This probaly isnt the best subject in the world for me to approach during the holiday season, a season which originally was founded on the premises of good will towards all mankind; but, I'm choosing to write about it anyways because it is for the good of a particular sector of humankind which I feel is neglected, a faction in our society which I feel is constantly being underrated and swept off to the side of the frontlines - the average American kid.
I want to make it very clear though to all my readers out there that I am in no way, shape or form suggesting that we Americans become prejudiced towards people from foreign lands, I'm merely sharing my personal experiences regarding the matter. My main intention is to stick up for the average American kid, as well as possibly set the record straight on a few things that I feel are long overdue in being addressed.
For a coupla decades now I've heard over and over again how the Japanese and Chinese kids are so much more smarter and educationally advanced than the children of the United States and perhaps in alotta ways they are; but, there's a flip side to that generalized assumption that most people are totally unaware of, unless you yourself have personally interacted and/or worked with children from other nations as I have been fortunate enough to have done previously in my career.
First, just because the Japanese and Chinese kids allegedly have more intelligence than American kids doesnt automatically mean they are better than them, nor that their lives are a bed of roses. Google this topic anytime you please and you will quickly discover that both Japanese and Chinese kids have a much higher rate of suicides and psychological issues because of all the pressures that are put on them on a daily basis from their schools, their parents and more or less their home countries. Every child out there in the world should be encouraged to do their best towards any academic endeavors, as well as non-academic endeavors too; but, that's as far as it should go. To demand otherwise isnt simply pushing them to try harder, it's forcing unrealistic demands on their overall beings and in the process damages them as people. I think that type of psychological abuse should be banned in every country in this world. It's okay to encourage kids to succeed in school, but goddamn, also allow them to grow and develop as invidivuals outside of the world of academia. Allow them to become the full people they are, not the full people we want them to be.
Second, perhaps a good majority of those Japanese and Chinese kids are indeed little Albert Einsteins and Madame Curries in-the-making; but, when it comes to their social manners - how do I put this? - they suck. They suck big-time. Now I know that there are alotta folks out there who claim that there are American kids out there who are nasty little barbarians when it comes to social graces but trust me, when it comes to being severely impaired in that arena, there are alotta foreign kids who have the market cornered on that one.
In my professional experiences, I've interacted more with Chinese kids than the Japanese, so I can only share my reactions based on those specific incidences. I'm talking about those Chinese kids who come from extremely wealthy families over in China who decide to enroll their children in many of the private schools that we have here in the United States. Money speaks and that's their choice, but isnt it both ironic and extremely hypocritical that if Chinese kids are so much more intelligent than our own American kids, then why the hell would their parents wanna send them to private schools here in America when they could be taking all their boo-koo big bucks and building such private schools over there in China? Kinda makes ya wonder, doesnt it?
When dining with these rich Chinese kids, at first you'll notice they try to use the fork-knives-n-spoons system we Americans use but give them less than 10 minutes and soon you'll see them helping themselves to 2nds and 3rds using their own forks. Now some of you out there may think "What's the big deal? We're talking about kids here. No one has ever taught them any different." Bullshit. Their parents, the hoyty-toyty private schools they go to and any American families they've interacted with have fully taught them quite well how to correctly use eating utsensils, it's just that for some reason those rich Chinese kids think that they dont have to abide by the same standards as the rest of us. Well, just like learning to speak the language when you come to another country, I personally feel those children, whom are guests in the United States, need to behave just like the rest of us do because that's exactly what they expect of us when we visit their countries.
Machismo. For years I've heard sooooooo many people piss-n-moan about how decadent the machismo in both the Latino and Italian cultures is but hell, the Chinese version of that makes those two look like a temporary teenage growing phase. The Chinese males, both children and adult, very rarily close the doors behind themselves when entering or exiting because they simply feel they shouldnt have to, that other people, especially women, are the ones who should be doing that. Whatta loada crap that is and I think the ways in which Chinese women are regarded and abused is both deplorable and unacceptable human behavior. Regardless of cultural differences or not, when you're here in America, you need to treat women - and everyone else for that matter - with respect and proper social etiquette.
When factoring in the aformentioned facets together with the untrue, generalized statement that Chinese, Japanese, etc.,etc., kids are smarter than our own American children are, that really hocks me off. We've got all these kids coming from different countries to getta great education here in America only to be told that they are smarter than American kids - now I ask you, isnt that just a tad bit contradictory? True, there are alotta private schools here in the States that are exemplary but point blank instead of allowing all these children from foreign lands to take advantage of those schools, our country should be making a helluva lot more effort to ensure that American children, whether rich or poor, get the same opportunities that all those ill-mannered foreign kids get.
I realize alotta economic and political strategists will argue that all that foreign money that is coming into those private schools in turn helps out the American economy but that's a load of bullshit too. All that foreign money does is educate those foreign kids, then they go back to their homelands and create new opportunities for their people, which then in turn takes even more and more jobs away from the American people. It's a very serious mess. Naturally, the best place to start addressing this problem is for this country to stop its continous shortchanging of American children. For all those believers in the American dream out there, I gotta newsflash for you, by not allowing our own American children to have the same academic opportunities that are graciously extended to all those foreign children, you're all in essence helping to kill that dream. I mean, it's like, how fucked up is that?
And as for all those parents who go to places like China, Japan, Africa, India and so on and so on and adopt babies and children, while alotta American kids are living on the streets, selling their bodies and souls just to survive, ask any of them about it directly (oh yes I have, yes indeedy) and do you know what their excuse is? "Well, there's too much red tape in the American system, it's simply too expensive to adopt American children." Really? Then get off your friggin lazy asses and do something about it, make it so that those American children can be helped and taken care of. Make it so that none of them are living shamefully on the streets, while kids from China, Japan and other countries are living high off the American hog. I know, I need to save all of this for another post but hopefully y'all get the point.
Look, I realize the issues I discussed in this piece cant be solved overnight but I really do think that we as a nation really do need to make some major changes in our educational systems so that our American children are no longer automatically discounted and swept under the rug. I think both our country's private and public educational instutions need to start putting American kids first, because this inferiority complex bullshit that statisticians, the media and people in general have pounded into the psyche of American children is not only demeaning and degrading but it's totally unacceptable behavior. It's not fair. I dunno what happened to the United States believing in its own children but we need to get back to that and much more sooner versus later, especially if we want those children to flourish and prosper like we all were told about in that long-ago American dream. Thank you for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment