ENGL 191 sec. 99
Final Paper
Comparing education in Brazil and U.S: Crossing realities of a developed and developing Country
When setting aside the main aspects of an educational life of a nation, it is fundamental to understand that its governmental policies and resources availability will strongly and directly affect the learning process of a society. In general, each country formulates its school agenda, according to the main interests of a culture, as well as based on the demands that a nation-state has. Upon start listing the main characteristics of each system it helps to picture the scenario in which students will be going to school, such as level of income of each family, and accessibility.
So, the first point I want to make clear is about the cost of attending primary education up to college level, in each country. Only after I moved into the U.S, I could realize how these basic factors will affect one’s career ahead in the future. Another evidence for good education is the state’s commitment and strict laws of requiring kids to go to school, which in America is highly enforced and there is a great stimulus in part of the Board of education to keep students knowledgeable.
In Brazil, there is certain absence of the authorities regarding laws requiring basic education. After researching articles in the Brazilian Constitution, I found out that, citizens who demand attending public elementary and middle and High schools will have this right guaranteed by the government. However, education is only required up to middle school level, leaving the conclusive and significant stage of learning as optional.
In the U.S, there is what is known as ‘Compulsory Education’ for students usually starting at five years old, up to fourteen or fifteen. Although this law varies by state, there is been some governments that are trying to pass legislations to increase this compulsory education until the age of eighteen. As a matter of fact, a possible bipartisan reform on education law, which will require students to attend secondary school, is being studied. This program is known as “No Child left behind.”
So, as it can be noticed, both countries lack the requirement for high school kids. Yet, in Brazil it is possible to attend a State and/or Federal University for free, as long as the students is approved on the entrance examination, where he will be competing at state level for a place in a specific major chosen by the student. Whereas in America, not every student that graduates from high school will be attending a post-secondary institution. This is due by the fact that large amounts of money are required to be paid in order to attend the four years of school and eventually earn a Bachelor’s degree. In fact, according information provided in the website of the House of Representatives, the United States has one of the biggest drop-out rates in the planet.
Going back to the Brazilian reality, it is sane to understand that the situation of public schools in my country is awfully insufficient. There are no possibilities to have a good schooling under the conditions these institutions currently are in. As mentioned before, governmental policies and resources availability affect directly on schools performance. In a country like Brazil, where corruption and violence grow exponentially, added the fact that unemployment rates and missing of qualified work force by the majority of the population, it is hard to think about good public schools. It is tough to put education as a priority.
Nevertheless, experience points that the most developed countries in the current society did and do currently massively invest in a top quality education, namely: Finland, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Norway, England, Japan, South Korea, among some other examples. True. It is definitely hard to fix the problems of my society. Questions like, why is Crime increasing out of control, or why is it so hard for me to get a job, start to appear. Maybe the answers are in education.
But when public initiatives do not work, people with money begin to step in, and then people are forced to curve to private schools, while the state was the one responsible for that. Briefly wrapping it up, the result is that poor people cannot afford these schools, so what we see in Brazil is a divided education, where there is an elite, who manages to provide the best education for its offspring, and a group of people that go to school for free, but their reality is that they will never be able to compete with a private school student, and thus, they are excluded from the national job market.
So the Government came up with what they call a solution. They divided in two the number of spots available for each major in the Public Universities cross country, making it almost guaranteed the entrance of public school students in these schools. They also gave this privilege to self-considered black students, and native Brazilians.
The outcome of this reform was catastrophic. The reasoning in part of the Federal Government was that it served as a pay-back from all the years where Black people and natives were mistreated. There are some improper things one can only find in Brazil. This is one of those. What this did result in, was that it became intensely competitive for private school guys, myself included, to enter into public colleges. Meanwhile, the mentioned favored groups will hardly make efforts to have a guaranteed spot. The measure is still valid today and it still brings up a lot of controversies within the educational system.
As a contrast of what I actually lived in my home country, I found an easy paced school journey in America. Students do not need to worry about passing college entry tests. Instead, they pick their own classes (In Brazil both high school and college level classes are never chosen by the student, they are all required and there is a full-time schedule), which as far as what I have seen; value mostly life experiences rather than learning to pass a test. High school in the U.S emphasizes sports like no other branch of education, except from college. In Brazil, sports and education seem not to have a tie, as students barely compete for their schools, but for private clubs instead.
U.S students also need to worry about the ACT’s and SAT’s. The main difference between those and the one Brazilians need to take is that in the latter, one competes against all of those who are taking it. The Brazilian word for this test is “Vestibular.” It can be easily compared to what German students take at the end of their high school, also known as “Abitur.” Still, it differs from the Brazilian test, as is the student is approved, he will then get a certificate of approval, so one can present it when matriculating at a University. There is no competition among students.
Such a competition and challenging, though, may bring students a good level of education for life. This is probably one of the reasons why Brazilian students are so successful when going to school overseas. Our system demands so much from our part, that when we face a school that gives the student certain independence and simple tasks, we fell like nothing. At least that is how I see education in this country, never underestimating it, though.
