Education: Values and Expectation

Education: Values and Expectation

Immigrant students who attending schools in the United States will have experience about multiple cultural shock. Immigrant or international students should adapt the custom with the new classroom. Cultural differences as well as the experience of being a new comer account for some of the adjustment problems that non-native-born student’s experience. The differences of student population on the campuses make Americans consider that there are many different habits, customs, and attitudes in America.

Diversity in higher education

There are many institutions in America, therefore the students can continue their study even they age are old. Some communities have adult school as well as two-year colleges which also called “junior colleges” and “community colleges”. Most of students in America does not pursue a specific degree as their study goal, but they prefer to choose vocational training for their job. If they have leisure time, they will fill it with following the activities. There is saying in the American culture that “you are never too old to learn”.

Active participation

Students in America must be active in the class because the grade is on the oral participation. In a small percentage of the more informal classes, students may even decide the topics for study and choose the appropriate books and articles. The students can be ready to critique theories, formulate models, and interact with the professor. If they do not ask questions and do no bring up their own ideas may appear to be uninterested in the course. However, students who contradict teachers must be prepared to defend their position.

The Teacher-Student Relationship

The ideal student is considered to be one who is motivated to learn for the sake of learning, not the one who is interested only in getting high grades. Unlike in the other countries, in the united stated courses are not usually designed merely for students to pass exams. A teacher does not respect a student who only comes to class on the last day to take an exam. It is common for students to have easygoing and friendly relationships with their professor. Sometimes, the professor can go out for coffee with a student. In addition, the professors have several roles in relation to student: they can be counselor and friends as well as teacher. However, the students should appropriately adapt their behavior and attitudes to their professor.

Trust, Honesty, and the Honor System

In American education, trust is an important expectation. The students and the teacher should impose the honor system. The infraction of the honor system will give bad impact to the process and the result of learning. In one Midwestern university handbook, the following behaviors are listed as example of academic dishonesty are: plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, aiding, and falsification. If the students want to use the idea from other people, they must use citation to avoid plagiarism. When international students are accused of plagiarism, it may be that they omitted the citation out of ignorance and not because of dishonesty.

Competition and Grading

Cooperative and competitive usually happen in the relationships of the students. Cooperative relationships the students are willing to share notes and be helpful toward each other. In the contrary, in competitive relationships, the students may be reluctant to share lecture notes or other information for fear that their own grade will suffer. A high grade-point-average (GPA) is important for student because when facing a competitive job market graduates may be hired largely on the basis of their grades and faculty recommendations. When the students disagree with the grade that they have been given by their objection and ask for a change in the grade. However, politeness and respect should be used by the students if they want to approach their professor.

Students stress and coping

Every students sometimes have emotional problems in their educational environment. Their problems in their educational environment cause the stress in young and older students. When some American students find it difficult to cope and have excessive stress, they can seek counseling. Usually, many schools in America offer peer counseling in which students with experience actually advise other students. However, many international students or new immigrant students are not comfortable with peer counseling. This is because to talk with the stranger about personal problem is not common in some cultures.

International and Immigrant Students in the United States

Making friend in the new college is not easy. Sometimes, foreign students and immigrant students find Americans to be cliquish. If the feel exclude from the social aspect of American college life, they should actively seek people with shared interest. Usually, foreign students feel uncomfortable during the first few weeks at a new school because they do not understand the system and are not willing to ask questions. Foreign and immigrant students should anticipate that cross cultural misunderstanding may arise as a result of different.

How Americans Spend Their Leisure Time

Sports and American Values

The sports that are organized by a society generally reflect the basic values of the society and attempt to strengthen them in the minds and emotions of its possible. In the United States, there are three sports which are famous in the society. The sports are; football, basketball, baseball, with soccer gaining the popularity. In the soccer, boys and girls can play on the same team because not much equipment is required. Nowhere are the ways and words of democracy better illustrated than in sports. In sports, people of different races and economic backgrounds get an equal chance to excel. The American ideal of competition is also at the very heart of organized sports in the United States. Many Americans believe that learning how to win in sports helps develop the habits necessary to compete successfully in later life.

Competition Carried To An Extreme?

An excessive desire to win in sports can weaken rather than strengthen traditional American values. A famous professional football coach said that winning is the “only thing” that matters in sports. However, that statement is not appropriate with the American values which esteem the fair play. When the idea of winning in sports is carried to excess, however, honorable competition can turn into disorder and violence.

Recreation: A Time for Self-Improvement

Most of people in the United States spend their leisure time with recreations. Some Americans prefer recreation that requires a high level of physical activity. This is true of the most popular adult recreational sports: jogging or running, tennis, and skiing. The high level of physical activity enjoyed by many Americans at play has led to the observation that Americans have difficulty relaxing, even in the leisure time. Not all Americans want to “rough it” while they are on their adventure holidays, however.

