The Standardizors Part II

 I suppose I need a part two to my previous post. I think this will have an even darker mood to it but it really shouldn't. Everyone who is not American repeat after me: I am not American though I watch them on TV and social media and may try to play one in my life... I am not American. We should be glad of that in a lot of ways.

I find that it's not just the people of the US projecting their values and the results of their culture onto others that makes some believe things in our countries and lives are just the same as they are in America, it's US. Not the US, US. Our own selves. We convince ourselves that we live in societies as (sorry my American friends but) fucked up as America. It helps that we are bombarded 24/7 with Americana but that's by choice. Isn't it? I am not immune to it. I see TV shows and without the makers of the shows putting on the hard sell I am convinced that I should have a new car, a big apartment, new clothes, holidays off, good looks, straight and glisteningly white teeth, and what's more, I should be able to go to a bar and order a beer, just a "beer" and not get a look of any kind from the bartender. I should also be able to leave the bar before that beer is half finished, maybe even 100% undrunk. That's what Americans DO! Well it's what TV Americans do. There's a difference. I live in Canada and was raised here and although it is common knowledge that US and Canadian cultures are very similar, there are some huge differences. I think sometimes Canadians give ourselves credit for exaggerated differences like kindness and super healthcare - we're not really much nicer and our healthcare is less and less super - but sometimes we also don't give ourselves credit for very real differences like not having the same level of problematic extremism that the American culture cultivates.

Our government and owners try their best to make us like Americans but ours is a muted Americanism. We have a two party system but it's not just straight contradictory tribalism like the American system. Our capitalism isn't as extreme yet either. We still have some remnants of a social safety net here. We have bigotry and prejudice (and as I previously blogged about the government is vehemently encouraging and enabling it) but it's more subtle and better hidden. More like discriminatory microaggression. 

Buuut then again...

Yeah, we're pretty fucked up too. Just not on the same level... yet.

Another such example is what I was talking about last post: education. Where to begin... I was recently told by my American professor teaching my American master's degree, citing a TED talk given by an American educator that "children won't learn to be accepting of other cultures and ethnicities unless we teach them to be." You go to about the 5 and a half minute point of this vid after she finishes her self-congratulatory applause baiting about how she tells her students to try new things and how she does so all the time too, you will get to the heart of the message.

Teaching is the only way to make kids diverse and inclusive. "If we want children to interact with each other and be friendly towards each other, we need to teach it." REALLY?

But what about

... and also

Are things so messed up in America that by the time kids get to school they're full of hate that needs to be de-programmed by teachers? Well...

But I'm sure these are the extremest examples of the extreme that are thereby most newsworthy, aren't they? Unfortunately it may not be. I might be wrong here. Do you suppose this is WHY, as John Oliver and so many others say, teachers are superheroes that should make a million dollars a year (16:20), yet they never seem to get raises? Is this by design? If it is, this might surprise you coming from a teacher but... GOOD! I don't want any greedy scumbags, people who got into teaching for the money, teaching my kids to be like them. Only one way to prevent that isn't there? And, I'm just brainstorming here, do you suppose this same strategy could be applied to people who have even more influence on the collective values of the country like lawmakers and politicians? And do you suppose if that were the case, maybe the kids wouldn't arrive at kindergarten in need of deprogramming. That really shouldn't be the responsibility of the teacher. The teachers don't know your kids and certainly don't love them. What I'm saying is the education system is not the problem here, it's the culture. What specifically about the culture? We all know it's the extreme capitalism and greed that is not only accepted but applauded in the American culture.

One more video:

You've seen this vid here before. There is a part (7:09) where one of the teachers talks about teacher training in the US and how the kids are all taught that they can be anything they want to be but that just isn't the case. In Finland it doesn't feel so false to say that. Louis Katz, (the best comedian you've never heard of they call him) says school in America was like being prepared for the Special Olympics then when you get out of school you are competing in the REAL Olympics. I'd say it's like that in Canada too but again to a lesser extent. And many other countries!

I guess what I'm saying in these two posts is that standardization is just plain bad and that has been exhibited and documented all over the world. But what most of the world tends to get are American stats and stories and we have a habit of jumping to the conclusions (the inaccurate conclusions) that our situation mirrors that of the US. I think John Oliver is probably right and the US needs a little bit of standardization to fight the horrific things their culture does to kids. Maybe Ilene Schwartz is right too but we shouldn't assume that we are in the same situation as they are in America. We also should have the common sense and wherewithal to realize that this is one of the side effects of dog-eat-dog capitalism where most of us are destined for wage slavery (not to be what we want to be) and school is just preparing kids for it while convincing them that isn't their destiny. The US is not ready to do anything yet to change the real heart of the problem. Band-aids on the education system will suffice until the country (if ever) realizes they are just too greedy and starts fixing that problem the proper way. I don't think Canada, and many other nations, are as far gone and we have the ability and the actual influence and freedom to attack the problem at the cultural level in combination with the educational level to really have an effect. 

But you all know how I have a bad habit of thinking positively.