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> America, in contrast with most other countries, has very little cultural infrastructure to guide people. Freedom and individualism (however shallow) is emphas

> America, in contrast with most other countries, has very little cultural infrastructure to guide people. Freedom and individualism (however shallow) is emphasized. Very true. I went to a public school in Eastern Europe and everyone had to go through the same curriculum no matter what you wanted to focus on after graduation. The basic principle here is to expose students to all subjects and let them decide what they want to focus on in places of higher education. However, in American schools it seemed that you could pretty much weave your way through public schools only taking courses you think you need after you cover some of the basic subjects. There are several problems with this approach. First of all, you're never exposed to subjects that you didn't originally have interest in, but could potentially have appreciation for had you invested some time learning about them. Secondly, your scope of knowledge ends up being pretty narrowly limited to things that you're interested in while having little to no idea about everything else. Lastly, I think colleges and universities end up picking up the slack here when they start teaching coursework that should've otherwise been part of public school curriculum. All-in-all, it is my belief that having at least surface-level understanding in various subjects does make a difference as you get older because it gives you just enough knowledge to be able to look at life in a different light and, at the very least, have a general idea how to start making adjustments. Not to say that you won't need help. In fact, you still might but you're in a much better place than where you would be blindly following someone's advice in a gimmicky self-help book.

azinman2 5y ago
I don't think you have an accurate account of American education. Often times there is some level of freedom in high school, but undoubtedly one is forced to take classes from most disciplines. I think what changes is often the advancement one gets to (some might take Calculus, others stop at pre-Calculus or even trigonometry). But I don't think there are many high schools where one stops taking math, science, humanities, etc at all possibly with the exception of the last year. Similarly, most colleges have broad requirements beyond your major. I had to take many classes in humanities, physical, math, sociology, and other areas, for example, even though I was a cognitive science major. My understanding is that this is actually more broad than typical universities in Europe where one only focuses on their area (or certainly at least medical school is that way in many European countries).
dfinninger 5y ago
That hasn't been my experience in American schools, nor anyone that I've discussed the topic with. In my final year of High School education I had some freedom, but it was along the lines of, "You have access to advanced Biology, Physics, and English. Choose two." (It was more complicated than this, simplified for example's sake) For the rest of high school I had one elective course and the rest was more rigid. I was able to choose which foreign language I would like to study and I could choose a particular artistic pursuit. Everything else was thoroughly constructed and regimented. Arts, Humanities, Sciences, Mathematics, Language were required each year. Even when I went to college, the first two semesters required the same mix of curriculum before I was able to specialize.

azinman2 5y ago

I don't think you have an accurate account of American education. Often times there is some level of freedom in high school, but undoubtedly one is forced to take classes from most disciplines. I think what changes is often the advancement one gets to (some might take Calculus, others stop at pre-Calculus or even trigonometry). But I don't think there are many high schools where one stops taking math, science, humanities, etc at all possibly with the exception of the last year. Similarly, most colleges have broad requirements beyond your major. I had to take many classes in humanities, physical, math, sociology, and other areas, for example, even though I was a cognitive science major. My understanding is that this is actually more broad than typical universities in Europe where one only focuses on their area (or certainly at least medical school is that way in many European countries).

dfinninger 5y ago

That hasn't been my experience in American schools, nor anyone that I've discussed the topic with. In my final year of High School education I had some freedom, but it was along the lines of, "You have access to advanced Biology, Physics, and English. Choose two." (It was more complicated than this, simplified for example's sake) For the rest of high school I had one elective course and the rest was more rigid. I was able to choose which foreign language I would like to study and I could choose a particular artistic pursuit. Everything else was thoroughly constructed and regimented. Arts, Humanities, Sciences, Mathematics, Language were required each year. Even when I went to college, the first two semesters required the same mix of curriculum before I was able to specialize.