Health and Fitness

As the explanation above, American loves to have physical activity. However, the overall population is becoming overweight, due to poor eating and sedentary lifestyle. Government studies estimate that less than half of Americans exercise in their leisure time. It’s not Americans lack information on eating well. Newspaper and magazines are full of advice on nutrition. Some experts say that social, cultural, and psychological factors determine how people eat. Another factor is Americans’ love of fast food. This is because fast food is cheaper than other foods. In addition, Americans are busy people, therefore, they choose fast food because they have to move quickly especially when they have work.

The Impact of Television

Sometimes, television gives bad effect to the watcher. Television has a strong effect on the activity level of many Americans. Some people spend much of their free time lying on the couch watching TV and eating junk food. In addition, many adults are worried about the impact of so much television on the nation’s children. Many children do not spend enough time reading. Because of that habit, some children has lowered their ability to achieve in school.

The Impact of the Internet

In this modern era, internet has important role in our daily activity. Many people are happy that technology has made it possible for them to communicate with just about anyone anywhere. However, internet also brings disadvantages for society especially teenager. In America, parents have great fear about their children meeting strangers on the internet and about the possible exposure to pornography.

Cross-Cultural Understanding

ETHNIC AND RACIAL DIVERSITY IN THE UNITED STATES

Melting Pot or Salad Bowl

As the material that was discussed, American has many cultures which are brought by the immigrant. The process by which theme values is called assimilation. Some of people describe that United States is a melting pot. However, others are claim that United Stated as salad bowl, where the various groups have remained somewhat distinct and different from another, creating a richly diverse country. Since 1776, racial and ethnic assimilation has taken place in the United States. Many groups are really bicultural. In Florida and southwest, Spanish and Latin American settlements were established centuries before the thirteen colonies joined together to form the united states in the late 1700s. Therefore, many Hispanic, or Latinos, have taken a special pride in maintaining their cultural traditions and the use of the Spanish language. Generally speaking, over the years whites from different national and religions have been assimilated into the larger American culture with some exceptions.

The Establishment of the Dominant Culture

In 1790 the first census of the new nation was conducted. The result of the first census is there are 4 million people ad most of them are whites. It was the white population that had the greater numbers, the money, and the political power in the new nation. At the time of the American Revolution, Americans are sometimes referred to as “WASPs” (white Anglo-Saxon Protestants). Their characteristic became the standard for judging other groups. The dominant American culture that grew out of the nation’s early history, then, was English-speaking, western European, protestant, and middle-class in character.it was this dominant culture that established what became the traditional culture that established what became the traditional values described by Tocqueville in the early 1830s.

The Assimilation of Non-Protestant and Non-Western European

As the case in many culture, the dominant majority determined the extended of the group’s accepted, those with significantly different characteristics tended to be viewed as a threat to traditional American values and way of life. This was particularly true of the immigrants who arrived by the million during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Most of them came from poverty-stricken nations of southern and eastern Europe. They spoke languages other than English, and large numbers of them were Catholics or Jews. Americans were afraid that the immigrants were so accustomed to lives of poverty and dependence that they would not understand the American values.

The African-American Experience

The process of assimilation in the United States has been much more successful for white ethnic groups then nonwhite ethnic groups. The nonwhite ethnic group have had difficulty in becoming assimilated into the larger culture. The enslavement of African in the United States was a complete contradiction of such traditional basic American values as freedom and equality of opportunity. Abraham Lincoln was able to become president of the United States by appealing to both the white idealist who saw slavery as an injustice to African Americans and to the larger numbers of northern whites who saw slavery as a threat to themselves. Lincoln believed that basic ideals such as freedom and equality of opportunity had to apply to all people, black and white. Or they would not last as basic American values.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s And 1960s

In 1954 public school did not provide equal educational opportunities for black Americans and were therefore illegal. Therefore, the black decided to try to end racial segregation in all areas of American life. Martin Luther King led thousands people in nonviolent marches and demonstration against segregation and other forms of racial discrimination. The goal of the King was to bring about greater assimilation of black people into the larger American culture.

An American Paradox

The civil right movement gave the benefits not only African American, but all minorities in the United States—American Indian, Hispanic, and Asians. At that time, racial discrimination was for bidden by law. The civil rights also advanced the rights of women, and these laws have reinforced the ideal of equality of opportunity for all Americans. However, there is a paradox in the United States’ diversity.  Most young Americans say they would have no problem being friends with or even marrying someone from a different race or ethnic background. On the other hand, races and ethnic groups still tend to live in segregated communities.

A Universal Nation

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, millions of immigrants came from eastern and southern Europe, bringing cultural traditions perceived by the dominant culture as quite different. By the 1920s, Americans had decided that it was time to close the borders to mass immigration. In 1965, the United States made important change in its immigration laws. As the result, the United States now takes in large numbers of new immigrants who are nonwhite and non-European. Perhaps the United States will be described not as a “melting pot” or “salad bowl,” but as a “mosaic”. E pluribus unum— the motto of the United States from its beginning-- means “one composed of many.” Out of many one.