Other Nations Model Education Alternatives

Nowadays, plenty of students in America complain about how much homework they have or how many tests they are given each week. It is no secret that the American school system can be challenging with multiple subjects to worry about simultaneously with constant assessments of knowledge. So, if the United States were to change the school system, what would it look like? To put it in perspective, what about countries all around the world? How can they compare to the school system in the United States, which seems to be so grueling?

For starters, Mrs. Andrea Santos, LHPS mom, had something to say about the schools in Brazil since she was born and raised there. “The grades were divided into four categories,” she said. Mrs. Santos listed preschool, primary school, middle school, and high school, all quite similar to the system in America. When asked about positive elements in Brazil’s school system, she responded that she liked how students would choose a specific area they preferred to learn more about as opposed to having multiple classes at once. She explained, “If you chose humanities, you would have more history classes [than] someone who would have chosen biology.” It is important to note that perfection is impossible. “They were very strict with the rules and didn’t leave much room for creativity,” Santos added. However, compared to the American school system, Santos thinks Brazil wins for college applications. Mrs. Santos pointed out that, “There, what matters is the grade you score on the test you take for the specific
college you’re trying to enter. I like that better because you’re not ‘punished’ by the possible bad grades you had in high school when you were too young and immature to understand the importance of good grades.”

College applications are no joke. Writing essays for each one can be time-consuming and draining. Would the students of the United States rather take a test to get into a certain college or do college applications as normally intended? Lake Highland’s very own Konor Nichols, grade 10, emphasizes that frankly, she does not know. Konor admitted, “I’m not very good at standardized tests, so I feel apprehensive in that sense. However, I feel that I would spend a long time worrying about whether or not I picked the right topic to write about in an application. I’d feel very anxious that my whole college experience would depend on making the right or wrong decision on what to write about.”

There is still a lot that needs to be discussed regarding the current American school system, but one thing is for sure. The citizens of the United States can always look outside the box for inspiration.