The International Schools Review Forum

Going to Grumpy's first topic, Grumpy wrote "criticisms are often without merit". This is spot on. You'll find a lot of people who spend 3 or 4 years overseas, work with people from a few different nationalities and then make sweeping statements that are often based on little more than stereotypes, generalizations and second-hand information.

In my experience, people who have been making sweeping statements or generalizations about an entire curriculum or national system have often made unfounded comments. People who challenge particular aspects of a curriculum or national system seem to be more informed. That's just my experience though.

Here are some examples of funnier generalizations I've come across; I worked with a woman last year (in the PYP school where I work now) who talked about British teachers "lacking flexibility to differentiate properly because of the rigidity of the British system". She had no experience working within a British school, but once went to a bake sale at the British school down the road. Someone else talked about not liking the American system because "all you do is turn the page in whatever text book you're provided". She'd never worked in a U.S curriculum school full time but had been a supply teacher a few times once at U.S int'l school in China. Another person a couple of years ago talked trash for a year about the whole of the Canadian education system just because 5 kids had transferred to her class from the Canadian school in Abu Dhabi (which, in fairness, did have a bad reputation) and couldn't match the standards of others in her class. Such generalizations are ridiculous, but are real life examples of things you might hear.

A lot of people do talk a lot of garbage in their attempts to look informed and intelligent.

@grumpy

It depends on the school. If its a British school, or has a primarily british or European student body, then forcing students to adapt the American system of pronunciation is not going to serve them well in applying or attending a British or European university.
Many parents are looking for not just a specific curriculum, but also a specific culture and environment. Its really not about making everyone one big happy homogenous family (though there are schools that do that), but more often about having what they had at home. Americans want american education, Brits want british education, etc.

I didnt defend the American education system, I presented myself as a UK trained teacher, though the anecdotes are accurate to some degree. The focus on exams in 6th form and GCSE's does make the British system seem rigid, and many teachers in american public schools really do just turn the page.