10/21/2021; Week 6: Response to "Individualism vs. Collectivism"

      In assessing the needs of my future students, it will be important to know if they come from an individualistic society or a collective society. People who come from an individualistic society, by definition, will focus more on themselves and how their own personal wants and needs are met. In collective societies, individuals are focused more on the greater good. In a classroom setting, this makes a difference in group assignments and in how students assist one another. One of BYUI's main tenets is that we teach each other. This works better with a collectivism mindset.

     On potential problem that could occur when dealing with students from a collective society is that they may not want to call attention to themselves or strive to set themselves above the rest. As we learned in "The Myth of Chinese Super Schools"(Ravitch, 2014), the Chinese way of learning focuses mostly on testing individuals on their proficiency for doing government work. While this gives the world a perception that the Chinese have the best school systems, it doesn't take into account that doing well on a test does not necessarily promote creativity, ingenuity, and entrepreneurship. This could explain why no one from China has ever won a nobel peace prize, according to the above-referenced article. Thus, having collectivist students in our classroom might inspire in a us a need to foster creativity and ingenuity.

     One question for my fellow students is this: Since our federal education policies have failed so miserably, i.e. "No Child Left Behind", what are some ideas and solutions for how we can be sure that our children are learning what they should be learning, without administering mind-numbing tests which only inspire "teaching to the test"? 

Sources cited: 

Ravitch, Diane. “The Myth of Chinese Super Schools.” The New York Review of Books, 23 July 2020, https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/11/20/myth-chinese-super-schools/.

Comments

  1. Amy SOctober 23, 2021 at 5:43 AM

    Jen, your blog post is insightful and well informed. I enjoyed reading it.

    ReplyDelete

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