Zach Beauvais

Is there something that US have and the UK should have/do it too?

Written by Zach Beauvais

May 16, 2010

I’m not entirely sure I understand the question. It’s pretty broad.

I think the US has things that make it what it is, some of them good, many poor; but a direct one-for-one swap would not—from my perspective—necessarily bring the benefits they might have in the US. There is, for example, a culture of respect for teachers in the US which I would have liked to have experienced here. Students, still, feel the need to listen to and obey teachers.

However, the things about the society which make this possible are myriad, confusing and far from straightforward. A general respect for authority does, seemingly, exist to a greater extent in the US. But the respect can also manifest as fear, as of police. I instinctively felt fearful around police officers in my home town, probably because I was stopped many times as a teenager for no offense. This has not happened since I moved to the UK, and the culture here seems to be one of the police (generally) respecting citizens.

This, however manifests itself in a state which imposes itself in different, less obvious ways, and a culture in education of active disrespect from students of teachers.

These are gross generalisations, but I think my most basic answer is that the differences are complex, and a simple move from one to the other couldn’t work.

Oh, except coffee… there is generally better coffee available in the US. Though, US influence has given some roasters here a good foundation for great beans too.

Related Articles

Related

20 years ago in Glasgow

More than 20 years ago, Glasgow had more than its fair share of comfortable coffee shops. Several were lodged in bookshops, and one in particular pulls it’s way across time, sliding it’s memory-laden charge along neurones and drops me into an overstuffed chair in a...

read more

We value your memories.

Facebook shows me. Photos of old friends I’ve not seen in a decade, or more. It tells me people who don’t know me from Adam think I should go fund them. It applies a bolt of you know, those hormones that make you start, sweat, and feel like you’re not really here?...

read more