The History of Estonia and Education
I. Introduction
Oleg is a student at St. Cloud State University. Upon meeting him we became friends and he became an informant of his country Estonia. Four years ago he made a decision to leave Estonia in order to study abroad in the United States. Oleg chose the US because of the educational opportunities America has to offer. Throughout the interviewing process, I asked Oleg about the differences between America’s schooling system and that of Estonia. This allowed me to look at Estonia’s educational system at a personal level. My experience as an interviewer has led me to issues relating to the history and education of Estonia.
II. Introduce Estonia and facts about people
In questioning Oleg, I got a personal view of the Estonian culture and lifestyle. Through my experience with him I have looked further into Estonia’s history and present. Estonia, located in the eastern part of Europe, borders the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland between what was Soviet Russia and Latvia. Estonia has a current population of approximately 1,408,556 citizens. The country is made up of a flat terrain with a few hilly regions. Most of the landscape is either farm land or woodland. The climate in Estonia is similar to Minnesota’s seasonal weather. It has four seasons where temperatures are cooler in the summer and milder in the winter than in related coordinates of Eastern Europe. Estonia also has a long coast line bordering most of the North and North West regions. There are more than 1,500 islands off Estonia’s shoreline (“Physical Environment”).
a. A short history on Estonia and their fight for independence
Estonia is located near the Baltic Sea and are, “…the oldest know...
... middle of paper ...
.... Studying in the U.S.. 7 Dec. 2003 <http://
www.collegeview.com/college/niche/international/Europe/study_us.html>.
“Estonia.” Country Study & Guide: Physical Environment Geographic Features. Jan.
1995. 4 Dec. 2003 <www.1upinfo.com/country-guide-study/estonia/estonia15.html>.
Europa. The European Union On-Line. History. 7 Dec. 2003
<http://europa.eu.int/index_en.htm>.
Federal Research Division. Library of Congress. Estonia – A Country Study. Ed. Walter R. Iwaskiw. Jan. 1995. 1 Dec. 2003 <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+0000)>.
Oleg. Personal interview. 14 Oct. 2003
Roos, Powell, ed. Estonia: A nation Unconquered. Maryland: Estonian World Council, Inc. 1985.
Vucinich, Wayne S. Forward. Estonia and the Estonians. By Toivo U. Raun. California: Hoover Institution Press, 1987.
Botstein once argued in his book Jefferson’s Children that “the American high school are obsolete”. In detail, the dissemination that the current method of education has entirely strangled the scheme is an important issue which has to be scrutinized critically.
Kirby, David, The Baltic World 1772-1993: Europe's Northern Periphery in an Age of Change (London: Longman, 1995).
The Federal Reserve System is the central banking authority of the United States. It acts as a fiscal agent for the United States government and is custodian of the reserve accounts of commercial banks, makes loans to commercial banks, and is authorized to issue Federal Reserve notes that constitute the entire supply of paper currency of the country. Created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, it is comprised of 12 Federal Reserve banks, the Federal Open Market Committee, and the Federal Advisory Council, and since 1976, a Consumer Advisory Council which includes several thousand member banks. The board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System determines the reserve requirements of the member banks within statutory limits, reviews and determines the discount rates established pursuant to the Federal Reserve Act to serve the public interest; it is governed by a board of nine directors, six of whom are elected by the member banks and three of whom are appointed by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve banks are located in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Saint Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Dallas.
This assignment has discussed two examples of curricula and it has been concluded that the Finnish curriculum is more suited to preparing individuals to life in the modern society. It has been stated that Finnish schools are ‘the schools of civilisation in an information society’ (Sarajala, 2001b) and therefore, they arguably educate and prepare young adults more sufficiently than the schools of England, who simply provide basic foundations for future development after education.
“Student Financial Aid in Finland.” Ministry of Education and Culture. Ministry of Education and Culture, n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2013. .
