Philosophical foundation of education free essay sample

Gary Althen, in the essay â€Å"American Values and Assumption† has shown some of the distinct features of American values and assumptions. While dealing with these ideas, the essayist has presented the main ideas and further supports his main ideas with supporting details. He even compares and contrasts the American cultures with that of other cultures. He begins his essay with the general concept of values. According to Althen, people share certain values and assumptions from the culture where they are grown and to some extent, some values are similar and some are different to each other. Mostly, in the matter of human nature, social relation and several other aspects, all the people have similar type of assumptions. He opines that a culture can be viewed as the collection of values and assumptions. Features of American values and assumptions: Individualism: American people have strong devotion towards individualism. They are trained from their childhood as a separate individual and they embody the concept that they are soul responsible for their destinies. The essayist has presented his personal experience of a mother who helps her three years old son to decide independently. She gives him some useful suggestions so that he could utilize his pocket money wisely (either get hotdog now or save the money now and by Orange Juice later). This story of mother and son is quite surprised for non-Americans because they don’t have any tradition of children of three to five having their own pocket money. This story is no more surprise for Americans sine they are grown up in such values. Taking the reference from Dr. Benjamin Spock’s famous book, Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care, Althen says that very few Americans are raised to believe that their personal destiny is to serve their family, country and god rather children are given the feelings that they can set their aims of life according to their inclination. Most of the American adults prefer to live apart from their family members if it is economically feasible. If not, they pay their parents for their rooms and board. When Americans encounter a  person from abroad who seems excessively concern about the family and parents, they feel the person is trapped or week or indecisive. The American idealized notion of individual freedom is neither dictated by government nor any external forces or agencies. But this American legitimized â€Å"individual freedom† is to be self-centered and lacking in consideration for other, especially non-Americans. The foreigners who understand the American notion of free, self-reliant individual will easily understand the following aspects of American behavior and thinking: For Americans, those are heroes who stand out from the crowed. Ex. Pilots Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, golfer Tiger Woods, Basketball player Michael Jordan Americans respect the people who become successful from his difficult situation like poverty, physical handicap. Ex. Booker T Washington, Helen Killer Many Americans do not show more respect to their parents as most people do in other part of the world. The parents fulfill their responsibilities to the children but when those children grow up they become independent. At that time, the child-parents tie may loosen or broken sometime. The phrases like â€Å"You’ll have to decide that for yourself(do for yourself what you want to be in future)†, â€Å"If you don’t look out for yourself , no one else will(no one is there to help you if you do not do anything for yourself )†, â€Å"look out for number one(try to be best, come first in the competition)†, â€Å"Be your own best friend (you are your own friend, believe on you)†, etc. are popular among Americans Competition: Americans see themselves in competition with others. They are taught to be a part of competition from their school. People who are in competition with other are often alone. Privacy: Maintenance of strict privacy is another feature of American culture. They think that people need some time to themselves or some time to regain their spent energy. They do not like the people who always want others companionship. This American attitude of privacy can be difficult for foreigners to understand. In contrast to open and inviting houses and offices, Americans’ minds have boundaries that other people are simply not supposed to cross. Equality: Americans believe in the idea as stated in the Declaration of Independent that â€Å"All Men are Created Equal†. Frequently, it has been experience that Americans violet the idea of equality in the matter of interracial relationship and relationship among different social background. They have a strong belief that no one is born superior to anyone else. â€Å"One person one vote† is American motto. The foreigners who are habitual to show more respect often overlook the way American respect other having higher status in the society. This American tradition is often misunderstood by the foreigners as disrespectful. Informality: Americans’ notion of equality leads them towards informality in their general behavior and in their relationship with other people. Store clerks and table servants too introduced themselves by their first name. They show their friendly and casual behaviors to the costumers and they are trained in such way. This American behavior may be shocking to other countries’ people who hold higher prestige in their country. The future, change and progress: Americans have less concern about history and tradition than future. They always look ahead. They believe that future is in their hand and hold the concept that a sensible person sets goals for future. A cross-culture trainer L. Robert Kohls says, â€Å"If you want to be American you have to believe that you can fix it. † This Americans’ attitude of progress and future contrast with the fatalistic attitude of many other cultures for whom, either God or some powerful people have control over their future. Time: Time, for Americans is a resource like water, soil, forest, minerals etc. that kind be utilized in human service. â€Å"Time is money† is a popular phrase. An ideal American is very punctual and is considerate of other peoples’ time. But, most of other non- American think that time comes and goes. Americans are often criticized by the foreigners for their scheduled life which is like a machine. The efficiency of people is closely related to their concept of time, change and future. Efficiency means to the work in less time with the less use of resource. That is why email has become widely popular Among Americans. Achievement, Action, work, and Materialism: The common way to praise one American by another is â€Å"He is hard worker†. The foreign visitors often remark American as hard worker. In writer’s view, those foreigners might have influenced by American movies where people are shown either driving in fast car or pursuing opposite sex. Americans like action. They believe they should be doing something all the time. They don’t entertain to sit idly talking with people. IF not anything, they remain busy making plans and arrangement for doing work later. The foreigners who are unaware about the American devotion to action often see Americans as always â€Å"on the go†, active, dissatisfied. Americans are materialist so spend freely on material goods. The things like PC, telephone answering machine, microwave oven, electric garage door opener, etc. were once considered to be luxuries but they are now developed as necessities for them. Sometime Americans are criticized as extremely materialist but for Americans it is natural and proper. Directness and Assertiveness: The saying like â€Å"Lets lay our cards on the table (put forward everybody’s idea)†, â€Å"let’s stop playing games and get to the point (don’t talk unnecessarily more rather focus in the required point)† are very popular among Americans mean they are very frank, open and direct in dealing with other people. Americans believe that conflicts and disagreements are settled down through forthright discussion among the people involved in. They don’t entertain the role of mediator. However, the role of mediator is being popular nowadays. The adjective ‘assertive’ is given to an Americans by other American who expresses his/her ideas frankly and plainly. What Americans call assertiveness, to that non-Americans think aggressiveness. Americans are not taught to hide their emotional responses. The displaying of the feeling like anger happiness, confused state while communicating with other is very usual. Many Asians feel embarrassed around Americans who are showing their strong emotion. But Latin Americans and Arab express their emotion more openly than Americans. For them Americans are cold and unemotional. But in some matters, Americans don’t express their willingness openly means to say that there are some limitations on their assertiveness. Japanese always tend to hide their emotions. For Americans, being honest is usually more important than preserving harmony in interpersonal relationship. They use the term like ‘Pushy’ or ‘aggressive’ to describe a person who is excessively assertive in expressing his opinions or making request. It is difficult to draw a line between acceptable assertiveness and unacceptable aggressiveness. Where DO WE Stand Lisa Davis In the article ‘Where Do We Stand’, Lisa Davis focuses on cultural differences in the use of personal space and on problems arises from these differences. As the article begins Davis has given an example about the personal space. After a Middle East man impresses with an American during their conversation, a Middle East man moves forward but the American slightly adjusts his posture, shifts his feet and edges backward. The language has distinctive ascents and confusing umlauts from cultural to culture, group to group, between the sexes with in a country. This situation has resulted a lot of possibilities for misunderstanding. The business has become increasingly international and population is multicultural. This has widely given the room for the breed of consultants who are capable of interpreting for globe-trotters of all nationalities the meaning and use of personal space. For instance, Sandra Snowdon, international business consultants says â€Å"Saudi Arabians like to conduct business discussion from within the spitting distance- literally where as Americans back up. † Cultures are idiosyncratic in their spatial needs. Japanese subways bring people close together as humanly as possible. However hand shaking can be offensively physical in Japanese office. The researchers and writer Mildred Reed hall says that Americans can even make their business counterpart uncomfortable in Japan with the kind of their direct eye contact which for Americans is very normal. The study of personal