferences, the real competition is not from the next town or the neighboring state any more. You're right - in many ways we are fooling ourselves. In an academic sense we lost our hunger (except for cheerleading and football and failing bond measures). We're complacent and headed for trouble. Sadly, national leadership is worried about not leave kids behind, and states like Kansas and Georgia seem more concerned with elimination Darwin and adding intelligent design. If one puts his ear to the flat Earth, one can hear the competition from overseass. My goal as an educator is to stop being the best local school, or reagional school, and start being the best on the planet.
-Malcolm Davidson, a high school teacher in Washington State

Having taught English and lived in a society that is gravely different from that of the American, I feel I am able to see both sides of this. Americans see more importance in extracurricular activities and sports, while other cultures place more importance on education. And this is something that I really do feel strongly about. I think that we haven't been pushing our kids enough in the school system here in America. I feel like it's just not being expected to get these kids prepared for what life is really going to test them on. I hope I'm wrong, but because the American education system is so different internally (from school district to school district, from state to state), I don't feel that things are ever going to be regulated the way they should be.

About our country, I feel that it's just too big. To be honest, I think our country would be much better off if it were 50 actual independent states and not unified. I think that when the country gets so big, that it's hard to keep an eye on everything. Things get thrown by the wayside, they get forgotten about and things are more difficult to manage. I think if the states were independent, we'd be able to really knock out many more of the problems that are facing our society today more precisely. We'd be able to concentrate on things with a smaller scale and with more rigidity. Gosh, wouldn't that just be so great. The President wouldn't be so so far away, the people would feel much more involved, and I think that funding would be more feasible.

Those are just a couple of quotes I've run by recently. Enjoy. I'll try and be more up to date.