Post-school education in the USA (basic principles, types of educational establishments)

The American educational system is based on the idea that as many people as possible should have access to as much education as possible. This fact distinguishes the US system from others which screen people out as it is to keep them in. The US system has no standardized examinations which results allow students to go on to higher levels of study. American system tries to accommodate students even if their academic aspiration and aptitudes are not high, if they are physically\mentally handicapped or even if their native language is not English. This idea is an outcome of the Americans’ assumptions about equality among people.

There are 2 main categories of institutions of higher learning: public and private. All schools get money from tuition and private contributions. However public schools are supported by the state and as a result tuition is lower in public schools.

Schools are grouped by the types of programs and degrees they offer. The three major groups are:1)community colleges 2)four-year colleges 3) universities. Community colleges offer the first 2 years of undergraduate studies, such colleges are supported by local or\and state funds. Community colleges offer technical training in many areas of study: health services, office skills, computer science.

There are liberal arts colleges which means that they offer studies in the humanities, languages, mathematics, social sciences and sciences. Some colleges specialize in training students for one particular occupation (agricultural). Many specialized undergraduate institutions that are not called colleges also provide higher education: conservatories, seminaries and fine arts schools. After graduating from a college a student gets bachelor’s degree.

American universities offer three main categories of graduate degrees in most fields of specialization. A master’s degree is earned after 1\2 years of study beyond the bachelor’s degree. Doctor’s degree usually takes at least three years beyond master’s.

The main difference between a college and a university is that a university offers a wider range of undergraduate programs and also offers graduate studies. It encourages its faculty and its graduate students to do research that will advance human knowledge. Colleges, on the other hand, are primary undergraduate schools with no commitment to train students for research.

12. Modern feminism: pros and cons.

Feminism is the organized movement which promotes equality for men and women in political, economic and social spheres.

Feminists believe that women are opposed simply due to their sex based on the dominant ideology of patriarchy. Throughout history men have had greater power in both the public and private spheres. To maintain this power, men have created boundaries and obstacles for women, thus making it harder to hold power.

Feminism ideology can take many different forms. In the 1970s, women started developing a theory which helped to explain their oppression. Pockets of resistance began to organize and challenge patriarchy. By the 1980’s, however, feminists started disagreeing. What was once one theory, began to branch out into many theories. I can name some of them.

1) Social feminism. Socialist feminists believe that there is a direct link between class culture and the oppression of women. Society rewardsworking men because they produce material goods, on the other hand, women’s work in the domestic sphere is not valued. The way to end this oppression is to put an end to class and gender.

2) Cultural feminism. Cultural feminists believe that there are fundamental, biological differences between men and women, and that women should celebrate these differences. Women are inherently more kind and gentle. They believe that if women ruled the world there would be no more war.

3) Ecofeminism. Ecofeminists believe that male domination is harmful to women, as well as the environment. Men feel as though they conquer both in order to have complete power. There is a deep connection between the earth and women men can’t understand, hence the terms” Mother Nature” or “Mother Earth”.

Like any other movement feminism has its own pros and cons.

Pros:

1) Women strived to obtain equality in every sphere of life and have achieved this aim.

2) The equal rights help to create healthy society, which is the generator of social balance.

3) The ability of self realization

4) The ability of women to protect themselves.

5) Through feminism women get greater confidence in themselves.

6) Women have acquired a higher social status as a result of this movement.

7) Elimination of job and sex discrimination.

8) More possibilities opened in jobs and social activities.

9) Feminism caused more participation in the family affaires on the part of men.

Cons:

1) Higher rate of divorces, low birth rate

2) Appearance of gender war and hatred to men

3) Some radical types of feminism were created. For ex “ feminaris” – women who try to produce as many abortions as possible

4) Loss of femininity,as a result of this the creation of unisex and problems with gender identification.

5) Domination of the role of men

6) Same sex marriages

7) Linguistic factors: extreme cases in the language (history-herstory)

13. American family: stages of marriage relationship; modern tendencies.

Americans view family as a group, whose primary purpose is to advance the happiness of individual members. The result is that the needs of each individual take priority in life of the family. So the basic American value is equality of opportunity and name and honor are less important.

The American desire for freedom from outside control clearly extends to the family. Americans do not like to have controls placed on them by other family members.

The idea of equality also affects the relationships between husbands and wives. The institution of marriage in the USA has experienced 4 stages of development. In each new state wives have increased the degree of equality with their husbands and have gained more power within the family.