space got underway in the early 1950s when anthropologist Edward Hall describes a sort of cultural continuum of personal space. According to him on the â€Å"high-contact† side of continuum eye contact, touching, and similar are common practices among Mediterranean and American societies while standing at a distance about a foot. On the other end of the scale, in Northern European cultures, a lingering gaze may feel invasive, manipulative or disrespectful when a social chat takes place at a remove of about two and a half feet. In the middle of the rode United States, people usually stand about 18 inches apart for this sort of conversation. The misuse of space can call whole personalities into suspicion. The researchers have found that women who were asked to communicate from an uncomfortably large distance described their partners as cold and rejecting. Similarly, men were found to be irritated by their partners when they were forced to talk at closer range. Things may not be similar with in the country since the country may have amalgamation of ethnic minorities. According to Robert Sommer, spatial needs collide in the republics. She says that Estonians are non-contact people but Russians are high-contact. The Estonians say that Russian are pushy and the Russians say the Estonians are cold. Things are complicated in United States when dealing with children from different backgrounds. Such minor problems are very common because spatial behavior is automatic. It snaps into focus when someone does not play by rules. In fact, caution is not always unwarranted because an abnormal use of space can indicate that something odd is going on. Researcher has shown that when schizophrenic person approach another person, they often either get closer than normal or stay unusually distant. There are reminders that the human need for space is based in an animal reality: the closer you allow a stranger, the more vulnerable you become. The spatial differences among cultures points to something beyond self-protection. Anthropologist Edward Hall suggests that a culture’s use of space is also evidence of a reliance on sense over another. State Department export Bechtold says that conversation distances also tend to reflect the standard greeting distance in each culture. Americans shake hands then talk at arm’s length. Arab do a check-to-check social kiss and their conversation is close and personal. Japanese bow and talk to each other about the distance of two feet. On the other hand, need for more or less space may reflect something of cultural temperament. Spatial styles are very real no matter whatever the origin of the people is. It seems to get easier to acculturate to foreign habits of contact. Bechtold says â€Å"Personal space isn’t so hard for people to learn. Whatever is really harder is the business of dinner being served at midnight. † Time Talks, with an Accents Robert Levine In the present narrative essay, Robert Levine explores cross-cultural differences in concept of time and the intercultural conflicts and misunderstanding due to these differences. As he was working as a visiting professor in a Brazilian university, he experiences difficulties in adjustment because of different cultural values and beliefs on time. This Brazilian belief of time was totally different than that of his own for which he was accustomed to in the United States. Through this writing, Levine focuses on the importance of learning social belief on the in new culture to avoid intercultural conflict. Borrowing the idea from Jeremy Rifkin, Levine says every culture has its own unique set of temporal fingerprints. To know a people is to know the time values they live by. As he was planning for his career, ignoring his peers unwavering concept with the amount of money a job would pay, he turned to the temporal lifestyle for which he selected a university professor as his profession. His specialty was social psychology where the concept of time fascinated him as a child. His scientific journey on social time begun from Brazil where he was appointed as a visiting professor of psychology at the federal university. He anticipated the issues of language, privacy and standard of sanitation were difficulties in his adjustment in new society however they turned out to be false in comparison to the Brazilian stereotypical ‘amanha’ (tomorrow) attitude. Giving some anecdotes, he clarifies the Brazilian perception of social time. In one of the anecdote, he was scheduled to take his first class in the university at 10 o’clock to noon. By the time he reached in his class at the exact given time, only some few students were there. He could not take his first class in scheduled time one this next the students who were late were not worried about missing the class. The writer was bewildered with the people’s attitude towards time. He asked with several people about the time on the way to university but they were not similar. Even, the clock for public was not accurate. No people, he found were sharp in time. The head of the department was not punctual neither was the owner of the apartment who loved to keep other people wait for them for hours but could not wait for other for a single minute. During his year in Brazil, he was repeatedly bewildered, frustrated, fascinated and obsessed by the customs and ideas of social time that Brazilian sent his way. The writer found that the Brazilian tendency of punctuality as inseparably