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<p>If embracing the idea that some people are “born to fail” is required to create a huge intellectual base and more skilled workers, then I’m glad this country is not like Romania. It never seems to occur to people from other countries that the US is infinitely more varied and complex than the (relatively) tiny societies they use as their baselines.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with looking to other countries who have students who score higher in certain academic areas and adapting techniques which may be helpful in American schools. However, when various posters proclaim, “well, this works in Finland (China, Romania, etc, blah, blah, blah) so obviously we should do it here”, I tend to dismiss their opinions as glib oversimplification. Our society and culture are far more complex than most of the places used in these comparisons and our values don’t generally support the wholesale discarding of large groups of young people if they aren’t stellar students by the age of 14. Personally, I’m pretty glad that’s the case and overall, wouldn’t trade places just to be able to move up in the international academic rankings.</p>