The Lack of Stringent Educational Values in America

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Since I was a child, I have been a product of the American public educational system. From a young age, my classmates and I have always been told to study hard and we would do great things. This is true, for the most part, however, there is one tragic flaw in this statement. A person can always strive to be the best, but without the proper structure or guidance, he or she will never be able to reach their full potential. Robert Fellini is a prime example of never being able to reach his full potential because of the lack of guidance during his scholastic life. Fellini is a dear friend of mine and study partner for years. Like myself, he is a product of the public educational system. Although he has graduated from college, where does his life take him now? To be a security guard at a bank. This is what Fellini is currently doing for employment. While studying with Fellini, he mentioned his aspirations to become a lawyer. He definitely had the knowledge and the ambition, but his fatal flaw was the lack of support from both his educators and personal family.

The educational system is better in Asia than in America because of the values instilled in students at a young age. In Asian countries, such as China and Japan, children are taught from a young age that there is nothing more valuable in the world than an education. This is quite different from the teachings of American children. In Talking to High Monks in the Snow by Lydia Minatoya, we find that the attitude of the students she taught in Boston were greatly less appreciative and ambitious as the students she taught in Japan and China. Throughout her journey, both the students from Japan and China resembled a more studious and advantageous...

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...to become ambitious if there are no educators to motivate them? Japan and China have one very important thing in common, their educators are well respected and their student body is far more intelligent than America. What would happen if America became a country of academic supremacy? If we were to become a global giant in the academic world, and combine that with our economical and living aspirations, what would be the disadvantage in living in such a country?

Works Cited

Hassett, Kevin A. Rethinking Competitiveness. Washington, D.C.: AEI, 2012. Print.

Healey, Nigel M. "Is Higher Education in Really 'Internationalising'?" Higher Education 55.3 (2008): 333-55. JSTOR. Web. Nov.-Dec. 2013. .

Minatoya, Lydia Y. Talking to High Monks in the Snow: An Asian American Odyssey. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1992. Print.

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