Do American students seem less disciplined and less motivated compared to students from other countries?

Question

Is it just me, or do US middle/high school students have more behavior problems compared to students from other parts of the world? If you have the same perception, I like to understand why do you think that is the case, and what can be done about it? Regardless of everything being tried in the US classrooms, there just seems to be a constant deterioration of discipline, motivation, and respect from the youths today. I do not think the US teachers are less qualified than teachers in other countries to deal with these issues.

Here are some links about an average school day in China and in Mexico. Even though the schools may have poverty and low-income students, there still seem to be discipline, motivation, and respect from the students.

School in China
http://www.hollandc.pe.ca/ertt/pdf/2005.htm
School in Mexico
http://schools.guilford.k12.nc.us/spages/aycock/principal_news.htm

I like to hear from everyone, but in particular from those who have experience with high schools.

Answer 1

We are the only nation that gives all children the right to a free education and requires them to stay in school until a certain age.
In other countries, going to school is a privilege not open to many. The nature of humans is to want what is hard to get and to resist what is required.
Also, in other countries students who misbehave are put out of school. In the US many groups seem to think that it is the school's fault if students misbehave. Those who are left are those who behave. Here even students who disrupt the learning of others are legally forced to stay in school until they are 16 or so.
Our teachers no longer are supported by many parents.

Answer 2

I can only speak for what I've seen first hand, but i actually think that it's fairly even. I have known allot of foreign exchange students and about 1/2 are very good kids, ready to learn, respectful, and so on. but the other 1/2 are rude, critical, and don't care a thing about education. I have noticed though that high school exchange students from the orient tend to be much more polite, and respectful than those from Europe. but that's just been my experience. But it's the same in America about 1/2 really want to learn and about 1/2 don't care. I'd actually prefer going to school in the orient and in places like Russia, because the school system is strict and if u don' t want to be there they send u out to the fields.
God Bless!!

Answer 3

I agree with you. I believe the problem is the value of education, overall. For examples...

Many people in Hollywood dropped out of school to follow their dreams.

Pro-athletes receive scholarships and are often just passed through in order to get on the court. There is no point in an adult saying "stay in school" when he is making six figures playing ball after dropping out.

Parents don't want to or can't help their children with homework (e.g. either they are drop-outs themselves, work long hours or are not interested).

There is no guarantee that a good education will land anyone a good job anymore so there is no incentive to work hard.

Workplace bullying and office politics punishes those who do well and just want to stay away from the drama.

Teachers are over-burdened and simply can't be there for all their students. A student who is just slightly struggling may get discouraged and give up. Plus, many teachers are barely making enough to survive. What message is there when the people who influence children the most (outside the family) barely makes enough to eat?

There are many contributing factors, but the bottom line is it's impossible to ask a child to take interest in something that does not appear to have any long-term value for them. Why should it be important to them if it's not important to the adults around them.

P.S. Just watch your own question. I can almost guarantee you won't get as many responses as any random question about sex or how to get/keep/steal the opposite gender, even from adults with children.

Answer 4

You are right. Most American students take their education way too lightly and are way less motivated to succeed than foreign countries. I believe this is the case because there's always that sense of superiority in the US. Even today, we are one of a few first world countries in the world. When you have reached the summit, I think there is just the idea that you can coast because there is nothing else to surpass. However, people from other countries are more motivated because there ultimate goal is to become as successful as we already are in the states. When the US automarket falls to foreign automakers, then that will be the day people here in the US hopefully start to realize we have been passed by another country.

Discipline keeps getting worse and worse as years go by. By my own experience, I am working with kids a lot this summer at a tennis camp, and most of the kids are so out of control. You wonder if their parents ever discipline at home and teach them right from wrong. I think because society has changed and it is way more common for both parents working rather than having a stay at home mom who takes care of the kids, that children grow up that way and cannot get rid of the bad traits they learned early on in life.

As for money issues, Americans take way more for granted. Any student will not work nearly as hard in school if their parents are footing the bill(which is the case a lot of times...obviously not all). Whereas, most foreign students have to take out more loans because their family doesn't have any money to support them through schooling. They need to get their moneys worth in their education and they will work hard to make that possible.

All in all, it is not the teachers fault at all in US classrooms. It is 1. Our sense of superiority
2. Parents lack of discipline because they were always at work having a baby-sitter for the kids
3. Money taken for granted because kids are used to being handed so much money by their parents, rather than earning it.