intertwined with cultural values and it is difficult to get the simple and clean answer when we enter in the web of culture. Cultural beliefs are like the air we breathe so taken for granted that they are rarely discussed as even articulated. But there is often volatile reaction when these unwritten rules are violated. Not beliefs are ingrained (that has existed for a long time therefore difficult to change) and subsequently hidden than those about time. Almost thirty years ago anthropologist Edward Hall labeled rules of social time the ‘silent language’. There is no dictionary to define these rules of time. Brazilian made the writer clearer that time is talking. But understanding what it was saying was no simple matter. After several years of temporal blunders, Levine designed his first systematic experiment about time in an attempt to understand Brazilian beliefs and rules about punctuality. From last two decades, the writer has been continuing his research both on the psychology of time and psychology of places. His research has involved from studies of punctuality to those about the broader pace of life. It has confirmed his earliest intuitions; that how people construct the time of their lives comprises a world of diversity. There are drastic differences on every level: from culture to culture, city to city, and from neighbor. And most of all, I have learned, the time on the clock only begins to tell the story. (Summaries of Additional Readings) Polite but Thirsty Yapling Tang In the present narrative essay Chinese essayist, Yapling Tang describes the cultural shock thet she and many other Chinese students experienced while living in United States. Tang focuses on the cross-cultural differences between her native Chinese and United States in non-verbal communication. (The ideas and writer’s techniques of this essay are important for developing own writing techniques. ) After 1979, many Chinese students have gone to USA pursuing higher education or research work. Right after they reached US, they exposed to novel and unfamiliar environment. Life was not easy for the Chinese students. When people go in the new land, the first and the dominant experience is perhaps the feelings of inadequacy. It is not only the inadequacy of knowing English language fluently but also the ignorance of what is appropriate and what is not in schools, on the bus stop, in restaurant, in stores or at parties. New comers have to face the consistent problems because of not knowing the codes of new language. For first few days Chinese students are like deaf mute in US schools by the new schools systems and like most of other, Tang too have experienced the cultural shock when she was in China in 1990. Tang was astonished to see her American classmate drinking soda and eating snacks in the class. In Chine, either in college or in elementary schools, students are not allowed to eat or drink anything. First, Americans often call each other by their first name either to friends, parents, teachers or relatives. Calling someone by their first name is taken as a sign of acceptance and friendliness. In Chine people are not call by their first name unless they are relatives or close friend. Being a Chinese, Tang felt very awkward in the beginning, when she was called by her first name. Second, Americans are very straightforward. When they want something they say â€Å"yes† and when they don’t they say â€Å"no†. But, Chinese often say â€Å"no’’ at first even in the second time as well not whether they want or not. It is needed to offer repeatedly something to someone and impose at last to him/ her. Third, modesty is another Chinese cultural norm. Unlike Chinese American do not consider excessive modesty a virtue. Americans praise instantly if something is good and criticize in the similar manner when fine something wired. Tang got used to with the American way of giving and receiving complements, after observing and experiencing. Fourth, in Chinese culture gift is offered just before they live and they do not open it infront of the giver which is considered impolite. But, Americans usually give the gift right after they arrive and they open it infront of the giver. Fifth, tip to taxi driver and waiters is an American culture. But in mainland china, Chinese people donot tip anyone. Because of cultural differences, when Chinese students forget to tip taxi and waiters in USA they feel embarrassed. In addition to suffering from cultural shock when dealing with external matters such as differences in food, climate, language, mannerism and communication, newcomers also suffer psychologically from status change and status loss. Most of the Chinese students have been academically successful and professionally well-established in China but when they come USA they had to work had to pay their tuition and living expenses. Many do the job as taking care of disable or elderly, babysitting, cleaning houses or working in restaurant. These students were university teachers, scholars and engineers in China, where people like these would never do such kinds of jobs. So, some of them feel a distinct loss of their status. As a result of Cultural shock, some Chinese students experience a painful social vulnerability. The trouble of looing culture and personal structure has resulted that only very few Chinese have developed a close relation with Americans. But most of them make a co-national ‘subcultural’ which causes