9-3-09
Does society place enough emphasis on human intellect? When this question was imposed upon me, I came to realize that today our society places no very little emphasis on human intellect as it did many years ago or in many other countries. Intellect is defined as: capacity for thinking and acquiring knowledge; a person possessing a great capacity for thought and knowledge. In a society like ours, very few people now a day can really be defined as this.
I would to like first point out some of the differences in our schools’ educations and some education in other countries. In china for example; education is a huge deal there. Asian schools famously excel in language, math and science. In contrast, the United States fails to produce sufficient graduates in sciences and engineering. Also, math scores throughout the states rank well below those of most Asian countries. Chinese students develop what appears to Westerners as a outrageous capacity for memorization. Therefore, Chinese students usually receive a near-perfect score on the standardized exams of Europe and America. Also, many are able to rehearse entire articles and there are stories of some children who are able to commit the entire dictionary to memory. Further more, many preschoolers learn hundreds of Chinese characters. (Greenspan).
American schools are more relaxed and there aren’t very many restrictions. In schools in America, teachers and students are of the same social level. In Asia, their teachers are highly respected. Schools in America want their students to achieve their goals, but do not teach how to exactly achieve it. Students have very little pressure and if their plan doesn’t go as planned its ok, because no one really cares. In Asia a person’s social status is based upon their education rank. Starting from elementary school, students are taught that if you want to be successful in life you must have a good education, and if not you are looked down upon. In schools in Asia,...