Can America learn anything from the British educational system and vise versa?
Prior to visiting England, I knew that their education was different than America’s from TV shows and movies, but I had never really quite understood it. After experiencing life in England for a month, I was able to get a pretty good understanding of both the differences and similarities between the British and American education systems. For one of our day excursions, we took a day trip to Windsor where we were given the opportunity to visit and learn about Eton School, an extremely prestigious “public” (but would be considered private in America) all-boys school. Eton School has been around since 1440 and has been home to popular figures ranging from Prince William to Hugh Laurie. After learning more about the school, I quickly came to the realization that there really was no such institution that existed in America. We have the “Ivy League” universities, but nothing of the sort for any kind of pre-university education. I also found it very interesting that even today, Eton School remains to be an all-boys school despite the massive leaps society has made towards gender equality. When someone asked our guide why girls were not permitted to attend the school, all she said was that it was “tested out in the 80s but didn’t work out” which honestly sounded like a lame excuse to me. This really made me wonder just how far British culture has really come in terms of equality. The existence of a school such as Eton also reflects the stark class divide that has always existed in England, especially between the monarchy and the common people.
In addition to visiting Eton, we also were able to visit a primary school in London, near Brick Lane. There was a vast contrast between this state school and the public boarding school we had visited the week before. The headmaster of the primary school gave our class a run-down of just how the education system in England worked and how it compared to our education system back home. One of the first things that jumped out at me was that in England, school kids took the “eleven plus exam” when they are eleven years-old which determines whether they go on to a grammar school (more academic curriculum) or a secondary school (more vocational curriculum). This really surprised me because eleven seems like such a young age to take a test that determines so much of your future. If this was done in America, many children would be misplaced simply due to the fact that they simply are not mature enough at eleven to take anything that seriously. Although this does seem very intense, it was said that these exams don’t really take place anymore and most go on to a more general secondary school. Another fact I learned was that those in sixth-form (the equivalent to the 10th and 11th grade in America) take A-Level exams that focus on three subjects of the student’s choice and this is what they apply to university with. This makes much more sense than having students take a standardized exam, such as the SAT or ACT, that covers more general subjects and instead allows the student to pick what they are interested and perform well in to study and test on instead. If America were to adopt something of this nature, students may be much more interested in school and perform better as well. This system allows students much more flexibility and independence in their studies. Lastly, the headmaster told us that only 29% of graduates head on to higher education (university) in England as opposed to the 75% in America. When asked why this was, he told us that British culture does not place nearly as much of an emphasis on higher education that America does. This isn’t due to education not being valued in England, but more due to the fact that they understand that you do not need to go to university and spend years on a degree to be successful/to get a job. In America, university is pushed down our throats from the very beginning, making it seem as if it is our only option and if we don’t pursue it, we will never be successful or have any decent career. This ultimately results in thousands and thousands of Americans ending up in mass amounts of debts with degrees they may never even use.
While visiting the primary school, we were allowed to walk around and interact with the students from every grade (which ended up being one of my favorite experiences of the entire month) which enabled us to get even more of an understanding of what exactly school looked like for them. Upon walking in the front doors of the building, the first thing I noticed was a table with symbols from nearly every religion on it – something you would never see in an American public school. The headmaster told us that in primary school, children are taught about every religion in order to promote acceptance and understanding of those who may be different from themselves. If anything, this is the most important thing that the American education system should adopt in to its curriculum instead of never addressing other religions while still requiring students to say a pledge of allegiance every morning that mentions a Christian god. I strongly believe that there would be much less of a religious divide and blatant intolerance between different religions if Americans were just educated on them all at a young age and learned to respect them all equally.
Despite the two education systems having many differences, there are several things each country could adopt from one another to better their education systems overall.