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• 1 2019-05-05T10:41:58-07:00 United States vs. Britain Education System 11 Emily Schwinghamer plain 2019-06-07T00:49:06-07:00

  Emily Schwinghamer
  
  
   

  During our month-long stay in London my favorite week had to have been the week we got to tour Eton College, Oxford University, as well as, visit with children at a lower income primary school. After spending time at each of these three institutions, it became very clear to me that schooling the United States is, in fact, very different from what you find in Britain. Both countries definitely have a very different idea when it comes to what’s important to learn while at school as well as how long you need to go to school for. There are certainly places the United States could learn from Britain and vice versa.
  
  

  When it comes to places where I think the United States could stand to learn something from Britain, when it comes to education, it would be mainly at the primary school level. During our visit at the primary school we got to speak with the principals about the curriculum being taught to the children and it was very inspiring to see how diversity was not only taught, but embraced at the school. The children are taught different religions, languages, and cultures in hopes of installing good moral compasses when it comes to inclusion. In the United States the only time you really receive any schooling about religion is if you pay to go to  private Catholic, Christain, Jewish school etc. As America is seemingly more divided than ever based off of things like race, gender, religion, etc. it would be extremely beneficial to install some of these practices into our school systems. Children are very impressionable and I believe it would make a large impact if kids were exposed to different cultures at an early age. Another thing that the primary school taught that I believe is extremely important is nutrition. In schools in the United States most kids have to take a health class of some sorts, but that really pales in comparison to how they are teaching Health and Nutrition in Britain. The primary school had a kitchen, garden, and even chickens to help teach the children about fueling your body properly. We got to stop in on a class in the kitchen and they were learning how to make things like fresh guacamole and smashed peas. It was really inspiring to see these kids learning, and even embracing, a healthy lifestyle. With the obesity problem in the United States it is more important now, than ever, to be helping our children learn how to live a healthier lifestyle.

  After learning about the college education system in Britain I think there are a couple places that there could be improvements made based off of the American system. These days, in the United States, most kids are expected to further their education, attend college, and earn a degree. This is good for the workforce because it makes things more competitive, which in turn raises the levels of expectations, pushing people to get better and better. In Britain it didn’t seem like it was really expected from anyone, except the upper class, to attend higher education past high school. I think it's important that the entire population has the chance to educate themselves to a higher level as it opens up a lot of opportunities in the future. Also in the United States the average college student changes their major 3 times before graduating and we learned that it is almost impossible to do that in Britain. Not being locked into a specific major gives students the opportunity to really find not only what they are good at, but also what they are passionate about and will love doing for the rest of their lives. I believe Britain should adopt this technique because it allows students to dip their toes in the water before jumping in to a specific field of study.

  The education systems in the United States and Britain are very different. Both push their students to achieve their goals and help set themselves up for their future, but the way they go about it is really pretty different. As with most things both systems could be improved by taking some pointers from each other and I believe as time moves on the gap between the two will become smaller and smaller.

• 1 2019-05-05T10:24:14-07:00 The British Image 10 Lauren Harris plain 2019-05-29T10:14:15-07:00 Lauren Harris
  
  My experiences and lessons that I gained from living and traveling through London, this past month, are hard to put into words.  I learned how to navigate to places through the tube system, how to budget for groceries, and how to rely on myself.
  After taking a day trip to Copenhagen, I think I grew as a person for so many reasons.  Although the trip is not Great Britain and may fall out of the topic at hand, part of living in Great Britain and Europe in general, is having the access to travel around to different places and cultures.  Something I learned right away was that English signs ended the minute we left the airport.  In what could have been a scary situation, I decided to laugh the nerves off and calmly think about how I was going to navigate and what I would do.  In the culture that we all cherish at home, we expect there to be English everywhere, so it was a huge wake up call when I realized that I was on my own.  I feel that a big part of being British is to know how to adapt and respond to different situations.  I feel that “living like a Londoner”, a phrase I have used several times throughout the trip, has taught me how to take care of myself in foreign environments.  Even in London alone, getting off the tube a stop late might result in a totally different world. 
  As I discussed in my previous post and will briefly discuss again, something that I had discovered was the rich diversity that Great Britain, and London especially, holds.  Over the past several weeks, I have heard so many languages: Spanish, French, Hebrew, Arabic, Italian, and Chinese to just name a few.  I have seen people with several different backgrounds.  The huge amount of diversity, that I had not expected to see, helped me to understand that being British does not mean one language or accent or skin color—it is a variation.
  A big topic that I had mentioned multiple times was style.  And while I jokingly said that I expected to see a lot of Nancy Drew-looking women with plaid skirts and knee-length socks, what I noticed instead was not just what people wore, but what it represented: image.  I have gathered that being British means that one takes pride in their image.  Not just physically with clothes, but also places that people live.  As far as clothes, I have noticed all along that whether people are going to work or just strolling down the streets casually on the weekend, the style in London is very important.  I will not go into detail again, because I feel that I have exhausted my topic of clothes, but instead I will further explain why image is so important in homes and cities to the typical Brit. 
  When I went to the East End of London for the Jack-the-Ripper Tour and again with the class for the primary school tour and walk around Brick Lane, it was interesting to hear how the East End has been labeled.  In books and movies, it has always been labeled as the “rough part of town”, where poverty and prostitution was at an all-time high.  While there, the tour guides made several efforts on both the Jack-the-Ripper Tour as well as the Arcadia tour to explain that times have changed and the area is bouncing back from the poverish times.  The East End, specifically Whitechapel and Brick Lane have been tainted with a bad reputation and there was a lot of effort done to reinstate these beautiful areas.  Our Arcadia guides made several points to explain that the Jack-the-Ripper stories have darkened the area and shed light from important women and workers of that area and time period.  It really fascinated me with the lengths that they went through to show that it was actually a very nice area with rich culture and history. On the opposite spectrum, when we visited Oxford, there was a ton of time spent on the emphasis of how competitive and impressive it is to say that one goes to Oxford.  The guide was sure to explain every single important person that went there to show off the school's identity that Oxford always brings out great people.  It ties in to the idea of image because Oxford really wanted to put out the best representation possible in order to impress others and maintain its status.
  All in all, this was an amazing trip from which I have learned so much.  I learned that what it means to be British is different for everyone, because it depends on the background from which one grows up as well as where and how they are raised.  In my month in London, I feel that being British means that one takes pride in how they look, where they live, and the rich diversity that comes with living here.