truth

Everyone has to go to school, starting at four years old, till seventeen or eighteen. One-fourth of our life, and two-thirds of every month is spent in school. In America it’s mandatory for everyone to finish twelve school years. By contrasting American education system with others, and observing American students daily life in school, one can’t help but notice there are problems. In this essay, we will explore one of those problems. However, this essay is not about blaming schools or discussing solutions. In this essay, we will contrast this problem with other countries and discover why this problem exists, and why it hasn’t changed. Now let’s get ready, bring your water bottle, don’t leave any trash on the floor and let’s go.

We enter a public high school somewhere in America, and its name is Bereck Obomo high school. In the front of the building, we discover a beautiful garden. We walk in the building, and see clean and shiny hallways. However, upon entering a classroom, everything changes. Junk food is left on the floor, gum is stuck on the back side of the tables, some spilt milk beside the trash can, and there’s drawings and scribbles on the tables.

Why do those things happen? Why are they only happening in the classroom? How can we change them?
First, lets walk into the students heart. Why are they not willing to clean their mess? Because this place is not mine. The school will clean it up for me. The conclusion is lack of responsibility.

Now, let’s pause the discussion of an American school, and take a walk to a foreign high school. Schools in East Asia use a different type of classroom system. The classrooms do not belong to the teachers. They belong to the students. If a class is over, the teacher will pack up their folders and leave, instead of the students. And all teachers have a specific room, called office, to prepare their works. Not doubt that this system is more efficient than the American system. Because teachers are not always teaching for the full eight school hours. They have some open time for class preparation. In this system, teachers will go to offices and do class preparation with other teachers doing class preparation as well. And in the American school system, teachers do their class preparation in an empty classroom, durings times that they’re not teaching. This is a waste of resources, because teachers do not really need a whole large classroom to do class preparation. Therefore the American system requires more classrooms and isn’t effectively using them. In the East Asia system, which we will later call Eastern system, it can prevent things like stealing, as well. Because students cannot steal things from an office, where there are always teachers.

Imagine after school, when teachers need to do ask for another teacher’s opinion immediately. Email is not fast enough. In the East Asia system, teachers just need to push their table slice out or raise their head, and ask another teacher to come to their computer. In the American system, teachers either print out or send an email to another teacher, but then – because email isn’t fast enough – they have to kick studying students out, so they can lock their classroom door, then walk to the other teacher’s classroom, ask their question/opinion, then come back and unlock the door, and have students come back in. Just by reading those actions, I feel tired for them. But the Eastern system is not only more efficient, it also develops students’ personal responsibility.

How do American schools switch seats for their students? At first the class begins, then teachers tell students to switch seats. After that, students hold their backpack and stand up. At last, the teacher points to their new seats, like you sit here, you sit there. This progress usually takes no longer than ten minutes, if nobody is messing around, and then the teacher can begin his/her class. Now here is how the Eastern system works: Seat switching happens every month, and has to be mentioned one day before it actual happens. Then, that day after school, the whole school will focus on doing one thing, which is switching seats. First, students carry all their individual desks to the hallway. (By the way, those desk they use are different than the tables that American student use. Those desk are only large enough for one student, and have a drawer, that can be locked, for their books and study materials.) Then students have to clean their classroom. After that, the teacher will draw their seats on the blackboard, and students will move their desks to the right spots. This progress will take at least half an hour to one hour. And during this progress none of them will switch their desk with other students. They will use their same desks all year. Here comes a question. Why don’t they just pull out the drawer, grab their books and move to the another desk? If they did, it could save half the time. The reason is to develop personal responsibility. The desks really belong to the student for the full year. Therefore, students will take a broom and sweep out the trash under their desk, will organize their drawer every day, and none of them will draw things on their table, except those who write down answers in pencil on their desk, to cheat on a test.

Setting up proper seats for students has effects on developing personal responsibility as well, because no one wants to be surrounded by trash while studying. Therefore students will take a broom and clean their seats, if they see some trash around them, during the five minute break between classes. What happens if they don’t care and just leave trash on the floor and draw on the table? Well, if that happens, teachers will “patiently” teach students how to keep personal responsibility, by ordering them to clean the classroom for all students, or clean the office for teachers. This punishment left a deep high-light in my memories, because I didn’t have a lot of personal responsibility as a student, and teachers were so lazy, and always wishing someone would clean their office for them. After one month entering my elementary school, I became an expert office cleaner. Every day when a class began, teachers would do nothing, but come and check my desk and seat to see if I would “volunteer” to clean their office after school. Also this personal responsibility developing system helped avoid arguments like I didn’t draw it or I didn’t throw that on the floor, which happens a lot in American schools.

Based on the contrast above, the Eastern system is more efficient, and better at developing students’ personal responsibility. However, why doesn’t America use these Eastern systems instead of theirs? There must be some essential reason to allow the Western system to exist. And those essential reasons must be based on a belief that the Western system is better for American students than the Eastern system.

To explore these reasons further, please expect Exploring School Systems, Part 2.