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the American educational system has undergone much transition in response to our changing society. Though there have been many problems raised throughout the years in regard to what our school systems should be teaching our children, there have also been many developments.
Heckmann, C., & Marin, I. (2013). EAG 2013 - Country note, Sweden. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/edu/eag.htm
A Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry. The primary focus of the play is the American Dream. The American Dream is one’s conception of a better life. Each of the main characters in the play has their own idea of what they consider to be a better life. A Raisin in the Sun emphasizes the importance of dreams regardless of the various oppressive struggles of life.
The dominant theme in this essay appears to be this: post war social changes such as offering increased university admission promote the view of egalitarianism in education. The author’s main issue with “secondary” education is the sheer numbers of our population that the United States as a whole educates.
Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, centers on an African American family in the late 1950s. Hansberry directs her work towards specifically the struggles faced by African Americans during the late 1950s. Through the dialogue and actions of her characters, she encourages not only a sense of pride in heritage, but a national and self-pride in African Americans as well.
Rank, Otto. 1968. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Retrieved February 16, 2014 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3045001038.html
In Conclusion, although I have a partial disagreement with some aspects of the article, it was with great pleasure I read it because I found the way in which the author relates education with many features of the American Culture innovate. Furthermore, it is impressive the way in which the author relates his life memories with the weakness of the field where he works. Events that most of us have experienced have been converted into strong arguments by the author. Education has been one of the pillars of modern countries. Thus, Mark Edmuson message should be taken as a foundation to future education strategies. The way in he expresses his thoughts shows a big desire to see an education system evolving in tandem with the society welfare.
Attending public schools as a child, I remember learning the basic skills on how to add and subtract, read, and write. These basic skills are necessary in order to function in our society and work force in the United States. As we all know each child learns differently, some learn faster than others and some slower than others. Our public schools have become overcrowded and we do not have enough teachers to fit the needs of each student. Some students get left behind and are not learning the skills needed to move on to the next level. What these students are not learning they can learn in higher education such as a college or university. In this report, I would like to express the importance of a higher education. I will use the works of John Henry Newman, Jon Spayde and Mike Rose, all three writers believe in having an educated society. Our students’ needs are changing, there are a growing number of immigrants with children coming to the United States from all over the world. They bring with them the language and culture of their country. The age in which they arrive to the United States determines how well they learn English and what skills they will need to acquire to become productive in our society. The task of teaching our children the basic skills is becoming harder and harder each day, making it harder for our education system to achieve their goals. There are a high number of students graduating from high school who does not have the skills needed to meet the needs of the work force in our society. A higher level of learning is needed to make our society literate.
Education differs from one country to another because every country possesses its own system of education. However, it is commonly believed that Finland has the world’s best education system (Gamerman,2008). So, its education system differs in many ways from the other countries like the one in Germany. The Finnish education system consists of basic education, upper secondary and higher education (Vossensteyn,2008) whereas German education system consists of primary education, secondary education and tertiary education(Lohmar,2012). Even Though , 9-year schooling is compulsory in both countries, they differ in the types of schools, duration of the education and so on. In this paper, the similarities and differences between these two education system is going to be referred in more detail.
Many Americans eat GM foods without even realizing it. It is no surprise since GMO can better the shelf life of the food and put up at a reasonable price. GMO can be dangerous to the human body for many reasons. Genetically engineered food are shown to be unsafe and unpredictable because of the foreign genes that are introduced into plants which may have a negative impact on the human body. Studies show that when rats are fed GM potatoes, there were appreciable differences in the intestine as opposed to the rats that are fed the normal potatoes. (Whitman, 2000) Another concern is the allergens that are developed when eating GM foods. The promoter that is used in most GM crops turn on the foreign gene at high output, but instead turns on the other natural genes in addition to the foreign one, resulting in allergens, toxins, carcinogens or anti-nutrient. (Natural revolution, 2014) Another risk involved is the production of StarLink corn that is specifically designed ...