I have interviewed my best friend and asked her views of culture and education. She thinks people can have more than one culture. Culture can come from their family or friends. It is like a lens that one uses to view the world in. For example, in some culture, marriage to multiple people is okay but in other cultures it might not be. It all depends on what is viewed as the norm in that culture. Culture could loosely be viewed as a set of moral rules that one lives their life by. She believe that there could be a connection between culture and educational success. If someone grew up in a culture that sees education as something important, then one’s mindset could be set on working hard in school. The same goes with economic success. If one grew up in a culture that values hard work and a successful career, then one might be more likely to succeed if they are true to their culture. She also mentioned, there is a school culture and it might influence whether one is successful or not. If one goes to a school where the students do not care as much, then one might adopt that culture to fit in and not do so well. However, if one goes to a school where everyone is hardworking, then they might adopt that mindset and work hard as well.
Secondly, I interviewed my peer, he is an international student who comes from China. He thinks culture mean the background. What kind of culture you accept depends on the growth environment. He mentioned that he has grew up in a rich family, and accept bilingual education by going to private international school all along. Education helped him adopt the culture from both side, so that he did not feel any uncomfortable when he study abroad here in America at first. He agree with the point that there is a culture in school and he also believes that school culture can influence students’ success. He shared his experience, he usually hang out with his cousin, he was a top student, but his family did not have enough condition for him to go to a good high school, under the bad study environment and with lots of hooligans in school, he has gave up study. They used to made wish to go to the same university, unfortunately, his cousin did not get into university.
Lastly, the person who I interviewed was my friend. She was standing on the angle of employee. The first time she heard the word culture is when she was little. Her grandfather read her one Chinese poem and told her how proud he felt for Chinese traditional culture. She has grew up in China, and married an American citizen which made she moved toward here. The first time she has experienced culture was hanging out with his husband and his friends for dinner. This was the first time she has found the difference for the dining etiquette. She believes that there is a connection between culture and educational success and economic success, she also think there is a culture in school as well. Under her culture environment, good grade is important and is the only thing matters in school and her family. Her parents gave her high expectations by going to the prestigious university and get a good job, they believe the only way to reach the goal is the good grade. She does not like the culture in schools, but it indeed helped her success either in school and career.
The first time that I have heard the word culture was in elementary school. There was a group of students from England came to my school for visiting. I got luck by chosen from school became a homestay family. One of the girl stayed in my home for a week. We had conversations about our education experience and background. I still remember how she describe her education experience, she mentioned that they have lots of clubs, they can join and enjoy any club as they want base on their hobbies. On the other side, we go back home right the way after school and doing our homework. In addition, my family require me read books for hours after school and I am not allow to watch TV, but she can do whatever she wants after school. Bases on our culture, my parents wish me to study the traditional literature, they think it is not only can develop my literature accomplishment but also can learn the Chinese traditional culture. Everyone has culture. Culture is the background somebody comes from. It made us different. Knowing other culture can broaden my view sight.
I do believe that there is a connection between culture and educational success and economic success. Education is the inheritance of culture, culture is the object of education. Education and culture impact each other. The culture influence the purpose of education, affect the choice of the education content and also influence the teaching methods. Education can be used to filtrate, transmit and preserve the culture. Education not only can spread and interflow the culture but also can update and create culture.