As mentioned in the introductory paragraph, the scenario in which students will impact if students will attend classes. In Brazil, we see several public school buildings that are located in poor areas, exposing its students to violence upon stepping out of the building. Also, it is pretty common to find in these schools, students who are above the usual school age, as they have not been to school when they should, or just trying to catch up with the lost time. There is huge number of adults who cannot read or write.
It is a hard work to keep a student in school if he comes back home and all his friends and older brothers, cousins are making good money by stealing, becoming prostitutes and dealing drug traffic without going to school. It is also difficult to keep him with the books if he knows that he cannot keep up with a college level education. It is even harder to do even one of these things without eating properly, and in Brazil this happens all the time. It has been proved that students that do not eat as any human should eat, have troubles learning things at school, they cannot concentrate.
Another important factor is the students’ accessibility to school. In the U.S, there are the famous “School Buses.” I confess I was impressed when I first saw the huge number of buses parking by the high school I attended. This is a Substantive Guarantee that kids will be picked up and brought back home, leaving time for their parents to work and contribute for the income of their families. But how can a government that is not able not even to keep itself organized, promote bus routes along the city and give students the opportunity not to spend money commuting from home? Once more, private initiatives come in.
In the private schools, there is been an increasing number of private vans that take each student in front of their doors every day, charging a significant amount of money per month. That is how economy works, when the supplies go down, demand goes up. Not to mention the students who live far in the country. I have lost the count of how many times I have seen on TV, kids walking miles and more miles every single day with the goal to attend school. Some classes are even held outdoors, but not occasionally, as do the students when it gets close to the summer in the U.S. There are classes that take place permanently outdoors, as there is no class room or any sign of writing boards, notebooks, pencils, or desks. Many of these students actually have the hope of someday achieve a higher education level and help their families with expenses.
Then, the U.S school system is seen in Brazil as one of the most resourceful ever imagined. It really is. However, I was surprised when I first arrived in this country, and noticed the impacts that the financial crisis has, in a small span of time, brought to several U.S schools. I once read in my English textbook in Brazil (when I was studying this language) that the ‘teacher career’ was among the ones who made more money in the United States, followed by Physicians and Politicians. I was answered with some laughs in part of my History teacher in my senior year. I always imagined that Americans hugely valued the teaching professor, unfortunately different from Brazil, where teachers are ridiculously remunerated, being to me one of the most disrespectful measures in part of my country’s government.
However, when talking about College education, the two countries start to even up. There is, though, still the difference that in Brazil students do not pick any of their classes and they go to school full-time, instead of the flexible schedule one might take when attending an American University. Another interesting divergence is the general education requirement. In America, the first two years of post-secondary education are dedicated mainly to the general education core classes, leaving the resting two for focusing in the classes required for one’s major. There is no such a thing in my country. Since the first day of college, students go deep into what they chose to study as their degree. For Brazilians, general education ended in high school, and college is the time to fully specialize in their field of study.
One point worth to make comments on is about the grading system. When comparing the number of grades of each country, Brazil appears short in one year of high school, taking threes to finish primary education. In other words, there is no sophomore year. College years are pretty much the same in both nations. Now, the test and assignments grading is the most discrepant. In America, the GPA system prevails, using letters such as bottom ‘F’, and top ‘A’, while in Brazil, numbers are used to measure performances. There is a scale from 1 to 10, being 7 the average (C) in most schools. Also, schools have independence for how tests will be given, what would be involved, and what projects to give emphasis to. This may result in certain confusion for a transfer student. In America, the school district predominantly makes the rules, being the Superintendent the one in charge of the major decisions of the school areas, such as canceling classes during heavy snow days.
Overall, the goal of this paper is to mention the main aspects of each system and point out its flaws and advantages. It was fundamental for me, having lived in America as a high school student and having experienced the U.S education in its purest sources. This gave me a fundamental tool to understand the main consequences of the country’s economy, as well as culture and traditions. Indeed, it would be a fair comparison between American public schools, and Brazilian private ones, like the one I attended. Besides, the cultural diversity seen in the classrooms in America today is primordial evidence of current situations herein taking place, like immigration. Both systems have resources to challenge its students and turn them into good citizens and future professionals that will someday give in return all the investments the government has upon them done. However if taken as whole, there is no better or worse system, they simply happen to consist of different realities of life.
Works Cited
“K-12 Education.” Committee on Education & Labor. Chairman Hon. George Miller, 2010.
< http://edlabor.house.gov/education/k-12/>.
“Education in the United States.” Wikipedia. 2010. Wikipedia, 2 May 2010.
"Abitur." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 03 May. 2010
“Brazil Statistics – Education .” UNICEF. UNESCO, 2 March 2010.
< http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/brazil_statistics.html#67>
Resources in Portuguese (Brazilian Government websites)
“Lei de 20 de Dezembro de1996: Titulo III - Do Direito à Educação e do Dever de Educar.” Presidencia da Republica. Casa Civil - Subchefia para assuntos Juridicos, 20 Dec.1996.
< http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/Leis/L9394.htm>.