barrier for deep intercultural contact. The other symptoms of cultural shocks are: absent mindedness; a feeling of hopelessness; fits of anger; excessive fear of being cheated, robbed or injured and finally eager to return home. Life is never smooth sailing. It requires a continual series of adaptations to new environment. For this, newcomers have to face the unfamiliar cultural settings squarely and try to cope with them. It is even necessary to learn new information and new responses and skills. But by doing so we can broaden our perspectives, promote personal growth, gain insight into the culture of origin through a contrast with other world views and ultimately successfully adapt to our new world. Friends and Strangers -Margaret K. (Omar) Nydell In the present essay, Margaret K. (Omar) Nydell discusses differences between Arab and Western (North American and European) cultures in the concept of friendship, misunderstanding due to this diverse concept of friendship and some possible ideas that could help to reduce the intercultural conflicts. The concept of Friendship Relations between people are very personalized in the Arab culture. The Arab concept of friendship is quite different from that in western. Westerns, especially Americans tend to think of a friend as someone whose company they enjoy. But it considered being poor form of friendship to expect something of gain from that relation. Arabs do enjoy the company of friends. However, fulfillment of certain duties in friendship is most. This difference in expectation among the cultures may lead to misunderstanding. In order to avoid such feelings, we must bear in mind what is meant by both sides when one person calls another â€Å"friend†. Reciprocal favors For an Arab, good manner is that who never openly refuse a request from a friend. Your help to the friends, in their request helps to flourish the relationship. If the request in unreasonable, illegal, or too difficult it’s better to suggest him about the possible out-come. The relationship between Egyptian university student and his American professor broke because of misunderstanding the concept of friendship due to cultural differences and so was the case between American military officer and his neighbor in Morocco. In western culture actions are far more important and more valued than words. In the Arab culture, an oral promise has its own value as a response. When Arabs give a yes answer to your request, they are not necessarily certain that the action will or can be carried out. Sometime an Arab asks another person to do some work for him and he regards himself indebted to return the favor in the future. It is an Arab tradition to expect loyalty from anyone who is considered a friend. Therefore in Arab culture the friend is not justified in becoming indignant when asked for favor since, it should be understood from the beginning that giving and receiving favors is an inherent part of relationship. Introduction Arabs are very quick to determine the other person’s social status and connections when they meet. They normally give more information about themselves than a westerners does. They may indulge in self-praise and praise of their relatives and family. When westerners meet someone for the first time they talk about education, profession and interest rather than personal information. To Arabs, the information about family and social connections is important than the information about themselves. Visiting Patterns Arabs feel that good friend should see each other often, at least every few days, and they offer many invitations. Westerners who have Arab friends sometime feel upset with the frequent contact and wonder if they will ever have any privacy. There is no concept of privacy among Arab. By far the most popular form of entertainment in the Arab Word is conversation. They enjoy long conversation with shared meal or many coffees. You will be expected reciprocal invitation. In United States one has more privacy but in Arab society people don’t really understand why westerners want to be alone. If you request for privacy people will wonder if someone offended you, if you don’t like them, or if you are sick. If you are not willing to increase the frequency or intensity of your personal contacts, you may hurt your friends’ feelings and damage the relationship. Some westerners who know about the time consuming relationship decide to keep acquaintance at a distance. If you accept no favor, you will eventually ask for none and you will have much more time for yourself but, you will have no Arab friends. Arab friends are generous with time and efforts to help you and are willing to help you even in their inconvenience. They are far more concern about your welfare. If you spend much time in Arab countries, it would be a great loss if you have no Arab friends. A Coward -Premchand In the story â€Å"A Coward† Premchand shows how cultural difference with in the culture creates problem among the people who live in the same society. Basically the Hindu cast system has created problems among the people in the case of marriage in the Indian subcontinent. Moreover, the gap between the traditional mind and the modern mind divide the people clearly in to opposite poles. Most of the people still stick to their conservative beliefs due to which, the gap has always remained unfulfilled in the story. Keshav- a Brahmin boy falls in love with Prema- a girl from Banya caste. In