STAGE 1 Wife as a servant to her husband. Husbands and wives both had family duties, but wife had no power, her earning belonged to her husband.

STAGE 2 Husband-Head, Wife-Helper. More wives were able to support themselves. The opportunity to work outside the house increased wives’ power. Husbands could no longer make family decisions alone, wives were their advisers. But still husband’s word was final.

STAGE 3 Husband-Senior partner, Wife-Junior partner. More and more wives took jobs outside the home. Her income became important in maintaining the family, her power to affect the outcome of family decisions also became greater, but still she wasn’t an equal partner. Husband provided most of the family income.

STAGE 4 Husband-Wife Equal partners. Women have come to believe that they should be equal partners in their marriages. The wife persues a full-time jobs, which have equal importance to her husband’s.

The American family is a nuclear family, consisting usually of a husband, wife and children who live in their own house\apartment. Grandparents rarely live with them and relatives almost never. Married American adults will name their husband\wife and children as their immediate family. If they mention grandparents and relatives it is called extended family. Like many other aspects of American life, families are changing. There are more and less households in which both parents work, and in which the males take household responsibilities. There are also single-parent families, usually it is a woman with 1 or more children. It is common to find unmarried couples living together, so called “blended families”, composed of a man and a woman and both their children from previous marriages.

In American families children get considerable attention. The families are called child-centred, where children’s need, interests and preferences strongly influence the way their parents spend their time and money.

In American families usually both parents work full-time, because there are so many things they want.(the problem of latch-key children) But in some families the wife may be the one going off to work while the husband is at home with the baby and the housework.

Happiness which is based on companionship is also one of the family values. But a family may not always be happy, so the way out is the divorce, which is easy to obtain. America is ‘no-fault’ divorce nation, it means that a couple states that they can no longer live happily together, that they have irreconcilable differences and that it is neither parents’ fault.

One more American value is love and respect of parents. Elderly Americans do not want to be a burden to their children, and if they are ill or handicapped a nursing home is the way out for working children.

To make a conclusion the values reinforced through American family are individual freedom, equality of opportunity, independence and self-reliance, informality and love of parents.

14. American family: values and gender roles in the family and society.

Americans view family as a group, whose primary purpose is to advance the happiness of individual members. The result is that the needs of each individual take priority in life of the family. So the basic American value is equality of opportunity and name and honor are less important.

The American desire for freedom from outside control clearly extends to the family. Americans do not like to have controls placed on them by other family members.

Independence and self-reliance are two more important values. Most American children live with their parents at least until they finish high school at age 17\18. Then may go away to college, leaving some parents sad and lovely in their empty nest, and others enjoying their release from parental responsibilities. Some children live with their parents until their marriage, but may return to Mom and Dad in case of divorce. Middle-aged or elderly people seldom live with their grown-up children. Older people don’t want to be burden to their children. If they are ill or handicapped they prefer to live at nursing houses or at the living quarters for older people who don’t need constant nursing care but cant do shopping and cooking for themselves.

As the main value is the equality of opportunity, it also affected the relationships between husband and wife, and the institution of marriage in the USA has experienced 4 stages of development. STAGE 1 Wife as a servant to her husband., STAGE 2 Husband-Head, Wife-Helper., STAGE 3 Husband-Senior partner,Wife-Junior partner.. STAGE 4 Husband-Wife Equal partners

So the evaluation of women’s role in the family and society is clearly seen from these stages. And now a wife can become even the breadwinner in the family. She may be the one going off to work while the husband is at home with the baby and the housework. But occupation of husband is usually a temporary not a lifelong career.

Like any other family, American family may face a number of problems. For example, the divorce rate slowly and steadily increases. As a result, there happens that of nuclear family and more and more singled parent family appears. Americans may have problems with their children, they call the period of adolescence as the time of turmoil. Children are expected to be self-centred,moody and uncooperative, they want to establish their personal identities and separate from others in the family. So this problem is called ”rebellious teenager”. One more problem is the “empty nest syndrome”. It refers to the psychological impact on the parents, esp. the mother when the last child leaves home. The syndrome is the combination of boredom, depression and purposelessness.

Another major turning point is likely to come when the parents’ parents become enfeebled or die. It is usually considered a difficult situation when an aged parent is living with grown children, thus ideas about independence and self-sufficiency make the situation of enforced dependency extremely uncomfortable both for the elderly and their children.