That the rest of the world is catching up with the USA--good. About
time. That the rest of the world is catch up because the USA is goofing
off--not so good.
What concerned me most on the youtube video is the attitude. Naturally,
the producers have selected extremes. The American students were
frivolous and unmotivated. The Asian students knew they were going to
be community leaders and were seriously preparing for that.
Unfortunately, (and maybe the ubiquitous TV should take some of the
blame) many of my students in Taiwan are showing some of the USA
attitudes. I teach elective courses and most of my students are not
taking the courses or the assignments seriously. At one school, I have
never taught two semesters in a row, because the students elect to take
something less demanding (I always insist they, in small groups, do
field research projects and write up the results in IMRAD format). For
my students, there may be some excuse. They worked so hard in high
school to pass college entrance exams, that they need a little time to
have fun and learn about dating and, maybe, driving.
CL
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Cara Lin Bridgman
P.O. Box 013 Phone: 886-4-2632-5484
Longjing Sinjhuang
Taichung County 434
Taiwan http://megaview.com.tw/~caralin/
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