In Brazil, public education is terrible.

Many schools tend to be only a children repository, where they stand alone from the streets for some daily hours. There is not, generally, a master plan about educational needs, realities, even cultural varieties or purposes.

However, despite all the richness of USA, their public educational model is not very far from this.

It is a fact that a significant guilty for poverty in Brazil, more than economic unequality, is the educational unequality. Here in the state of São Paulo, solds are higher, illiterate rates are the lowest of the country, economical equality is the best (or less worse) and this is due education.

Educational situation in our country is so serious that changes start to be taken. One of them is the trial to impose a "meritocracy model" of financing projects, or, those schools that present the highest levels of educational success (evaluated by not only exams but also program, teachers absenses rates, and some other aspects) will gain more money for their projects. In the state of São Paulo, and many cities of them (we have federal schools, state schools and municipal ones), theachers that don't be absent gain a sold bonus.

At least, there is a conscience about the importance of the public education, in the contrary way that USA or Chile.

Other aspect is about the cultural importance of education, particularly about language. I tend to believe that other languages are essential to all individuals that don't want to "loose anything". I also believe that when you learn other languages, you are able to understand yours, because you have more basis to understand grammar, lexicon, composing, etc.

There is also the highly significant aspect: global culture. I tend to believe that american culture is much poorer that many others, due to the fact that they don't speak other languages, which tend to block many possibilities and close themselves into a trap of misunderstanding and maybe "dumpness". They don't know in fact what happen in the world, only what is related to american culture.

I lived in Spain, and in a certain way the same happens there. Spanish people is very proud of their language, and any problem with that, but they refuse to learn english or any other languages. I don't know in US how it happens, but in Spain even the movies, in the cinemas, are lip synched!!. In Europe situation is not so severe cause the contact between people of several countries amenize in a certain way the problems of linguistic isolation.

In Brazil, american culture is very strong, but it didn't represent any loss, by the contrary, cultural richness was improved by this process. And in the academical field, brazilian researchers tend to succeed not only in the USA but in several countries, and one of the keys for that is their contact to English, Spanish and other idioms, by films, food, inmigration, etc.

Luiz Gustavo - Monografia AD - Learning Improvement