the beginning Keshav seems to be very strong because he is read to undergo any hardships that might come on his way to materialize his love. He convinces Prema to be bold and fight against the conservative mind. Prema, who is loyal to her parents and cultural norms, doesn’t close show any interest to flourish their relationship. However, she doesn’t dare to live her life without Keshav. As Prema goes home, she thinks about Keshav and collects her strength to tell her relationship with Keshav to her parents. In the beginning her parents rejects it strongly but they agree when she put her life at stake. Prema’s father goes to talk with Keshav’s father, who reacts very rudely to him. However, he tolerates being the father of a girl. Then Prema writes a letter to Keshav informing him that she is ready to undergo to any shorts of difficulties if he is ready to accept her as his life partner. She also writes that her parents are anxious to meet him and he is called for dinner. Prema waits for Keshav impatiently but neither he nor his letter comes. Only the next morning, Prema gets the letter of Keshav in which she finds him unexpectedly coward and distal. Her parents ask her about his response but she tells them nothing she hides her pain the whole day and the next morning she commits suicide. In this way, this story shows the cultural problems of the same society due to the conservative feelings of the people regarding caste. The system of castism has divided the society into higher and lower class and in which the so-called higher class people dominate the lower class people. They always deny the identity and existence of lower class people. In the story as too, Prema’s father faced humiliating behaviors from Keshav’s father- the treatment to lower class people by upper class in general. However, after all, lovers like Prema and Keshav are killing themselves due to the fear of social parts which are almost impossible for them to cross. Chapter – Two Education (Summaries of Core Readings ) School Is Bad for Children -John Holt In the present essay, â€Å"School is Bad for Children†, John Holt criticizes the existence teaching approach particularly in American schools and formal education in general. But this does not mean that he is against formal education. His major concern lies in improving the school education by making it more children centered and child friendly. Holt says that the students on the very first day look more smart, confident, resourceful, persistent and independent than he will ever be in his schooling again. Already, a child has solved great mystery of language before coming school and such a complicated work a child never has to face in his rest of life. He/she has made it possible by exploring, by experimenting, by developing own model of grammar of language, by trying it out and seeing whether it works by gradually changing it and refining it until it does work, along with this, the child even learn various concepts if life which school think only they teach him. Disadvantages of School i. In a child’s first arrival in school he is taught that learning is separate from living. It is said to him that living were out there and learning we in here and there are no connections between them. ii. A child is taught that learning is a passive process, something that someone else does to you instead you do for yourself. After coming to school a child learns that he is a blank sheet of paper for other people to write on it. The potentiality, interest, curiosity, needs, the strength and weakness are counted as worthless. Only the thing that counts in school is what they know, what they think is important, what they want you to do, think and be. The child learns how to be lazy in school. He even learns to pretend and cheat others that he is doing something even if sergeant is not looking him. iii. A child comes to school curiously, curious about other people, particularly of other students but school teaches him to be indifferent. A child learns how to live without paying attention on others around him. Nobody says anything truthful since everybody is playing a role as in a charade. Recommendation for the improvement of school i. Abolish compulsory school attendance. For this every year students should be given a large number of authorized absences, the system of compulsory attendance was useful step in past which had protected children from their labor exploitation in farm, house, mine or factory. Today the laws help nobody, not schools, not the teachers, not the students. As for protecting the children from exploitation, the chief and indeed only exploiters of children there days are the schools. for those children who are not joining college, school is just a useless time waster, preventing from earning some money or doing some useful work or even doing some true learning. There are some objections regarding this that if kinds didn’t have to go to school they’d all be out in the street. According to the Holt, it has no any possibility. In the first place, even if the school stayed in the same condition children would spend some time there because they would be likely to find their friend there. Secondly, the school would change according to the interest of the children and at last, those children who didn’t want to go to school could fine other things to do like many children now do during their summer and holidays. ii. There is something easier we could