
What Students in Europe Learn That Americans Don't - ohjeez
http://www.vice.com/read/what-students-in-europe-learn-that-americans-dont
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dalke
How does "Schools in countries like Finland, for example, have effectively
given up on the repetitive learning style" fit with "as children, Finns are
expected to not only memorize all the world countries, but also their
capitals, any major cities, rivers, mountain ranges, deserts, and other
important geographical features"?

Locating "100 obscure rivers on a map in front of the whole class" sounds very
much like the result of a repetitive learning style.

The article argues that 'European countries put greater premium on rigor,
focus, and coherence in their instructional systems' while 'Curricula in the
United States, by contrast, "run a mile wide but only an inch deep."'

But this is by design. The US follows the liberal art tradition that a broad
education is more important than one which is a mile deep but only an inch
wide. Hence why in US high school, students only interested in math students
must still take some history classes, some practical arts, etc. In one of my
first visits to the UK, at a research site with grad students from across
Europe, I was surprised that my knowledge of general European history was
better than theirs. My high school offered a very good European history class.
The Europeans specialized in science starting in high school, so had mostly
learned their national history but not broader European history.

The article states 'In the US, there is no national requirement for students
to learn a second language.'. This is absolutely true. Such a requirement
would be unconstitutional under our federal system. This is why NCLB and
others are based on bribes, I mean, the power of the purse. Which makes the
Vice observation irrelevant. It should have said that most states, but not
all, require some foreign language education in order to graduate.

"many kids play club sports in their local towns—outside of school"

I completely and totally want that to also be true in the US.