Answer 5

I think there has been a change in the way that parents deal with kids, that has done this. You see more families where the kids run the show. If a teacher has a problem with a student and talks to the parents, the parents now try to defend their kid instead of correcting the problem. etc.... there has also been a change in the kids, there is a total lack of respect, they are taught that they don't need to listen to their parents by school and tv. This will probably swing the other way in a generation or two, that is normal.

Answer 6

I believe middle/high school students' behavior troubles are boiled down to them being less disciplined than their overseas peers:
They come from:
1) low-income households where they're being raised by their single mother and an absent father,
2) divorced parents where the single parent is sole head of household; and
3) broken families where the risk of divorce is either present or omnipresent.
These are the factors above for that question you asked. All I can say is that parents should make the schools' jobs a lot easier by dealing with their kids' behavior problems. Schools must focus their sole mission of educating students

Answer 7

Sadly, yes. There is a sense of entitlement, lack of work ethic, inability to delay gratification, and a mentality that if it is not entertaining, it is not worth their time. Cheating is rampant. Work is a dirty word.

This will be the first generation in our country's history where the children are not going to have a better standard of living as adults than their parents had. However, there are some students who for internal reasons are motivated. We need them to become leaders and examples to others. But unfortunately, they are often belittled by their peers.

There is a breakdown in society that contributes to the problem. Factors such as drugs, broken families, poverty, a sense of entitlement, fanaticism and extremism, unwillingness to delay gratification, loss of work ethic, racism, elitism, entanglement of church and state, torte law, parenting, value systems--all these factors and more contribute to the problem.

The answers are not clear. Perhaps if some of the celebrities who have such a strong influence on our youth culture would make it "cool" to get an education, to have values, to work hard. . .

Answer 8

There are many reasons for this happening.
1. Governments will not allow God and/or religion in schools today. A lot of people like this decision, but as far as I can tell, disclipline was a LOT BETTER when God was still allowed in schools.
2. Schools are not allowed to 'spank' children who need it anymore. Ditto as above.
3. Schools in America have to abide by federal laws in teaching children. In short this means the better the school does for the child, the more money they get from the gov't. One stipulation of this is that schools will get more money from the gov't IF they do not have reported disclipline issues in their offices.
THAT"S why there is so much behavior problems in school today. Schools ignore the bad behavior and let it happen so they can get more money. To me, that is SICK
4.Some kids see how the influence of drugs makes people rich. All they got to do is say 'you can be a millionaire selling drugs, why go to school' and they do it.
5.People in America in general is slacking when it comes to discliplining their own children. So they dont' care how their child behaves in school.
6.For the people who DO disclipline their children, it has become 'illegal' to do this, as with spanking. If a child is 'discliplined' by their parents, and then come to school and the school finds out about it. The school calls the gov't and the parents get 'arrested' for discliplining their oown children! Now, I can understand this is needed in the case of true ABUSE by parents to their children. But there are also MANY cases in which the parent is trying to disclipline their child and the government WON"T LET THEM!!!

Another reason for disclipline problems in schools is this. Some children have real learning problems. And when they are not helped, they 'act out' in frustration over not understanding their school work. So, the schools do NOT want to help the child with their learning problems. So the school will say the child has a 'behavior problem' when in fact the child does NOT, they are just frustrated over not knowing how to do their school work.
These sick people in schools go to bed every night KNOWING they are ruining childrens lives FOREVER !!!

Answer 9

Yes we do have a worse problem because we have so many Jessie Jacksons , Micheal Jackson and we glorify imoral sports figures ,rap music teaches hate ,teach aboration okay,punish those who speak openly postively about God , etc: What are these people going to say when the Chinese takeover// I'll never forget when Russian president Gorbachoif came to the U.S. to speak with Regan and Jessie Jackson butted into his procession uninvited as if to say we black want the help of the comminust goverment and Mandela went to Castro in Cuba to buddy up with him// Dont these idiots realize that Russia or Cuba not even to mention China and most of the rest of the world could care less about them even their homeland Africa are killing , imposing slavery and rape ,mulating one another// until we address these issues our schools will only get worse while the world speeds by with a smile on its face ready to step in and get it all straighten it out after we collapse/// thats my opion///let me hear from you

Answer 10

When I was in highschool, we had many foreign exchange students that came in and blew us all away. They were driven and had a passion for learning that just amazed us.
They would talk about their schools, and their study habits and it was 20 times more strict than my rutine as an american scholar.
I didn't meet one that didn't get all A's, and some knew more about other cultures, including my own, than I did.
But, from the looks of it you have researched enough to accumulate your own answer. Good job!