How are US students classroom behavior compared to the students in other parts of the world?

Question

I like to hear from teachers who have experienced both US and other countries students. I know the teachers our district recruited from India and the Philippines are having hard times adjusting to the US student behaviors. I personally have had little behavior problems from my ESL students that just came to the US from Mexico, China, Africa, etc. compared to the numerous problems I've had with the US students (or even foreign student have have been here a while). I'm trying to figure out if or why there is a difference in behaviors?

Answer 1

While I am not a teacher at present I will tell you the experience of our sons. In a transfer that took our family from the States to France our sons struggled with the strict atmosphere and lack of help for the students in the international school we put them in (hoping it would be better suited to them. . . . .wrong). Time was not given to do any work at school, that was to be done at home and turned in promptly, they had no problem holding students back a year until the school believed they could pass the exams that were given every couple of years which tested on ALL aspects of learning within those years (the Bacculaureate covered all years in school and if you did not score high enough on just one portion (math, language,etc.) you were made to repeat the entire year again.

After 1 1/2 years of this and the school wanting to put our sons back 2 years because they didn't think their French was good enough to pass the tests, we found an American school in Switzerland and they finished their high school there.

Homework is the key. In the States it was never cool to be at home doing your homework. However, in Europe you will not survive school without doing homework. At their school in Switzerland there was mandatory study hall 3 hours EVERY night. In France the teenagers had little time to do anything because they were always at home or the library doing their homework.

The students were prepared the minute they entered the classroom to learn. They were respectful to the teachers as well as to each other and quiet when the teacher was talking. This provided a reason for the teachers to be respectful of them as well and willing to listen to their ideas and suggestions.

They also had field trips to learn about the country they were living in and to show their gratitude to the city where they went to school, they did continutal service projects for the city in many ways, i.e. beautification of town square, mentoring younger towns children, helping on the ski slopes when needed. Because of this the town loved them, trusted them and at graduation would hang out windows and doorways to wave and shout congratulations to them.

I can't think of a better way to learn. Not just from books, but to learn first hand about a culture. Oh, and by the way - out of the 250 students, there were 47 countries represented. The school was very dilegent in making sure everyone had several countries represented in their dorms which held 4 students. This gave them one on one contact in both learning and dealing with other cultures and customs. Not all of them were stellar roommates, but the students did learn tolerance. How great is that.