The Differences Between American and Libyan Educations

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"Educated men are as much superior to uneducated as the living are to the dead" Aristotle wrote. Education is an essential concomitant of all nations, so they are racing in providing the best education to their citizens, in order to cope with the pace of advanced technology in different fields. Each country has different education system, which determines by its policies and cultural background. Three most notable areas seem to stand out between the American and the Libyan education systems, which are the curriculum, extracurricular activities, and the teacher-student interaction inside the classroom. The most critical difference between the education systems of both countries, is the quality of curriculum, in terms of flexibility, critical thinking, and mandatory classes. Firstly, the flexibility of teaching curriculum in the United States, is its greatest strength, because it provides freedom to students to choose what they want to learn. In contrast, the passive learning (spoon- feeding) style in the Libyan schools, is the weakest part of its educational process. The major reason for this weakness is that both private and public schools in Libya teach standardized textbooks, which are published by the Ministry of Education. Secondly, Regarding critical thinking, American education methods encourage students’ critical thinking by giving many possible correct answers for the same question. On the other hand, Libyan student are taught that there is only one standard answer for each individual question, which in turn limit their thinking in expressing their ideas about any certain topic. Thirdly, in terms of mandatory classes, while the U.S education does not has mandatory religious, political and compulsory military classes for both genders which take place in Libya high schools and universities as part of curriculum. In other words, the lack of flexibility, the
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